Environmental issues as addressed by primary school textbooks in Iran

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Abstract

To educate students in environmental issues, it is necessary to address the topic in all related textbooks. To see the extent to which such attention is paid in Iranian educational system, three primary school Social Studies text books were content analyzed using a check list of 55 items on ecological problems related to water, air, earth, and noise. The reliability of the instrument was assessed to be 0.92. The results show that the reviewed text books pay little attention to such issues. The Fourth Grade's text book with less than half of the issues covered, pays the most attention while the Fifth Grade's text book covers only a quarter of the said issues. Among the four areas of concern, water related issues are covered the most (with 30% coverage) while noise related topics are covered the least (with a 20% coverage).

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