Investigation into the Definition of Environmental Literacy and the related studies

환경소양의 정의와 관련연구에 관한 분석

‘Environmental Literacy’ is defined as ‘one's individual status to be accomplished or to be acquired by environmental education’ and it has the same meaning as ‘the Goals of EE’. The purposes of this study was to identify the components of environmental literacy and analyse the related studies. Much of the work in EE has followed the path outlined by the Belgrade Charter, the Tbilisi Declaration, and later in Agenda 21. Over the years, scholars such as Hungerford et al., Iozzi et al., Roth, the Wisconsin Center for Environmental Education, and the Environmental Education Literacy Consortium have examined and proposed a framework of ‘Environmental Literacy’. Recently, the influential framework developed by the NAAEE(the North American Association for Environmental Education) National Project for Excellence in EE included seven categories: affect, ecological knowledge, socio-political knowledge, knowledge of environmental issues, skills, additional determinants of environmentally responsible behavior, and environmentally responsible behaviors. According to the analysed results, 37.7% of the American studies and 32.5% of Korean ones measured aspects of the attitude. Especially, the measure of this variable in America, however, led to the most inconclusive and least positive outcomes. The studies included related to cognitive skills were very few but 100% reported positive impacts of instructions in two countries. In America, using a television documentary, a journal and the field trip were very useful and effective. But using a computer simulation/game was less effective and the supplemental instruction did't led to the positive effect. In Korea, instruction, the supplemental instruction and EE program led to positive outcomes generally. The lack of validity and reliability of the instruments was pointed out as a common problem and the development of valid and reliable instrument for nation-wide assessment is urgently needed.