Children's View of Environmental Value and Attitudes : On the basis of Age and Gender

유치원생과 초등 학생이 가지는 자연 환경에 대한 가치관 및 태도 -연령별, 성별 차이를 중심으로-

The purpose of this study are two-fold; 1) to identify the differences in the view of environmental value between 6-years-olds and 12-years-old, 2) to identify the differences in the attitude towards animals and plants between male-and female students. To accomplish the purposes of this study, two researchers deeply interviewed ten 6-years-old and 12-years-old boys and girls, respectively. First, the interviewees are asked to rank six constituents in nature, human-being, tiger, ant, gingko tree, weed, and stone, from their views of environmental value. Then, the interviewees were asked to talk about their various interaction with animals and plants. The results of this study are as follows; 1) In evaluating the value of nature constituents, 12-years-olds tended to be affected by scientific knowledge. On the other hand, 6-years-olds tended to evaluate the value of nature constituents by their emotional feeling; 2) From the perspectives of environmental ethics, 12-years-olds showed attitudes in anthropocentric or holistic ethics. On the other hand, 6-years-olds showed attitudes in nonanthropocentric ethics; 3) In evaluating the value of nature constituents, 12-year-olds tended to consider the constituent′s instrumental values and 6-years-olds tended to consider their intrinsic values; 4) From the perspectives of "ethics of care", females, especially 12-years females tended to take care of plants. The results propose more emphasis of environmental "sensuous" in school environmental education. And male- and female students should be expected fairly in their environmental attitudes, especially in taking care of natural creatures.