Volume 4 Issue 1-2 (2015)

The Relationship between the Environmental Awareness, Environmental Attitude, Curiosity and Exploration in Highly Gifted Students: Structural Equation Modelling

pp. 7-17  |  Published Online: November 2015  |  DOI: 10.12973/edupij.2015.412.1

Hakan Saricam, Suleyman Hilmi Sahin

Abstract

The basic purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between environmental awareness, environmental attitude, curiosity and exploration in highly gifted students with structural equation modelling. The secondary aim was to compare highly gifted and non-gifted students’ environmental awareness, environmental attitude, curiosity and exploration levels. Participants were 311 (154 highly gifted, 157 non-gifted) secondary school students in Turkey who volunteered to take part in this study. All of the participants were either 13 or 14 years old, with a mean age of 13.77 years. For gathering data, Environmental Awareness Scale, Environmental Attitude Scale, Curiosity and Exploration-II were used. While analyzing the data, Pearson correlation analysis, independent samples t test, and structural equation model were used. According to the findings, highly gifted students’ environmental awareness, environmental attitude, curiosity and exploration scores were higher than non-gifted students’. Indices of Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) indicated that the increase in the curiosity and exploration scores of the highly gifted children increased the environmental awareness; in this case, the environmental attitudes were affected positively.

Keywords: curiosity and exploration, environmental awareness, environmental attitude

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