Abstract
A survey of middle school students and teachers in Mokpo city has been done to understand the perception of environment of students and the present situation of environmental education in middle school. Only 2 of the 14 middle schools have chosen the environmental education course as a required subject. The majority of middle-school students in Mokpo city have learned the environmental education as a subordinate course included in the other subjects such as science, social science or technology. The environmental education in school has been done mostly through non-subject activities such as club activity, group work etc. The survey shows that almost all students think the environmental pollution is serious problem(83% of respondents) and they are especially interested in separate garbage collection(72%) and environmental conservation activity(63.9%) to protect the environment. The concerns about the environmental problems of students(57.7%) has increased after environmental education regardless educational methods or subjects. The students and teachers think that environmental education in school has not been carried out enough and almost all of them(68.4% of students, 97.5% of teachers) agree that the environmental education should be done as an independent subject. In order to more practical and effective environmental education, many opportunities to experience environmental conservation activities should be given during the environmental education course and the environmental education should be separated from other subjects to be taught independently. Moreover, it might be necessary to increase proportion of teachers in environmental disciplines and to develop various teaching methods.
