Courtesy : files.eric.ed.gov
Eco-friendly products education
Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) (Reid et al., 2005) mentions that
human activities in the last eight thousand years have caused ecosystem
damage, then leads to the extinction of species and threatening the life quality.
Indonesia is one of 10 Largest CO2 Emitters in 2015 (Burck, Marten, & Bals,
2015). Therefore, it is required a global awareness in general, and national level
in particular, involving various parties, such as government, industry, and
education, which aims to reduce negative impacts of human activities, or even
Primary Schools Eco-Friendly Education in the Frame of
Education for Sustainable Development
A research on primary school education in the frame of education for sustainable development, as
known as ESD, is important because the awareness of eco-friendly activities and environment
empowerment cannot be developed in a short time. Meanwhile, human activities have caused
significant environmental degradation. This is an exploratory study involving 240 participants from
four primary schools in Semarang by applying stratified simple random sampling. The data were
processed using a two-way test ANOVA and Partially Least Square. This study has found that
primary school students in Semarang has a good understanding about the pillars of natural, social
and ego in sustainable development. But, there are insignificant differences on the student
understanding between class levels about eco-friendly issues. When the education level is higher,
the students’ understanding on eco-friendly education is not better. This research also has revealed
that the school accreditation is insignificant to influence the students in understanding the ecofriendly issues. However, the knowledge stages in ESD innovation diffusion are applied. Therefore,
the pattern of education which emphasized the students’ knowledge on ESD is still relevant in
building eco-friendly behavior.
help to improve the environment quality in a frame of education for sustainable
development.
Education for sustainable development, as known as ESD, is important as
the awareness of eco-friendly activities and environment empowerment that
cannot be developed in a short time through temporary provision of education or
training (Nasibulina, 2015). According to Breiting, Mayer, & Morgensen (2005 in
Suduc, Bîzoi, & Gorghiu, 2014), ESD is an appropriate educational program to
educate people from an early age in order to reduce human dependence on
natural and social environments. ESD educates people to participate, be active,
and have knowledge of nature, equality, and social justice. It is necessary
because ESD is able to enhance consciousness and form human behavior
(Nasibulina, 2015). According to Nelson Mandela (UNESCO, 2014) “Education is
the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world”.
Within the framework of environmental awareness, education in
Indonesia is still limited in understanding the environmental education or ecofriendly education or environment-based education that is oriented to reduce the
negative impacts, and it is not oriented to ESD that gives more understandings
about the preserve of natural environment and the empowerment of social
environment. Hopefully, the substance of environmental education is able to
provide knowledge and skills in the practice of environmentally friendly, and is
even attached to each student’s attitude and personality, not merely to pursue
an academic achievement. This phenomenon does not only apply in Indonesia
but also in other countries, as presented by Sterling (2008 p.2) who states that
“we are far better be educated to compete and consume, than to care and to be
thrifty”.
Using formal approach, ESD which is equivalent to environmental
education (Nomura, 2009) is conducted through education in classes either
separately as independent subjects or integrated into educational curriculum
(Konservasi Unnes, 2014), particularly through the study of local content as
stipulated by the Ministry of Education and Culture of the Republic of Indonesia
(2014). The eco-friendly education with an informal approach is conducted
through activities that are not structured such as a nature school.
It is difficult to identify the failure or success of eco-friendly education
whether it is an output of formal educational products or informal educational
products. However, the output of formal education in the form of a basic
understanding of eco- friendly education needs to be measured and evaluated.
An empirical measure of success or weakness of eco-friendly education is useful
for evaluating coordination, communication, and participation of all parties.
Therefore, a study which explores how eco-friendly educational curriculum
scheme is developed and implemented should be conducted. In addition, an
evaluation that assesses the success or weakness of eco-friendly education also
needs to be conducted in order to develop its models to be more integrated and in
accordance with the empirical condition that contains various problems and
obstacles.
Eco-friendly education
Eco-friendly education in Indonesia was started on non-formal education.
This issue was brought up in relation to the interests of the political elite about
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL & SCIENCE EDUCATION 609
a destruction of nature. This concept is growing in line with increasingly
complex social dynamics in Indonesia, namely the problem of over population
and poverty (Nomura, 2009). Therefore, eco-friendly education then had a
special portion informal education that was attached to particular local content
subjects (Menteri Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan Republik Indonesia, 2013).
Eco-friendly education puts the knowledge that is able to change beliefs,
behaviors, and especially, the attitude of learners. There is an important finding
in the study conducted by Frantz and Mayer (2014) that a person’s sense of
attachment to their natural and social environment is an important factor that
affected their responsibility attitude towards environment. It means, when a
sense of belonging to environment is high, it would increase empathy and desire
of individuals to help (Cialdini, Brown, Lewis, Luce, & Neuberg, 1997 in Frantz
& Mayer, 2014), and to protect. Leopold, (1949 in Frantz & Mayer, 2014),
exemplifies “We abuse soil because we regard it as a commodity. However, when
we think that soil is as part of our community, then we may treat it with love
and full of appreciation “.
At the educational level of kindergarten and primary school, eco-friendly
education in Romania, for example, is taken in the forms of: 1. cultural
activities; 2. part of the subjects’ substance; 3. games; and 4. the activities which
are specifically intended for the protection of nature, in cooperation with parents
or other agencies (Suduc et al., 2014). In this country, teachers gain eco-friendly
knowledge through training, symposia, informal meetings, exchange of
experiences, and self-learning. Moreover, supports from organizations and
individuals deliver great impacts on eco-friendly education. Therefore, teachers
get proper equipment in the form of books and audio-video for teaching
materials corresponding to the curriculum, computer and internet connection,
adequate library, and even methodological guidance for the preparation of lesson
plans. (Suduc et al., 2014)
Education for sustainable development
In contrast to the general education that is only understood as a means to
resolve problems and to get welfare and social status (Sargeant, 1994 in
Lavanya & Saraswathi, 2014), education for sustainable development (ESD)
aims to improve the capacity and commitment required to build a sustainable
society where individual and group decision considered savings and natural
ecological processes; therefore, the quality of life is increasing both now and in
the future (Lavanya & Saraswathi, 2014). According to Suduc et al. (2014) the
content of ESD implementation, education for sustainable development, can be
included in the following categories: 1. Health education; 2. Ecology education, 3.
Traffic education, 4. Sports Education, 5. Hazard response education, 6.
Citizenship education, 7. Democracy education, and others. The categories
mentioned show that ESD does not only emphasize to the concern for the
natural environment, but also social elements, namely human beings.
As the implementation of the ESD guidelines at the level of kindergarten
and primary school, one of them, it can use the approach developed by Lavanya
and Saraswathi (2014) where in the education of kindergarten, students learn to
show affection and concern for the environment by singing, dancing, playing,
and viewing videos. At the primary level, students are encouraged to have
critical thinking and development of responsible behavior by applying student-
610 B. PRABAWANI ET AL.
centered active learning. As for junior high school level, students are encouraged
to be an intrinsic part of school ethics by creating awareness of resources
scarcity, and how to use it wisely.
This study used the theory of innovation diffusion (Rogers, 1983) that put
communication as an important medium to create an understanding; in this
case, it is for students, on knowledge of education for sustainable development
(ESD). ESD is a form of educational innovation through the approach of
authority innovation-decisions where schools are required to put the content of
ESD in the curriculum. The speed of students in adopting innovations is various,
where it is influenced by the time length of innovation diffusion, the social
system in which the innovation is applied, and the basic capabilities of
innovation receiver. The cognition is one of the indicators for assessing the
success of ESD as a result of the diffusion of innovation.
Cognition is the ability of individuals to connect, assess, and consider an
event. Cognitive development has an important role in children’s success in
learning because most its activities are always associated with thinking
problems. By using knowledge, a person will remember and recognize things or
events that ever happened. The process is something complex involving a mental
process as cognition reflects the thinking and cannot be observed directly but
through displayed behavior that is observable (Bloom’s Taxonomy in Forehand,
2005).
In order to know the students’ knowledge on the concept of sustainable
development, there are a number of questions which will form three types of
cognitions, namely awareness-knowledge, how-to-knowledge and principleknowledge (Rogers, 1983). Awareness-knowledge is a general knowledge about
the existence of innovation; in this case, it is about the concept of sustainable
development which students gain from learning activities of the concern of ego
and environment and also from an extracurricular program. This knowledge has
information in general which can be understood by most people. At this stage,
the individual will be motivated to learn more than what they get.
How-to-knowledge is knowledge of how people use the innovation
appropriately. Rogers (1983) mentions that this kind of knowledge is very
important in the decision process of innovation. To enhance the further
possibilities in innovation adoption, an individual shall have adequate
knowledge-to-innovation. The principles-knowledge is knowledge of the
principles of functioning on knowledge gained during learning. All the
information has been received and stored in long term memory and has been
associated well; therefore, at this stage, they are able to answer the subject
matter that has been given systematically (Rogers, 1983).
Methodology
This is an exploratory study in which a study is required to be conducted
considering that relevant research about how eco-friendly education applied in
Indonesia is still limited (Collis, J., & Hussey, 2009). Some papers were still
limited as an individual’s opinion, instead of the results of a research.
A survey was used to assess students’ mastery on eco-friendly education
material. The city of Semarang in Central Java was chosen as the location of
this study to consider that it is the capital of the Central Java Province which is
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL & SCIENCE EDUCATION 611
regarded as having higher quality in infrastructure and social strata than other
regions in Central Java. This showed that Semarang was considered to have
better education quality than other cities and districts in Central Java;
moreover, it could be able to be a representation of the other big cities in
Indonesia.
The population for the survey was the students of four primary schools
from grade 1 to grade 6. Two Public Primary schools and two Private Primary
schools were chosen. The selection of public and private schools was necessary
because public and private schools were possible to have different policies
related to eco-friendly education for their students, especially since the
government had allowed using the curriculum 2013 in schools that met certain
criteria. A number of 240 samples consisting of various grade levels and schools
were chosen proportionally. The survey respondents who were primary school
students from various grade levels were selected by using stratified random
sampling.
To determine the level of students’ knowledge on sustainable
development, the researchers gave a test containing 30 items of questions
distributed into three sections containing the individual’s ability in terms of
awareness-knowledge, how-to-knowledge, and principle-knowledge. The
researchers put elements of engagement with the environment as one of the
success indicators of eco-friendly education in the questionnaire (Frantz &
Mayer, 2014). The first part contained basic knowledge consisting of 15 multiple
choice questions which contained five questions about ecological/natural
sustainability, five questions about social sustainability and five questions about
ego-sustainability. The second part consisted of 10 short description questions
consisting of three questions about ecological/natural sustainability, four
questions about social sustainability and three questions about egosustainability. The third part was questions in the form of description which was
aimed to determine the individual’s ability in evaluating the given subject. This
part consisted of two questions about the nature pillar of sustainability, a
question about social sustainability and two questions about ego pillars of
sustainability. The answers of each respondent were assessed using blind review
by a team of teachers from different schools. The students’ comprehension of
image description and students’ opinions about the image were rated with a
score of 0 to 5 by the evaluating team. The scores were then compared
statistically according to educational level and school accreditation.
The analyses in this study were conducted by using both two-way analysis
of variances or two-way ANOVA and Partially Least Square (PLS). By using
ANOVA, it could be found out whether each grade level of education had a
different understanding of the eco-friendly education and whether it was getting
better at each grade level, or vice versa. The PLS was used to test the knowledge
stages of Rogers’ (Sahin, 2006) that was the relationship between awareness-toknowledge, how-to-knowledge, and principle-knowledge.