Review of the article entitled: Analysis of Cognitive and Affective Component of

Environmental Literacy of Pre-service Teachers from Institute of Teacher Education

Malaysia.

PLG 537

By
Siti Nurul Ain Binti Jamhari
SPM018913
M.S., Education, Universiti Sains Malaysia
2014

Review of the article entitled: Analysis of Cognitive and Affective Component of

Environmental Literacy of Pre-service Teachers from Institute of Teacher Education
Malaysia.
1.0 Introduction
Environment consists of all living and non living things which surround us. Therefore
the basic components of the environment are atmosphere or the air, hydrosphere or the
water, lithosphere or the rocks and soil and the biosphere. Environment influence and
shaped our life. It is from the environment that we get food to eat, water to drink, air to
breathe and all necessities of day to day life are available from our environment. Thus it
is the life support system. Environment is responsible for creating conditions suitable for
the existence of a healthy biosphere on this planet. Since life is dependable upon the
environment, its absence causes many adverse and harmful effects. Many countries are
facing the problems of environmental pollutions. Without sustainable environment and
natural resources, one cannot survive.
Environmental literacy encourages learners to understand how natural systems work,
to appreciate their complexity and to understand how these and human systems interact.
While recycling, composting and keeping earthworms are sound practices from which to
build a worthwhile environmental education program, education about the environment
requires understanding of the ecological principles that underpin these processes. Public
need to understand the concepts associated with the water cycle, the oxygen cycle,
recycling matter, how plants grow, effect of detergents in streams, the importance of
clean water for human health, and many others.

As being agreed by Lorson, M. V., Heimlieh, J. E., & Wagner, S. (1993),

environmental education involves children, teachers and communities working
collectively and democratically towards the resolution of environmental questions, issues,
and problems. It is interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary, and superdisciplinary.

2.0 Discussion
In this article, the researchers emphasizing the study of present syllabus based on the
teaching learning strategies towards its impact to the pre-service teachers environmental
literacy.
The subjects analyzed were the gender effects and the relations of cognitive and
affective on the environmental literacy. The cognitive is about to measure the intellectual
processes such as their thinking, memorizing ability, problem-solving skills, how they
analyzing data and information and the reasoning skill. Meanwhile, affective is about
assessing individual feelings, values, attitudes and beliefs.
Based on the conceptual framework of Jannah and colleagues (2013), they illustrated
that awareness, involvement, attitude, knowledge and behavior are the components of
acquiring the environmental literacy.

Figure 1. Components of environmental literacy

The relevant of these researchers to analyze those components in the pre-service
teachers is generally because teacher plays a hard role in terms to educate the public by
implementing certain values in schools. Teachers as the educators are assigned to be the
person in-charge to deliver the environmental message to the public as they are assumed
to have the sufficient knowledge and skills upon those matters.
This study was conducted by implementing the Project-Based Learning approach.
The respondents results turn to be high in the affective components. Yet, low in the
cognitive components. By the results, the researchers suggested to further study on the
potential factors that affecting pre-service teachers environmental literacy and to explore
more about the impact of different teaching strategies.
The high level of affective components is probably due to the situational
awareness that occurs among those respondents and it might also develop through their
experiences. Concurrently, the low level of the cognitive components also reflected the
weak learning syllabus effectiveness of the environmental education. Previously, a
similar research has been conducted about the attitudes of teacher towards the teaching of
environmental education and the results indicated it to be in moderate and low .
More programmes and better learning and teaching styles on environments should
be introduced and applied in the local context so that would increase the cognitive values
parallel with the affective level to achieve the public literacy. Aside from that, the interest
of teachers from the sector of education, for workshops, meetings, visits, and sharing
ideas and resources, is highly encouraging. Teacher networking, which reinforces
nonhierarchical, democratic, collaborative ways of working that are the hallmarks of both

early childhood and environmental education, may just prove to be the most effective
way of building momentum for environmental education and ensuring that it is no longer
left off the mainstream early childhood agenda. It is hoped that these and other networks
for practitioners, parents, and those in the community committed to working for
sustainable futures, will flourish as stated by Julie (1998).

3.0 Conclusion
Environmental education is crucial and a must to be implemented in our learning
syllabus. As according to Zainudin (2013), the issues of environment deterioration caused
by the over consumption and utilization of natural resources from the consumers is
always a concern from the public. Thus, one important and facile way to literate the
public about the environment is through schools via teachers by practicing the learning
syllabus. An individual with environment literate could make the world better my making
a better and right decision beforehand. In such way, sustainable development could be
achieved and benefit the generation to the next.
Plenty of hands on activity should be carried out and increase more of outdoor
activities should therefore, increase the level of environmental literacy
among students to address environmental issues in Malaysia as being
proposed by Jannah and colleagues (2013).

References

Jannah, M., Halim, L., Meerah, T. S. M., & Fairuz, M. (2013). Impact of Environmental
Education Kit on Students Environmental Literacy. Asian Social Science, 9.
Lorson, M. V., Heimlieh, J. E., & Wagner, S. (1993). Integrating Science, Mathematics,
and Environmental Education: Resources and Guidelines. Journal of Science
Teacher Education, 93-96.
Mohamed, S., Wee, S. T., & Chen, G. K. The Management Of Sustainable Development:
Malaysian Local Governments Role. University Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia
(UTHM).
Muda, A., Ismail, N. S., Suandi, T., & Rashid, N. A. (2011). Analysis of Cognitive and
Affective Component of Environmental Literacy of Pre-service Teachers from
Institute of Teacher Education Malaysia. World Applied Sciences Journal, 14,
114-118.
Sellmann, D., & Bogner, F. X. (2013). Effects of a 1-day environmental education
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Journal Psychology Education, 28, 1077-1086.
Zainudin, N. (2013). Attitudes towards energy efficient products: The influence of ecoliteracy and social influence. Wcik E-Journal of Integration Knowledge.