Assessment of educational courses and different tools on the environmental attitudes of villagers (Case of Study: villages in the Doreh Chegheni Township)

The purpose of this study was quantitative and qualitative assessment of the natural resources education and the impact of different educational tools on the environmental attitudes of villagers. The research area consists of four forest villages Champalk, Khanesorkh, Samoq and Shorab in the Doreh Chegheni Township and the statistical population of the study was villagers are living in the four villages mentioned (N = 2306). The sample size was determined using Cochran's formula of 208 people. The data were collected by questionnaire that validity and reliability were confirmed respectively through content validity and computing Cronbach's alpha coefficient (0.813). Data analyzed by SPSS software. According to the results, villagers presented the highest scores of assessment of the quality of the provided trainings to the following components: increase awareness of the importance of forests and rangelands (4.33), change in the procedure of people in dealing with natural resources (16.4), impact on people's perspective on conservation of natural resources (4.14). 90% of the people believed that participation in these courses increased the awareness of the importance of forests and pastures and, according to 85% of the people; these courses have changed their behavior in dealing with natural resources. The results of mean comparison indicated that the use of educational tool excluding video viewing significantly improved the environmental attitudes of individuals. The results of the study indicate that participation in training courses and the use of appropriate tools can improve the attitude of natural resources and their desire to be protected.