Students’ environmental education: Efficacy of new and practical teaching methods

Environmental education plays a crucial role in preserving, honoring and improving the environment as well as reducing ecological problems, through the formal education system as the most important culturalization body, by improving the level of knowledge, culture and insight of the society. The current research aims to investigate effective educational methods in environmental education in schools.In a descriptive-survey applied research in 2022-2023 academic year, data were collected using a researcher-made questionnaire. The research tool was based on the Likert spectrum, the validity of which was confirmed by experts, and its reliability was obtained through Cronbach's alpha equal to 0.89. The teachers and curriculum planners of the elementary and middle school courses of Ilam city formed the statistical population of the research; where the sample size of 300 and 22 based on the Morgan table and stratified sampling method with random assignment were obtained, for the teachers of the two courses and curriculum planners, respectively. Data analysis was done by t-test  in SPSS software. From the teachers and planners’ point of view on different educational courses, the optimal methods of teaching environmental concepts were effective in each of the elementary and middle schools. The psychological characteristics of students in each educational levels can explain such attitude difference. Improving the quantity and improving the quality of educational programs depends on the way of teaching/learning as well as the application of proper educational methods that are suitable for the audience or student.