Abstract:

This study is aimed at studying the attitudes of primary school fourth grade students towards the environment and responsible behavior towards the environment. The universe of this research, designed as a visual scan model, is formed by fourth-class students who are studying in the public primary schools in the Kocaeli province in the second semester of the 2018-2019 academic year. During the process, a multi-stage sampling has been made. The sample of the study is made by 1424 fourth-class students who study in schools chosen by chance from the Kocaeli districts. The data of the research was collected with 'Personal Information Form', 'Environmentally Responsible Behavior Scale' and 'Environmentally Advisible Behavior Scale' developed by the researcher. In the analysis of the research data, non-parametric tests for the environmental attitude scale were used. According to this, Mann Whitney U-Test was used for non-related measurements in two categories, and Kruskal Wallis H-Test for non-related measurements in more than two categories. In cases where the Kruskal Wallis H-Test is meaningful, the Mann Whitney U-Test was used for non-related measurements to determine which groups of meaningful differences are between. Parametric tests have been used for the environmentally responsible behavior scale. According to this, the independent sample t-test was used in two categories variables, while the variables with more than two categories used the Single Factor Variance Analysis (ANOVA) for Non-Related Examples. Spearman Order Differences Correlation has been used to study whether there is a meaningful relationship between students’ attitudes towards the environment and responsible behavior towards the environment. Research findings show that students’ attitudes towards the environment are at a high level; that girls have a significantly more positive attitude than boys; that younger students have a significantly more positive attitude than students of other age levels. It has been revealed that the frequency of observation of responsive behaviors of students towards the environment is high with 'Frequent Doing' and that students with pet have more responsive behaviors towards the environment. When taking into account the students’ attitude ranges and responsible behavior average, the increased educational and monthly income of the parents, the students’ attitude ranges and responsible behavior average increased. The research finds that there is a positive and medium-level relationship between students’ attitudes towards the environment and their responsible behavior towards the environment.

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