Abstract
Elementary schools have a high potential to internalize the aspects of sustainable development, especially urban agriculture. Therefore, the main goals of this study were to understand the role of school garden program on students’ knowledge and attitude and to explore experiences of students with an experimental intervention. A mixed method approach was used to analyze these aspects. In the quantitative step, a quasi-experimental method, which is equivalent of pre-test/post-test control group design, was adopted to determine the role of a school garden program intervention in the sixth grade students’ knowledge and attitude. In qualitative step, a phenomenological method was applied to study the students’ practical experiences during the intervention (N = 30).The findings of the study revealed significant difference in the post-test and pre-test knowledge and attitude scores of experimental group[‘tknowledge’ df(54) = -121.41 at P < 0.000 level and ‘tAttitude’ df(54) = -6.74 at P < 0.000 level]. A significant difference was also found between post-test attitude and knowledge scores of experimental group and control group[‘tknowledge’ df(108) = 116.32 at P < 0.000 level and ‘tAttitude’ df(108) = 5.43 at P < 0.000 level]. Data analysis by Colaizzi (1978) method revealed that the students have gained some experiences such as; changes in attitude, caring for nature, sense of belonging to nature, changes in moods and morals, improvement in knowledge and information, and learning with pleasure. Overall, our study found that school gardens are an effective educational tool rather than a mere tool to promote environmental attitude, knowledge and experience. They are effective in helping students to develop their social behaviors. School gardens should be tested on larger groups to gain more reliable results. The paper has a few practical recommendations for those interested in implementing similar programs.
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