A STUDY OF ECO-LITERACY AS A COMPONENT OF NATURALISTIC INTELLIGENCE AMONGST IN-SERVICE SCHOOL TEACHERS

Abstract

Being ecologically literate, or Eco literate, means, in our view, understanding the basic principles of ecology and being able to embody them in the daily life of human communities' Fritjof Capra Eco-literacy or ecological literacy is the ability to understand the organization of natural systems and the processes that maintain the healthy functioning of living systems and sustain life on Earth. The term Eco literacy was rst published 16 years ago by Capra (1997), who founded the Center for Eco literacy. An ecologically literate person is able to apply this understanding to the design and organization of our human communities and the creation of a regenerative culture. In 1983, Howard Garner revised the earlier notions of intelligence with his Theory of Multiple Intelligences, which set forth eight distinct types of intelligence and claimed that there need be no correlation among them. Naturalistic Intelligence features is one among the eight intelligences listed by Gardner. Concept of Naturalistic Intelligence (NI): Gardner designates naturalistic intelligence as the human ability to discriminate among living things (plants, animals) as well as sensitivity to other features of the natural world (clouds, rock congurations). This intelligence has to do with observing, understanding, and organizing patterns in the natural environment. Children possessing naturalistic intelligence may enjoy subjects, shows, and stories that deal with animals or natural phenomena, or they may show unusual interest in subjects like biology, zoology, botany, geology, meteorology, paleontology, or astronomy. Naturalistic Intelligence may manifest itself in various dimensions and have many components such as Ÿ Pro-Environmental behavior Ÿ Eco-Literacy Ÿ Environmental Attitude Ÿ Eco-sensitivity etc