This document discusses environmental education in Malaysia, specifically in Sabah. It provides definitions and terminology for environmental education. It outlines the goals of environmental education according to UNESCO and a 1977 conference. It describes a study conducted on teachers' attitudes towards environmental education goals in Sabah. The study found that teachers viewed most goals as very important. It concludes that environmental education goals should be revised and training provided to teachers to strengthen skills in investigation, evaluation and taking environmental action.

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ENVIRONMENTAL
EDUCATION IN MALAYSIA:
SABAH CASE
Arba’at Hassan
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM)

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TERMINOLOGY
►Environmental education (EE) called Alam dan
Manusia (Human and Environment)
►.. introduced in schools’ curriculum in 1982.
►The term has many names: Nature Study,
Outdoor Education, Conservation Education,
Environmental Management Education,
Community Education, and etc.
►UNESCO suggested … the terminology used as
a synonym for each; of the five, singly, or in any
combination

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DEFINITION
►Cerovsky (1971) … “Book of Environmental
Education” defined environmental education as
"...a process of recognizing values and clarifying
concepts to develop skills and attitudes necessary
to understand and to appreciate the inter-
relatedness among man, his culture, and
biophysical surroundings. It also entailed practice
in decision-making and self-formulation of a code
behaviour about issues concerning environmental
quality"

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►The American Envtl Edu Act (PL 91-516) :“…
good environmental education” criteria should
be
1…an interdisciplinary approach, emphasising
nature-human interrelationships
2…focus on environmental problems related to
the society
CRITERIA

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3. Incorporate of formal + informal education
4. Develop conservation ethics (information
programs + resources) outside the classroom
5. Involve people of all ages, and
6. A participant-centred (designs+allows involve-
ment in the choice of issues + the problem-solving
solutions)

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The Tbilisi Conference (1977) endorsed goals
for environmental education into 5 categories:
1. Knowledge: ..to gain a variety of experience
+ understanding of the problems
2. Awareness: ..to acquire an awareness +
sensitivity to environment and its problems
GOALS

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3. Attitudes: ..to acquire a set of values and
feelings of concern to environnment, and
motivations for actively participating in
environmental improvement + protection
4. Skills: ..to acquire skills for identifying +
solving environmental problems
5. Participation: ..to be actively involved at
all levels in working toward resolution
of environmental problems.

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Level 1: Knowledge
Level 4:
Participations
Level 3: Skills
Level 2: Awareness
Figure A
Environmental
Education Goal Levels
(Hungerford & Volk, 1983)

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Fig A: Envtl Edu Goal Levels (Hungerford &
Volk, 1983)
Level I:Level I: Knowledge + Ecological Foundation: …to
provide ecological foundation knowledge to make
ecologically sound decisions with respect to
environment
Level II:Level II: Conceptual Awareness + Values: …to
develop a conceptual awareness (i.e.: quality of
life+quality of environment, and how the actions on
environmental issues be resolved through
investigation, evaluation, values, decision-making,
and citizenship actions)

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Level III:Level III: Issue Investigation + Evaluation: …to
develop and equip skills necessary (investigate
environmental issues + evaluate alternative
solutions)
Level IV:Level IV: Action Skills + Participation: …equip
skills to take positive environmental actions
(achieve and/or maintain a dynamic equilibrium
between quality of life + quality of environment).

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Map of Malaysia

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MALAYSIA
•Independence in 1957 (Sabah joined in 1963).
•Malaysia… moves aggressively to achieve a status of
“an industrial country” by 2020
•Many forests are logged (for factories, highways,
residential and shop houses, hydroelectric dams, and
other)
•A project: “The Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC)” is
implemented

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RESEARCH STUDY
Purpose: …to investigate the attitudes of school
teachers on the goals importance of
environmental in primary school in Sabah
Procedure:
1. Using instrument Alam dan Manusia Teacher
Questionnaires (ADMTQ)
2. …a modification of the Environmental Education
Curriculum Needs Assessment Questionnaire
(EECNAQ) used by Volk's (1983) study in the United
States.

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• The respondents asked to indicate their perceptions
• Their perceptions were on the 15 variables
• Level of responds was based on Likert Scale
• The 5-points scale were:
5 = A Complete Extent
4 = A Moderate Extent
3 = A Little Extent
2 = No Extent
1 = Do Not Have Knowledge

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•
Table C: Environmental Education Goal Statements
1. •Students gain sufficient knowledge of ecology to permit them to make
ecologically sound decisions with respect to both humans and the
environment.
2. •Students gain an understanding of the ways in which human social
activities (economics, religion, politics, social customs, etc.) influence
the environment.
3. •Students gain an understanding of the ways in which individual
human behaviours impact on the environment.
4. •Students gain an understanding of a wide variety of environmental
issues and both the ecological and social implications of these issues.
5. •Students gain an understanding of the various alternative solutions for
solving particular environmental issues in which the ecological and
social implications of the solutions are considered.

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6. •Students gain an understanding of the roles played by differing
human values in solving environmental issues.
7. •Students develop those skills which will enable them to identify
and investigate issues using both primary and secondary sources
of information.
8. •Students develop those skills which will enable them to analyse
environmental issues and the associated value perspectives with
respect to their ecological and cultural implications
9. •Students develop those skills which will enable them to identify
alternative solutions for particular issues and to evaluate those
solutions with regard to their ecological and cultural implications.
10
.
•Students develop those skills which will enable them to identify
and evaluate their own value positions related to particular issues
and to the solutions proposed for those issues.

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11. •Students are provided with opportunities to apply, those skills in
investigating and evaluating environmental issues and their solutions
12. •Students are provided with opportunities to participate in the valuing
process in order to examine their own values with respect to both
quality of life and quality of the environment.
13. •Students develop those citizenship skills which will enable them to take
appropriate action/s (persuasion, consumerism, legal action, political
action, ecomanagement, etc.), either individual or group, for the
purpose of solving, partially solving, or assisting in solving particular
environmental issues.
14. •Students are provided with opportunities to apply citizenship skills in
making decisions concerning appropriate environmental action
strategies to be used with respect to particular environmental issues.
15. Students are provided with opportunities to take citizenship action on
one or more environmental issues.

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THE RESULTS
4.54
4.61
4.54
4.36
4.33
4.40
4.38
4.33
4.30
4.27
4.32
4.63
4.42
4.43
4.30
1
2
3
4
5
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
GOAL STATEMENTS
MEANRESPONSES

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CONCLUSIONS
1. Majority teachers sampled considered goals for EE
were very important.
2. Mean responses to the importance of goals ranged
from "the moderate " (4.27) to the "complete
extent," (4.63).
3. Grand means for goal statement 11 range from
3.98 - 4.78.
4. Majority respondents indicated toward higher end
of the scale (4.34); only 2% said they “do not have
knowledge.”

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RECOMMENDATIONS
The conclusion resulting from the present study suggests these
recommendations.
1. Revise EE goals by the Ministry of Education and the
Curriculum Development Centre
2. Incorporate additional goals into the national curriculum.
Special emphasis should be placed on those goals in Level III
(Investigation and Evaluation Level) and Level IV
(Environmental Action Skills of Training and Application).
3. The Ministry of Education should conduct regular training and
in-service courses, workshops, seminars, and the like to upgrade
and update the teachers' skills and evaluation methods as well as
to develop new teaching and learning techniques.

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RECOMMENDATIONS
4. The same study should be replicated at all levels:
primary, secondary, college and higher educational
institutions to present a total picture of
environmental education needs and
accomplishments.
5. Replace or substitute the Alam Dan Manusia with a
similar subject in the school curriculum to provide
knowledge, awareness, and skills to students and
citizens

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THANK YOU