The Effects of Creative Experience-Centered Environmental Education on Emotional Intelligence of Elementary School Students

Abstract

This study was carried out with the purpose of verifying the impact that experience centered environmental education with an emphasis on communing with the surrounding natural environment could have on elementary school student`s emotional intelligence. This experiment was carried out on a group of 55 students (29 in the control and 26 in the experimental group) from two 4th grade classes. Following the development of experience-oriented lessons on environmental education based on a 'teaching and learning' model of environmental education for this study, the lessons were applied for 30 lessons and over a 16-week period. The experiment was carried out using a checklist of emotional intelligence and administered by a pretest-posttest method. The results of the study, signs of improvement were recognized in ability to recognize self-emotion (p〈.05), ability to control self-emotion (p〈.05), interpersonal skills with a significant increase (p〈.01), self-synchronization ability (p=0.183), and empathic ability (p=0.058). Therefore, it is evident that a positive effect on the increase of emotional intelligence in elementary school students is achieved through creative experience-oriented environmental education.