Proceedings

 

11th Egerton University International Conference and innovation Week

Promising environmental education practices at primary schools: Study reflections from Geography primary teachers and pupils

Johaiven Kashaigili
  • Johaiven Kashaigili
  • Department of Language, Fine and Performing Arts Education, The University of Dodoma, Dodoma – Tanzania
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Kalafunja Mlang’a Osaki
  • Kalafunja Mlang’a Osaki
  • School of Graduate Studies, St Augustine University of Tanzania, Dar Centre, Tanzania.
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  • Article Number - B2CCF2

Abstract

Environmental education continues to be a crucial component of curricula at all levels of education. Waste management remains a serious challenge in our communities and schools, which must be addressed in school and in extra curricula activities in order to reduce waste accumulation and its undesirable effect on human life. This paper describes a study that tested a model to stimulate the teaching and learning of Environmental Education (EE) in primary schools through development and trial of Pupil-Centred Approach Mind Map Exemplary Lesson Materials (PCAMM-ELM) focusing on waste management. The Wastes topic received diverse understandings among teachers. As a result, the teaching of waste management topics faces complex problems including poor waste knowledge among teachers, lack of relevant and stimulating learning materials along with use of conventional teaching approaches. The three aspects are addressed intensively in this paper. The study adopted a quasi-experimental research design in which the respondents were standard seven Geography teachers and learners from two primary schools in Dodoma Municipality. The results disclose that the material and approach applied in intervention school influenced performance, motivation and interests of teachers and pupils. Secondly, there was a reasonable change in pre-test and posttest performance of learners between the control and treatment schools, whereby in treatment school mean score was significantly different when compared to the control school. The study concludes that learners and teachers’ motivation, performance and interests on practices of teaching and learning EE may be enhanced and adopted through use of the designed PCAMM-ELM accordingly. The study recommends further design, validation and development of local procedural EE lesson materials based on developing competences that update primary teachers’ pedagogical knowledge in order to build a user friendly community practices for sustainable environment.

 

Key words: Education, waste, environment.