Components of environmental literacy in elementary science education curriculum in Bulgaria and Turkey

The purpose of this study was to analyze the extent to which science education objectives in elementary schools addressed to the six basic components of environmental literacy (EL), and how this attention differed from Bulgaria to Turkey. The main method in the study involved comparative content analysis of these objectives. The courses sampled for Bulgaria include “The Human Being and Nature”, “Biology and Health Education”, “Chemistry and Environmental Protection” and “Physics and Astronomy”. The course sampled for Turkey is “Science and Technology Education”. Content analysis of these objectives reveals that all components of environmental literacy did not receive the same attention. For example in both countries most attention was given to knowledge, less to skills and attitudes, and little to environmentally responsible behavior (ERB). Bulgaria Turkey environmental literacy environmental education science education objectives


INTRODUCTIION
One of the priorities of the European Union is to ensure the sustainability of the environment by taking the necessary precautions and raising public awareness (UNECE Strategy, 2005).Efforts to overcome continuous environmental degradation and establish sustainable development around Europe and other continents can be advanced by providing citizens of all ages with opportunities to become more environmentally informed, committed and active, and thus more environmentally literate.Implementation of environmental education in elementary school depends on both school curricula and teachers` environmental competencies.It can be argued that the foundations of consistent environmental literacy are emphasized in elementary schools mainly through science education.
Some of the difficulties in the analysis are due to the different terms and understandings about one and the same thing in EE.The term EL is seldom used in Bulgaria and other East European countries where scientists prefer to use the concepts of environmental education and environmental culture, consciousness and behavior as its outcomes (Kostova, 1978(Kostova, , 2003;;Kutov & Kostova, 1984).Likewise, this term was not used in Turkish professional literature until recent days.Instead, EE, environmental consciousness, behavior, knowledge and attitudes were preferred.Parallel to growing EE and EL literature in USA and also in Europe, the concept of EL has appeared recently in some research studies (e.g.Erdogan & Erentay, 2007;Erdogan & Marcinkowski, 2007a, 2007b) done in the context of Turkey.
Literacy means basic knowledge in a given area (Andreichin, 1976), ability to read and write (The Concise Oxford Dictionary, 1964, p. 709), having the necessary knowledge and information in a certain field or any deeds, fulfilled without mistakes (Ojegov, 1981, p.128).Consequently, EL is defined as "basic functional education for all people, which provides them with the elementary knowledge, skills and motives to cope with environmental needs and contribute to sustainable development.Environmental literacy is conceived as "functional literacy" (UNESCO, 1989).Roth (1992) believed that EL is beyond the certain cognitive skills and the basic definition of literacy -ability to read and write.He claimed that "Environmental literacy builds on an ecological paradigm.Environmental literacy is the capacity to perceive and interpret the relative health of environmental systems and to take appropriate action to maintain, restore, or improve the health of those systems (p.17)".EL in its totality seems to comprise the same elements as environmental culture, consciousness and behavior taken together.
Based upon an evolving understanding of EL, we assume that EL includes six main components; namely, Ecological knowledge, Socio-Political knowledge, Knowledge of environmental issues, Affect, Cognitive skills and Environmentally responsible behaviors (Simmons, 1995;Volk & McBeth, 1997).On the bases of these authors` contributions the components of EL can be described as following: Ecological knowledge refers to the knowledge and understanding of major ecological concepts, principles and theories as well as knowledge and understanding of how natural systems work and how they interact with social systems.
Socio-Political knowledge includes an understanding of the relationship between beliefs, political systems, and environmental values of various cultures.Socio-political knowledge also includes an understanding of how human cultural activities (e.g.religious, economic, political, social and other) influence the environment from an ecological perspective.Also included within this category is knowledge related to citizen participation in issue resolution.It is often referred to as cultural literacy comprising knowledge of environmental action strategies.
Knowledge of environmental issues includes an understanding of environmental problems/issues caused as a result of human interaction with the environment.Also included within this category is knowledge and understanding, related to alternative solutions to issues and to major sources of environmental information.
Affect refers to factors within individuals which allow them to reflect on the environmental problems/issues at the interpersonal level and to act on them if they judge the issue/problem warrants action.It is expressed in the intention to act.
Additional determinants of environmentally responsible behavior include locus of control and the assumption of personal responsibility.
Cognitive skills are those abilities required to analyze, synthesize and evaluate information about environmental problems/issues and to evaluate a selected problem/issue on the basis of evidence and personal values.This category also includes those abilities necessary for selecting appropriate environmental action strategies, and for creating, evaluating and implementing an action plan.It is the action competence as a major constituent of functional EL.
Environmentally responsible behaviors include active and considered participation aimed at solving problems and resolving issues.Categories of environmentally responsible actions are persuasion, economic and consumer action, eco-management, political and legal action (Volk & McBeth, 1997, pp. 8-9) accompanied by strong conviction of personal commitment and responsibility.
For the purpose of this analysis, we broke these six components into forty sub-components (Babulski, Gannett, Myers, Peppel, & Williams, 1999;Erdogan & Marcinkowski, 2007a, 2007b) which were used as criteria in the analysis of the status of EL in the elementary schools of Bulgaria and Turkey.

Bulgarian Context / Case
Environmental Literacy (as an outcome of EE) was introduced into the science education curriculum and textbooks for the 9 th grade of the Secondary school in Bulgaria in 1967 through a new topic "The organism and its environment," and since then it has always been a part of the compulsory education (Kostova, 1995).Ecological and nature conservation concepts were introduced in the school subjects "Knowledge of the Fatherland" (1 st to 3 rd grade) and "Nature study" (4 th grade) in 1972.EE topics are present in the programs and science textbooks from 1 st to 12 th grades nowadays.One key goal in the grades from 5 th to 8 th is "to develop attitudes towards the living place, the role and the responsibility of everyone towards society, nature and its protection" (Revised school programs, 2003).From 1972 to 1992 the development of theory and practice of EE, including curricula, textbooks and teachers' guides, was under the guidance of a specialized research team.At present with the development of State Educational Standards and the implementation of new curricula, the EL is receiving a greater attention in the so called Cultural educational area (KOO in Bulgarian) "Natural sciences and ecology" from 3 rd to 12 th grades of the Secondary education.

Turkish Context / Case
Environmental Literacy, which is assumed to be the major outcome of environmental education (Stapp et al., 1969;Harvey, 1977), seems to have been somehow neglected in Turkey for several years.Environmental and nature-related concepts were not sufficiently incorporated in the natural studies, agriculture, and life sciences until 1960s.In line with the trends and developments in the USA and Europe, topics pertaining to environmental education were more introduced into school curricula.For example, elementary school science curricula that paid much greater emphases on environmental related concepts/topics were developed in 1992 and 2000 respectively.It merits due recognition and appreciation that this has been receiving greater attention with the initiation of a new Science and Technology Curriculum for elementary schools in 2004-2005 academic year.This curriculum is different from the previous ones in that the dimensions of technology and environment have been added to and integrated with the science dimension.One of the key goals of this curriculum is to develop environmental awareness and consciousness (Erdogan, 2007), and increase scientific process skills of students (Ozgelen & Yilmaz-Tuzun, 2007).

Rationale and Purpose of the Study
Bulgaria has just become a member of the European Union (EU).One of the hot topic and requirements of EU is to develop understanding for sustainable development as well as to develop responsible citizens for the quality of the environment.The main topic of environment is like an umbrella covering other related topics such as sustainable development, environmental education, environmental literacy and … so on.On the other hand, Turkey is a candidate country for EU and still in the adaptation process to EU. Considering this priority of EU, both countries have been undertaking protection measures and steps to take care of this broad concept.This can be observed in national policy, school curricula, and vision of NGOs in both countries.This study only focuses on one part of this umbrella; environmental literacy and its components and how they are represented in the implemented school curricula from 4 th to 8 th grades.In this study, only science education curriculum was considered, because it was believed that the subjects of the science curriculum give much more scientific bases of EL than the other curriculum (e.g.social sciences, math…etc).
The purpose of this study was to analyze the extent to which science education objectives in elementary schools include attention to the six basic components of environmental literacy (EL) in both Bulgaria and Turkey, to compare how this level of attention may differ from Bulgaria to Turkey and how the results can be used in improving the contemporary situation.

METHOD
The design of study was content analysis, one of the common methods of qualitative research.This study covers the comparative analysis of four curriculum guide books for 3 rd to 8 th grade in Bulgaria and one curriculum guide book for 4 th to 8 th grade in Turkey.

Selected Textbooks
Five curriculum guide-books used in obligatory science courses in elementary schools in both countries were selected for this analysis.Of these, four were from Bulgarian elementary schools, integrated in the Cultural Education Area (CEA) "Natural Sciences and Ecology" and the other one was from Turkish elementary schools.In Turkey, there are some others course in which EL components are implicitly stated, such as life science course for 1 st to 3 rd grade, social science course for 4 th to 8 th grades, and agriculture course (elective course), although only a science education course was selected because of its meeting the purpose of the study.The name and characteristics of the selected books are illustrated in table 1.
Whereas the courses selected from Bulgaria cover 3 rd to 8 th grades, the course from Turkey covers 4 th to 8 th grades.Lower level courses were not considered because of their irrelevance to the study.
In Bulgaria, the course "The Human Being and Nature" is only introduced to 3 rd and 6 th grade students and comprises three parts: 1 st part Physical phenomena, 2 nd part Substances and their properties and 3 rd part Structure and life processes of organisms.The other three science-related courses (biology, chemistry and physics) are introduced from 7 th to 8 th grades.The new curriculum guide books and the corresponding textbooks from 3 rd to 6 th grades are already prepared and introduced, but from 7 th to 8 th grades students use old textbooks and guides introduced in 1998-2000 school years.On the other hand, there is only one obligatory course related to science education in elementary level in Turkey.The course titled "Science and Technology Education" was designed in 2004, piloted in 120 elementary schools in 2004-2005 academic year and then disseminated to all Turkish schools in following years (Erdogan, 2007).The course for 4 th to 8 th grades includes several topics pertaining to chemistry, biology, physics and the natural environment.The units in this course are categorized under four learning domains; (1) Living Organism and Life, (2) Matter and Change, (3) Physical Events and (4) Earth and Universe.

Content Analysis of the Textbooks
The selected curriculum guide books were subjected to content analysis.First, the objectives, which are called attainments in 2004 Turkish elementary school curriculum, and standards and expected results in the Bulgarian curriculum, were retrieved from the selected guides.A table including six components of EL (affect and additional determinants of ERB were combined for this analysis since their nature seems to be similar) and forty sub-components of EL was constructed for comparative analysis.This table included one column for Turkey and one column for Bulgaria across to grade level (4 th grade to 8 th grade).The objectives in the selected guides were analyzed against the forty sub-components of EL selected for use in this study.

Charting of the Results
For the comparative analysis, three different, but related tables were developed.These visualize the results emerged from the content analysis of the guide-books and make the results more comparable.The concepts associated with EE from analyzed books were included in the first two tables (table 2 for Bulgaria and table 3 for Turkey).The concepts in Bulgarian guide-books were categorized under selected courses and grade levels.On the other hand, the concepts in Turkish guide-books were grouped under four main learning domains.The last table (Table 4) was designed for comparative analysis of the objectives according to country and forty sub-components of EL.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
The comparative analysis of the objectives and content of the selected science education guide books indicated that environmental education in both countries is not considered as a separate subject, but is (2) Sub-components 6.4 and 6.5 are mentioned, but 6.2, 6.3 and 6.6 are more or less ignored.
(1) The sub-components of 6.On the other hand, in Turkey, EE is realized under the curriculum of Science and Technology Course.The several concepts related to EE are emerged from this curriculum.These concepts are illustrated in table 3. Same as selected guide books from Bulgaria, vertical and horizontal connection among the learning domains and among the courses (e.g. with social sciences, interdisciplinary topics…etc) are also apparent in Science and Technology curriculum in Turkey.
The fundamental scientific concepts, needed for EL, are dealt with in the science curricula of both countries.Basic ecological and nature conservation concepts are accordingly developed.These all topics are for developing students' understanding of ecological processes in nature, the relationships among living organisms, non-living matter, human and natural environment, physical, biological and chemical aspects of the environment (nature).Furthermore, the topics related to causes and effects of and solutions to environmental problems, hygiene and health are also introduced to the students in both countries in various grades.Knowledge is a fundamental predictor of EL, especially of ERB and is perfectly dealt with in textbooks, though Bulgarian textbooks seem to be overburden with it.
Table 4 presents the results of the comparative analysis.These results indicated that all components of environmental literacy do not receive the same attention.For example, greater attention was paid to the environmental knowledge, relatively little attention to skill, and little attention to affective and behavior subcomponents in Turkey.On the other hand, within Bulgaria, much greater attention was given to knowledge sub-components, less attention to skill and affective sub-components, and little attention to behavior.

Knowledge of Natural History and Ecology
This component of EL includes seven subcomponents.Compared to the other components, it is apparent that this component is highly emphasized and incorporated in selected courses in both countries.In Bulgaria, the sub-components of Environments & Habitats and Abiotics & Material Cycles are relatively more introduced.However, the sub-components of Physical and Biological History (natural history) are not adequately considered.The reasons for that are several; (1) These subcomponents are mainly dealt with in geography, which is not analyzed.(2) They are thoroughly exhausted in higher grades from 9 th to 12 th .
(3) Children may not possess the necessary background for understanding them.(4) The development of the biological scientific knowledge in 7 th and 8 th grades obeys the evolutionary process from simple unicellular organism to complex multicellular ones.On the other hand, all sub-components are very much observable in Science and Technology Course in Turkey.However, the sub-components of Communities & Interaction and Physical & Biological History (natural history) are somehow overlooked.The latter sub-component is still the only one which is rather less emphasized in both countries.Same as Bulgarian guide books, this subcomponent seems to be more observable in Social Studies curriculum.

Knowledge of Environmental Issues and Problems
This component includes eight sub-components each pertaining to environmental problems and issues, their causes and effects, alternative solutions, natural disasters (earthquake…etc) and risk, toxicology, and human health.In Bulgaria, almost all of these subcomponents are well integrated into the selected courses.But, socio-political issues, and causes of issues, natural disasters and alternative solutions and actions are underestimated and in some grades (e.g. 6 th grade) merely not apparent.It is not necessary to prove their importance as environmental situation in both countries speaks for itself.Those topics in Bulgaria are included in civics.Knowledge of environmental action strategies is somewhat vague and marginal.Besides behavior of business corporations set a very bad example of environmental treatment.On the other hand, even though this component and its sub-components are well observable in Turkish science curriculum, the concepts associated with socio-political issues and causes of these issues are not integrated in 4 th , 5 th , 6 th and 8 th grade.Likewise, the concepts related to natural disaster are not observable in 4 th to 7 th grades, except 8 th grade curriculum.

Socio-Political-Economic Knowledge
This component consists of six sub-components.This component puts more emphasis on socio-political and economic aspects of the environment.Since this dimension is more related to social sciences, it is expected to observe this component more in Social Studies.Surprisingly, in Bulgaria, all the subcomponents are well integrated in science curriculum.However, economic values and activities, societies and social systems, government and political system, and geographic pattern are not apparent in 4 th grade.Those are more observable in Social Studies Curriculum in Turkey.

Cognitive Skills
This component includes six sub-components, each regarding as problem investigation and problem solving abilities.Considering the theoretical structure of this dimension, it is clear to say that these skills are in line with science process skills.In Bulgaria, almost all components are well integrated into the science curriculum, but not enough attention is given to variables and research question skills, data collection and data analysis skills.They are dealt with merely verbally but not as action skills.One reason for that is that school laboratories in Bulgaria are in a poor state because of the low economic development.No financial resources are allocated to school equipment.The overburden with information textbooks do not allow enough school periods for experiments.Therefore EL in respect to action skills is problematic and doomed to experience limited success.That in its turn narrows the boundaries of functional EL.Action skills are left for development as homework, teamwork in class or individual and group development of projects.Because of their ultimate importance, it is not surprising that authors put strong emphasis on this component (Stables, 1998) and suggest the use of zoos and aquariums in promoting conservation learning, values and skills development (Ballontyne, 2007).In Turkey, one of the most important innovations in new developed curriculum is the integration of science process skills.This is an evidence to say that cognitive skills are integrated into the curriculum in Turkey.Cognitive skills involve interest in environmental knowledge, which is best developed by solving real environmental problems.aspects are priority to geography, technology and civics curricula and textbooks.This situation in Bulgarian Science curriculum is not as much observed as in Turkey's.That may be due to the more integrated subject in Turkey.Subcomponents are not very much observable in the science curriculum.Only, the topics related to geographic patterns and citizenship participation is relatively well integrated in all grades (4 th to 8 th ) in Turkish science curriculum.These components

Affect
Included seven sub-components, this component is a combination of two other main components of EL -Affect and Additional Determinants of Environmentally Responsible Behavior.In Bulgaria, except the subcomponent of efficacy/locus of control, almost all the sub-components are integrated in all grades.Additional determinants (loci of control) are hard to apply to school curricula and that may be the cause for the obtained results.The explanation notes of the curricula stress the necessity of skills for team work, good communication and tolerance in all grades.The discussion of environmental problems and issues is done using reasons from within society and from within nature, i. e. natural and social causes.Externals (extroverts) deal with objective world and are more comfortable by being with others, while internals (introverts) deal with the subjective world and are more comfortable by being alone.Internals attribute their outcomes to ability, but externals to chance.The curricula give priority to social causes of environmental education but put less emphasis on greediness of people for material wealth.The value orientations and environmental ethics, though very insufficient, receive their attention through emphasis on the need of caring about nature.That is why ethical issues and moral reasoning are not observable in 4 th and 5 th grade science curriculum or sound very artificially.Ethical position on human-nature relationships shows signs of anthropocentrism and misses the crucial elements of the contemporary environmental ethics debate.Affect is simply overlooked.No criteria are developed for measurement of the outcomes.Nevertheless affect can be seen in the intention to act in order to solve environmental problems, in the desire to develop environmental skills and make the school environment cozy and clean.Besides, to overlook knowledge for the sake of affect is equally inadequate (Makenzie, 2003) Comparing to the other components of EL, affect component is relatively less integrated into science curriculum in Turkey.Only the objectives pertaining to environmental appreciation and sensitivity are apparent in all grades."Environmental attitudes", "personal responsibility" and "willingness to act" are rather less observable in the curriculum.Other sub-components are somehow ignored and never considered.

Environmentally Responsible Behavior
This component includes six sub-components.Comparing to the other main components, this component and its sub-components receive very little attention in science education curriculum in both countries.Conservation and eco-management behaviors sub-component, so-called physical actions, is relatively more observable in both curricula.Government and political action, Legal action and law enforcement are left for social sciences and mentioned very occasionally in science curriculum.The implications of physical action strategies are more dominant in 4 th , 7 th and 8 th grades in Turkey.In Bulgaria, other types of behavior are extremely rarely apparent in the studied grades.On the other hand, only very few attainments in Turkish science curriculum pertains to "Consumer and Economic Action" in 5th and 8th grades and "Interpersonal and Public Persuasion" in 5th grade.
Little attention is given to action competence, involving the ability to take into consideration human conflicts of interest, which lies behind sustainable development and preserving the quality of the environment.Action is not very much concerned with future perspective and if it does it, the accent is on negative outcomes and dark predictions.Bad future perspective is despairing.The science school curricula raise questions that can be investigated by students in their out of school activities when making projects, using observations and experiments and analyzing the results as well as taking part in environmental organizations.These activities are not compulsory and teachers may decide not to organize them.They are more or less personal choices of teachers.At least that is the case in Bulgaria.
The six components of EL can be used as criteria for critical evaluation of the local, national and global environmental education (Singh, 1998).They help researchers and teachers to obtain more reliable results.

CONCLUSION
The comparative analysis of five science education textbooks taken from Bulgaria (n=4) and Turkey (n=1) with regard to components of environmental literacy revealed that all the components are not considered equally in both countries.While the components pertaining to environmental knowledge are highly emphasized, the other components are paid partially less attention both countries.
For example, even though relatively little attention is given to skills, this component is well integrated.But, the components of affect and behavior (action) receive little attention in new Science and Technology curriculum in Turkey.However, in Bulgaria, it was found that skill and affective sub-components are relatively well integrated, although the component of behavior is somewhat ignored and not well integrated in the obligatory curriculum.
In both countries, participation of students in nature conservation activities is limited in textbooks and, from all appearances, in school practices.Such kinds of activities are mainly voluntary in non-formal education (Revised school programs, 2003).This may be one of the primary reasons for low levels of responsible behavior of students to their surrounding environment (Kostova, 2003, p. 207 -234).Another reason may be the bad example set by adults, expressed in their consumerism and other forms of irresponsible environmental behavior.
Considering that one of the important aims of environmental education in schools is to help students develop the abilities and capacities needed for civic participation, service, and action (Hungerford & Volk, 1984, 1990), it is clear to say that in both countries, this aim of EE may not be easily realized because the action component of EL is given little attention and some of its sub-components are even ignored in these textbooks.Fortunately, we have still a chance to integrate this component of EL because in Turkey science education curriculum is being under development and in Bulgaria the new textbooks are in the process of being prepared (considered the revisions returned back from the piloted schools and findings of the research studies).For that reason, the findings of this study serve as an in-depth source of information for (these) national curriculum revisions, particularly on the integration of all the components of EL.The value and action components require a new approach to teaching incorporating inquiry methods and field studies, ensuring the integration of knowledge, emotion and action, i.e., "heads, hearts and hands".This means that revision of curricula and text-books is not enough.Teachers` guides and teachers` qualification should also be updated in order to create stimulating learning environments.
Curricula are not the only predictors of environmentally responsible behavior and other factors should also be investigated, such as: 1.The state of environmental literacy as a possession of schoolchildren at the end of each grade.
2. The diversification of learning environments and the efficacy of their use.
3. Teachers` professional competencies to involve students in successful environmental learning.

Table 1 . Text books selected from both countries for the study and their characteristics
Up to now the course is developed and introduced in 3 rd to 6 th grades.Three different versions of textbooks for each grade were approved and implemented in schools by the Ministry of Education and science.6 th grade textbooks are under first year trial.The program was developed and piloted with elementary schools in 2004, disseminated in following years gradually.It is for the students who are in 4 th to 8 th grade.The name of this course was science education before 2004.Three different versions of textbooks for each grade were approved and implemented in schools by the Ministry of Education.The name of the text books are Science and Technology -4, -5, -6, -7 and -8.

Table 2 . Environmental Related Concepts -Topics in Selected Courses in Bulgaria Grade Name of the Course Grade Name of the Courses The Human being and Nature Biology and Health Education Chemistry and Environmental Protection Physics and Astronomy 4 th grade
Earth and Universe (Earth, evolution of the Earth and life on it, natural resources, continents and oceans, ocean, land and soil pollution, technologies, population, depletion of resources, anthropogenic influence on Earth, environmental problems of Europe, Balkan peninsula and Bulgaria) are dealt with in geography and economics from 5 th to 8 th grades.

Table 4 .Comparative Analysis of Environmental Literacy in Selected Science Education Curricula in Bulgaria and Turkey Components and Sub-Components of EL
Different numbers of courses for science education are used in both countries.In Bulgaria, environmental education (EE) is realized mainly in science courses, united in the cultural educational area (CEA) "Natural sciences and ecology", but some subjects (e.g.Geography and economics) from the CEA "Social sciences, civics and religion" are also involved.The topics associated with EE are more observable in four courses selected for the study.The concepts and topics emerged from these selected guide books are summarized in table 2. This table was designed according to grade (4 th to 8 th ) in the column and selected courses in the row.It is clear to say that these all courses are complementary to each other and designed by considering the understanding of spiral curriculum.Advanced topics are introduced to the students based on the fundamental topics.There is a vertical connection among the courses as well as a horizontal connection (especially for 7 th and 8 th grade courses).Secondary school curriculum in Bulgarian is split into many subjects, and many textbooks make the comparison very difficult.