Curriculum Development
Abstract
The purpose of the present study was to investigate the degree of attention paid to education for sustainable development in the curriculum (textbooks and teacher guides) of the elementary natural sciences. The research method was descriptive based on content analysis. The population consisted of the ...
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The purpose of the present study was to investigate the degree of attention paid to education for sustainable development in the curriculum (textbooks and teacher guides) of the elementary natural sciences. The research method was descriptive based on content analysis. The population consisted of the whole natural science textbooks and teacher guides of elementary grades. In this research the sample comprised the whole the population. The tools for gathering data were global UNESCO documents and a researcher- made content analysis form. To verify the formal validity and the content of the tools, 20 experts specialized in education were consulted and they confirmed both the validity of the instrument a content. The reliability was confirmed by Holesti formula at 92%. To analyze the data, the Shannon's entropy analysis was used. The results showed that in the elementary school natural sciences the impact factor was highest in pollution and natural disaster components, whereas the lowest factor was observed in components such as community building, desertification, deforestation, cultural critique, cultural rehabilitation and maintenance of culture which showed low frequency. In both textbooks and teacher guides of elementary natural sciences, the curriculum content, for are not compatible with our cultural necessities. In these document the environmental dimension figures more prominently than others..
