Evaluation of Adult Environmental Awareness Behaviours in terms of Social Learning Theory according to Perceptions of Primary and Secondary School Students

Abstract

It has been a well-known fact that educational activities are significant in approaches directed to permanent solutions for environmental problems. To grow individuals who have awareness on their surroundings and are conscious about environment can be considered as an effective way of dealing with these problems. It is necessary to inform individuals about environment and to make them have innovative perspectives, by having positive attitudes. That is, individuals must be encouraged to change their attitudes and behaviours in a positive way. It is not possible to realize these aims only by means of instructing them. Becoming role models for the young makes the process easier and provides permanent learnings. Within this context, Social Learning Theory (SLT), posited by Albert Bandura, argues that learning by observations and imitations are important for children to acquire new knowledge, attitudes or behaviours. The purpose of this current study was to evaluate the adult environmental awareness behaviours in terms of SLT according to perceptions of primary and secondary school students. The perceptions of students were examined in terms of some variables such as gender, school grade, school type, parents’ educational background. Screening method was employed as a research design in this study. The population of the study was comprised of primary and secondary school students in Amasya city of Turkey. A questionnare developed by the researcher and called as “Observation Questionnaire on Environmental Behaviours Displayed by Adults” was employed in order to determine how they perceive the adults in terms of environment. Analysis of data revealed that students’ perceptions towards adults’ environmental awareness behaviours showed differences in terms of gender, whereas there weren’t any significant differences in terms of school grade, school type and parents’ educational background.