Effectiveness of Food Garden School on Eco-Literacy in Early Childhood Sustainability Concept
Year: 2024
Type: article
Study design: Clinical Trial
Abstract: This research describes an ideal approach to implementing eco-literacy education in early childhood, to improve their understanding of sustainability and environmental awareness. However, the reality on the ground shows several obstacles, such as limited time, a lack of facilities and infrastructure, and a lack of readiness from preschool facilities, which cause gaps in understanding among learners. This research presents an innovation by applying food garden school activities as the main approach to eco-literacy education in early childhood. The aim is to increase their understanding of sustainability and eco-literacy, develop practical skills in interacting with the real environment, and inspire positive behavioral changes towards the environment from an early age. The method used was quantitative research with a pre-experimental design using a one-group pretest-posttest design pattern without a control group. Data analysis techniques include normality tests using Shapiro-Wilk, paired t-test to test the effect of food garden school activities, and N-Gain test to measure improvement from pretest to posttest. This study showed a significant increase in eco-literacy understanding, with the Shapiro-Wilk value increasing from 0.298 in the pretest to 0.799 in the posttest. The results of the paired t-test showed a t-value of 21.37 with a p-value of 0.001. In addition, the N-gain achieved was 0.54. This study implies that the gardening program or food garden school can be an effective tool for teachers in improving students' understanding of eco-literacy in their learning process.
Authors: Rizquna Rizquna Saputri, Edi Waluyo
Institution: State University of Semarang
Language: English
Subfield: Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4412153115