• Hwankyungkyoyuk
• /
• v.23 no.4
• /
• pp.70-81
• /
• 2010

The present study aimed to understand high school students' environmental literacy for water and their attitudes toward environment. This study was conducted during the spring of the 2010 academic year with the participation of 123 students from a public international high school located in Seoul. The Environmental Science Literacy for Water test and the Revised New Ecological Paradigm scale were administered, and the data were analyzed by descriptive statistics and content analysis. The high school students in this study put strong emphasis on encouraging others to conserve water resources. This belief, however, was not aligned with self-recognition of their own roles in water supply shortages and other problematic water-use behavior. They also had difficulties in understanding the invisible part of matter transformations in water systems. Nevertheless, they showed favorable attitudes toward environmental conservation. In conclusion, the researchers suggest recognizing our own water problems and narrowing the gap between environmental and scientific knowledge of water and actual attitudes about the environment through curricular incorporation of interdisciplinary environmental science literacy into school science.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
• /
• v.41 no.6
• /
• pp.147-157
• /
• 2013

The purpose of this study was to determine the correlation between wetland visitors' consciousness of ecology and their needs and thereby, provide for some effective measures to manage them. For this purpose, 3 study points were set up: "wetland visitors' consciousness of ecology and their needs", "differences of such consciousness depending on their demographic variables" and the "relationship between such consciousness and their needs". To this end, Upo Wetland visitors were surveyed for an empirical analysis. The visitors' awareness about ecology was measured with Dunlap's 15-item NEP Inventory, while their needs were analyzed in reference to Maslow's 7-Step Human Desire Ladder. The survey was conducted at Upo Wetland for 3 days, and as a result, a total of 228 questionnaires were returned. The results of this study can be summarized as follows; First, the visitors' consciousness of ecology and their needs were higher than the normal level. In terms of their consciousness of ecology, their awareness of the ecological crisis potential and anti-humanism was highest. In terms of their needs, the aesthetic need was highest, followed by the cognitive one. On the other hand, the needs for self-achievement and self-esteem were lowest; except them, the higher the needs were positioned at Maslow's ladder of desire, and subjects were more responsive to them. As a result of analyzing the correlation between the subjects' consciousness of ecology and their needs, it was found that the correlation was negative in some sub-areas, while being positive in other sub-areas. After all, the ratio of the sub-areas having a positive correlation was as 3 times high as that of the sub-areas having a negative correlation. Even as for the correlation coefficient values, they were higher in the positive sub-areas, which suggests that the correlation between wetland visitors' consciousness of ecology and their needs were positive, although at a lower level, in overall terms. As a result of comparatively analyzing visitors' needs by dividing them into 3 sub-groups depending on the levels of their consciousness of ecology, it was found that the higher their consciousness of ecology was, their needs were higher. Overall, wetland visitors' awareness of ecology was higher than the normal level, and it was estimated that such awareness would continue to increase. Hence, it could be inferred that their needs, particularly, their aesthetic and cognitive ones would continue to increase, too. Accordingly, it is deemed important to manage the wetland landscape making use of its visual resources, while continuing to provide the visitors with the contents fulfilling their need for knowledge.