Forest Education Experiences of Vocational High School Students

This study examined the effects of forest education on the environmental awareness and environmental attitudes of vocational high school students and their self-evaluations toward forest education. The study, in which the mixed research method was adopted, was designed with an explanatory design. Forest education was given within the scope of the experimental study carried out at the quantitative level. The importance of the education was emphasized and forest ecology, eco-social functions of forests, forest products were discussed with an interdisciplinary approach. The study group consists of 32 vocational high school students studying at vocational high schools in different provinces from the Thrace region. Data collection tools are the sustainable environmental awareness scale and environmental attitude scale at the quantitative level and structured interviews at the qualitative level. Related samples t-test was used for quantitative data and content analysis was performed for qualitative data. The results of the study show a permanent increase in environmental awareness and attitude of vocational high school students thanks to forest education. According to the self-evaluations of vocational high school students, it can be said that forest education provides positive environmental and academic contributions to them. Based on the results obtained, it can be suggested that forest education should be given importance to direct qualified intermediate staff candidates who can have a say in human-environment interaction to sustainable pro-environmental behaviors. [This paper was published in: "EJER Congress 2023 International Eurasian Educational Research Congress Conference Proceedings," Ani Publishing, 2023, pp. 463-475.]