Ann. Rep. Env. Edu. MUE. Vol.5 No.2, 2003

The Environmental Education Strategy for thePractical Arts Subject in S. Korea
Namyong Chung*
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to find the strategies to execute the environmental education through thePractical Arts subject in elementary school. This study was conducted by the review of literature, the content
analysis, and the discussions with panels of judges composed of experts in the environmental education
related fields.
The major conclusions of this study was as follows:
1. The Practical Arts subject is appropriate to conduct environmental education.
2. The Practical Arts subject set the basis to start environmental education in Korea.
widely conduct environmental education.
The followings were recommended based on the findings and the conclusions of the study. First, it isrecommended for the Practical Arts subject teachers to conduct environmental education in various ways suchas introducing environment-related jobs, daily work related to preventing environmental pollution, and so on,when teachers are teaching the ‘Understanding Family and Work’ area in the Practical Arts subject. Second,the environment contents should be included in all sub chapters in the ‘Living Skill’ area in the Practical
Arts subject. Third, ‘Hands-on’ education or ‘experience-based teaching skill’ should be executed in teaching
the Practical Arts subject. Forth, elementary school teachers should find a way to conduct environmental
education in a way of content integration between subjects so that teachers can save some time to perform
experience-based teaching which takes more time than other teaching skills.
The scientific technology and the economic advancement not only have brought material prosperity tohuman but also have endangered the life of human beings by destroying the environment. In Korea, since1970, the accelerated industrial development has brought an enormous amount of environmental damage
such as air, water, and soil pollution, and so on. This environmental destruction made people try to protect
and to recover the environment.
There are several approaches in many areas to protect the environment such as developing theenvironmental purifying technology in science areas, establishing the environmental laws, provisions,and regulations by the legal system, and establishing the least damaging economic development policy inadministration areas, and so forth. These approaches for environment protection are, however, symptomaticand short-term solutions for the environmental problems. On the other hand, there is a new and common
opinion that the educational approach is the fundamental solution for environmental problems (Seo, 1998;
Shin, 1991). There are several reasons that show the educational approach is the one.

* Assistant Professor, Daegu National University of Education, S. KOREA－89 －The basic idea of the educational approach is that people need to change their conceptions toward theenvironment so that they cultivate their practicing ability on environmental problems. It is also necessary forpeople to be awakened to the environment and to take part to achieve the goal of continuous environmental
development. Furthermore, ignorance of human beings toward the environment is the fundamental cause ofenvironmental destruction from the start. Therefore, the educational approach is not only fundamental but
also effective for solutions to prevent and to overcome the environmental problems (Ghang, 1995).
There are two major reasons to attach more importance to school environmental education. One is thatthe environmental education in the Korean school system is required so that it is more likely to be effectivewith students. The second reason is that the elementary school years are the time for students forming
environmental concepts. That is, by educating students on the appropriate environmental concepts, they
are able to contribute to solve the problem of the present environmental destruction and to prevent futureenvironmental problems.
To educate the younger students environmental education can bring better results because environmental
education does not give students knowledge or a simple skill related to environment but does give students
the right values and attitudes toward the environment. Therefore, it is more important to educate elementary
school students on the environmental subjects.
In Korea, there were environmental contents in the Practical Arts subject during the first national
curriculum term (1965-1962) and that was even before the environmental education was dealt with as animportant subject. Furthermore, environmental education becomes one of three major areas in the Practical
Arts subject in the 7th national curriculum. That is, the Practical Arts subject has played an important role in
the elementary education in Korea.
However, there is not much research on how the Practical Arts subject has dealt with the environmental
content, and what kind of environmental content should be put into the Practical Arts subject based on thecharacteristics of the Practical Arts subject. Therefore, it is needed to conduct the research on analyzing theenvironmental contents in the Practical Arts subject in the 7th national curriculum and on suggesting betterway of organizing and teaching the environmental contents.

Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this study was to find the strategies to execute the environmental education through thePractical Arts subject in elementary school. The specific objectives for this study were as follows:
1. Investigate the background of environmental education in the elementary school.
2.

Analyze the contents of the environmental education in the Practical Arts subject in the 7th national
curriculum.

3. Suggest strategies for developing the contents related to the environmental education in the Practical
Arts subject.

Methodology
The research project was a qualitative study. This study was conducted by the review of literature,
the content analysis, and the discussions with panels of judges composed of experts in the environmental
education related fields.
－90 －Ann. Rep. Env. Edu. MUE. Vol.5 No.2, 2003

Review of literature
The literature related to environmental education was reviewed to investigate the basis of discussion
on the elementary environmental education and to find the categories to analyze the contents of elementary
environmental education.
Content analysis
A content analysis was utilized to analyze the amount of the environment contents in the Practical Arts
subject. The subjects of the content analysis were all part of the Practical Arts subject from the 1st national
curriculum to the 7th national curriculum.
To analyze the environment contents in the Practical Arts subject, the content analysis framework wasdeveloped (Table 1). A total of 9 analysis categories in the environmental education contents was selectedbased on previous research (Shin, 1977; Shin, 1987; Nam, 1995; Lee & others, 1997). The selected 9 analysis
categories were ‘Natural Environment (NE)’, ‘Artificial Environment (AE)’, ‘Population (P)’, ‘Industrialization
and Capitalization (IC)’, ‘Resource (R)’, ‘Environmental Pollution (EP)’, ‘Environment Conservation (EC)’,‘Environment Sanitation (ES)’, and ‘Environmental Ethics (EE)’.
In the national curriculum, there are characteristics, objectives, contents, teaching methodologies, andevaluation methods for the Practical Arts subject. Furthermore, all the elementary school teachers mustuse and follow the national curriculum guide. Analyzing the national curriculum is the most proper method
to analyze the contents related to environmental education in the Practical Arts subject. Therefore theenvironmental education contents in the Practical Arts subject were analyzed by the 9 analysis categories.
Panel of judges
Apanel of judges was utilized to verify the quality and the propriety of the content analysis framework.
Also, the panel of judges verified the appropriateness of the environmental education strategies in the
Practical Arts subject.

History of the Environmental Education in the Elementary Education in Korea
History of the environmental education in the elementary education
It was the 4th national curriculum (1981-1988) when environmental education was considered in earnest
even though there was little content of environmental education before the 4th national curriculum. In the
4th national curriculum, the objective of environmental education was provided as ‘nature conservation,
environment pollution, and population problems must be taught properly and efficiently’. The contents ofenvironmental education, also, were suggested to be taught in various subjects in elementary schools.
The environment conservation model school system, which was coordinated by the Ministry of Educationand the Ministry of Environment together in 1985, pulled the trigger to make environmental education
alive. There were 4 environment conservation model elementary schools that received enormous amountsof financial aid from the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Environment and conducted the model
environmental education for two years. The environment conservation model schools were selected every two
years and the number of the environment conservation model schools were getting higher and higher. From－91 －1993, the environment conservation model school system is being operated for preschool, elementary school,
middle school, and high school (Ministry of Environment, 1998).
In the 5th national curriculum (1989-1995), the objective of environmental education was prescribed as‘environmental education must be conducted in most educational activities, and environmental education
activities must be enforced especially in environment related subjects such as Ethics, Social Science, Science,
and Practical Arts subjects’. During the 5th national curriculum term, the Ministry of Education performed theenvironmental education related tasks with the assistance of the Korean Education Development Institution,
which developed a great deal of the environmental education materials. With the support of the Ministryof Education, the Korean Environmental Education Association was founded. That is, the major interested
people in environmental education changed from individuals such as government officers, schoolteachers,
etc. to the environmental experts such as professors, professional researchers, and administrators. All of
the interested parties came to work together (Ministry of Environment, 1996). However, the contents ofenvironmental education didn’t meet the satisfactory level in the 5th national curriculum even though theenvironmental education contents were much better than those in the 4th national curriculum (Choi, 1991).
There was a big progression in environmental education in the 6th national curriculum. In the 6th national
curriculum (1996-2001), the Ministry of Education made the ‘Environment’ subject separate as a selective
course for the secondary education system, which means environmental education was conducted in many
courses and the ‘Environment’ subject was added as an elective course. For elementary education, there
was no elective course for environmental education. Instead of a separate course, the Ministry of Education
developed a ‘School Discretion Course’ for 3rd-6th grades, 34 hours in a year, and elementary school teachers
would be able to select the environmental education subjects to teach students. However, the environmental
educational subjects were not required for the ‘School Discretion Course’.
In the ‘Guidance for Organizing and Conducting Curriculum’ developed by the Ministry of Education,
there were several directions for environmental education in the 7 th national curriculum. First, theenvironmental education must be mainly conducted in the ‘School Discretion Course’ and environmental
education related courses. Second, the environmental education must be integrated with the ‘School
Discretion Course’, environmental education related courses, extra-curricula activities, and school activities.
Third, the environmental education must be conducted in relation with community and home. This was thefirst time for the national curriculum to give very specific directions for integrating environmental education
with all kinds of school activities (Ministry of Education, 1998).
The Practical Arts subject and environmental education
In Practical Arts education, the environmental education contents were dealt with in the 1st national
curriculum while environmental education was considered in earnest in the 4th national curriculum for all of
the educational system. Especially in the 7th national curriculum, one of the three major areas (‘Understanding
Family and Work’, ‘Practical Arts’, and ‘Managing Life Resources and Environment’) is all environment
related.
Three chapters of the Practical Arts subject are offered for the ‘Managing Life Resources andEnvironment’area. The ‘Living Environment Arrangement’ chapter is provided for the 5th grade with two
sub-chapters of ‘Arranging Desk and Closet’ and ‘Cleaning and Wastes Management’. There are two chapters－92 －Ann. Rep. Env. Edu. MUE. Vol.5 No.2, 2003

related to ‘Managing Life Resources and Environment’ area. One is the ‘Utilizing Resources’ chapter,that consists of ‘Utilizing Life Resources and Saving’, ‘Recycling House Supplies’, and ‘Investigating theEnvironmental Problems and Practicing the Solutions’. The other one is the ‘Fixing the Home Interior’, thatconsists of ‘Decorating Indoor Environment’, and ‘Planting, Growing, and Pruning Trees’.
Furthermore, there are more environmental education related contents in the Practical Arts subject.
That is, Practical Arts education has played a very important role for environmental education in elementary
education.
Practical Arts education is appropriate to conduct environmental education due to several reasons of theteaching methodology and the way of approaching subject contents. Basically, the contents of environmental
education should be related to the daily life environment and should be approached in an integrated way.
Also, environmental education should be conducted in ‘learning by doing’ based on actual experience andshould not be in instructing knowledge related to the environment. These reasons have very similar points
to the 3 major characteristics of the Practical Arts subject, including ‘life subject’, ‘experience subject’, and‘integrated subject’.
The following specify what the commonness between the characteristics of the Practical Arts subject andthe environmental education should be.
First, Practical Arts education and environmental education both set importance on ‘life experience’. Inelementary education, environmental education should be related to children’s experience of perceiving social
and natural phenomena, which means the environmental education should be connected directly to children’s
daily life experience. That is why environmental education in elementary education should be focused onchildren’s lives, not on transferring the environmental knowledge (Kim & Nam, 1993). Remember that thesecondary education system already takes a part in transferring the environmental knowledge.
The Practical Arts subject puts importance on the problem-solving attitude that children should be able
to find the environmental problems and to try to solve the problems in real life. Therefore, the results ofenvironmental education by the Practical Arts subject do not remain in the classroom situation, but remain
in children’s life habits. Therefore, planning and executing the ‘wild flower exhibition’ or culturing the‘indoor garden in the classroom’ or ‘outdoor garden at school’ would be a good way for students to get an
environmental education.
Second, both of Practical Arts education and the environmental education attach much greater
importance on practice than knowledge or attitude. The environmental education not only lets students
perceive the seriousness of environmental problems, but finally makes students solve those problems in real
life, so that students get into habit of improving the environmental situation. Thus, it would be more effective
for environmental education to adapt the teaching-learning methods which are utilized in the Practical Arts
education including ‘learning by doing method’, ‘hands-on practice’, and so on. This would be another reason
that the Practical Arts subject is the proper subject in which to conduct environmental education.
Third, the Practical Arts education and environmental education are in common in that they both aredeveloped and practiced based on integrated and multi-originated subjects. Ideally, both forms of educationmust implement their subject in a certain scholastic area, which is integrated in many and different scholastic
areas, so that students should be able to apply what they learn in their lives.
Based on above theories, the Practical Arts subject fulfills and sets basic standards for executing－93 －environmental education. Therefore, it is needed for us to provide schemes in the Practical Arts subject sothat environmental education is performed properly in the Practical Arts subject.

The Environmental Contents in the Practical Arts Subject
The environmental contents in the Practical Arts subject by the national curriculum term
As a result of the content analysis by each national curriculum term, ‘Resource’, ‘Environment
Conservation’, and ‘Environmental Sanitation’ were major topics related to environmental education in the
Practical Arts subject in last 50 years of elementary education in Korea (Table 1).
In the 1st national curriculum, the Practical Arts subject consisted of 10 major areas. Among the 10
areas, environmental education was dealt with in ‘Decoration’, and ‘Sanitation and Nurturing’ areas. The‘Cultivation’ and ‘Sewing and Knitting’ areas also were related to environmental education. The major
contents of the environmental education in the 1st national curriculum were ‘Environment Conservation (EC)’and ‘Environmental Sanitation (ES)’.
There were 7 major areas in the Practical Arts subject in the 2nd national curriculum. ‘Resource (R)’ and ‘EC’
areas were dealt with in ‘Cultivation’, ‘Utensil Manufacturing’, ‘Upgrading Living’, and ‘Living Management
Education’ areas. There were 9 areas in the Practical Arts subject in the 3rd national curriculum including‘Cultivation’, ‘House and Environment Sanitation’, and ‘Cooking’ which were related to the environmental
education such as ‘ES’ and ‘EC’.
‘Living Plan and Management’, ‘Living Skills’, ‘Consumption and Saving’, and ‘Understanding Workand Job’ were 4 major areas for the Practical Arts subject in the 4th and 5th national curriculums. The
environmental education contents in the Practical Arts subject were ‘R’, ‘EC’, and ‘ES’ which were dealt within ‘Living Plan and Management’, ‘Living Skills’, and the ‘Consumption and Saving’ area.
In the 6th national curriculum, the Practical Arts subject was composed of the ‘Handling’, ‘Making’, ‘Raising
and Cultivating’, and ‘Arranging’ areas. The environmental education contents such as ‘R’ and ‘EC’ were dealt
with in ‘Raising and Cultivating’, and ‘Arranging’ areas.
There are 3 areas of ‘Understanding Family and Work’, ‘Living Skills’, and ‘Life Resource andEnvironment Management’ in the Practical Arts subject in the 7th national curriculum. This is the first time
for the Practical Arts subject to have the environmental area separately, which means the environmental
education was strengthened in the Practical Arts subject. The environmental education contents are
conducted under the title of ‘Arranging Living Environment’, ‘Utilizing Resources’, and ‘Fixing the HomeInterior’, which are dealing with ‘R’ and ‘EC’ in the Practical Arts subject. In the 7th national curriculum, thePractical Arts subject is partially dealing with ‘ES’, too.

－94 －Ann. Rep. Env. Edu. MUE. Vol.5 No.2, 2003

Table 1. Environmental Contents in Practical Arts Subject in National Curriculum
NC*

G**

P

IC

R

EP EC ES EE
o
o
o

4

5

Managing and Cleaning the School Building
Wall Papering
Planting and Forest Management
Decorating Inside of School Environment
First Aid Treatment
Sterilization

o
o
o
o

6

Decorating Outside of School Environment
Nursing
Caring Childreno4Recycling
Planning and Managing Daily Lifeoo

5Soil Conservation and Pruning
Repairing and Managing Living Goodso6

Decorating Living Goods
Recyclingo4

Making a Flower Garden
Purposes of House Cleaning and Management
Cleaning Skills
Handling the Cleaning Tools
Managing School Supplieso5Planing and Pruning
Hygienic Washing Dishes
Environmental Hygiene and Decorating
Managing FurnitureManaging Family Life

6

Decorating the Environment
Environmental Hygienic Life

o

3rd

4

4th

NE AE

Cleaning and Arrangement in the Classroom
Gardening
Planting
Neat Dressing
Exterminating Parasite
Infectious Disease
Mouth Sanitation
Washing & Bathing

1st

2nd

Contents

5

6

Arranging Living Environment
Fixing the Home Interior
Rational Food Management
Non-wasted Clothing HabitsoooClean and Safe Living
Managing and Arranging Furniture
Collecting and SafekeepingooEnvironment Conservation
Trimming and Utilizing Trees
Recycling Old Clotheso*: National Curriculum, **: Grade
－95 －

o
o
o
o
o

o
o
o
o

o
o
o
o

o

o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o

o

o

o

o
o

Table 1. Continued
NC*

5th

6

th

G**

Contents

4

Arranging Living Environment
Fixing the Home Interior
Rational Food Management
Rational Clothing Habits

5

Clean and Safe Living
Arranging and Managing Furniture
Collecting and Safekeeping

6

Environment Conservation
Tree Pruning
Recycling Old Clothes

o

o
o

3

Managing Clothes
Arrangement with Utilizing Boxes
Segregating Trash and Cleaning

o

o
o

4

Flower Gardening with Flower Garden (Box)
Selecting and Managing School Supplieso5Managing Computer Systemo6

Decorating In- & Out-door Environment
Safekeeping Food
Washing and Arranging Disheso5

Arranging Living Environment:- Arranging Desk and Closet- Disposing Trash and Cleaning

o

o

6

Utilizing Resources- Using and Saving Living Resources- Recycling Living Goods- Investigating the Environmental Problems
and Practicing the Solutions
Fixing the Home Interior- Decorating Indoor Environment- Planting, Growing, and Pruning Trees

7th

NE AE

P

IC

R

EP EC ES EE
o
o

o
o

o

o
o

o

Total

o
o

o

o

o

o
o
o

o

22

27

26

*: National Curriculum, **: Grade
The environmental contents in Elementary Education in the 7th national curriculum term
The results of the content analysis of environmental education contents in elementary education in the 7thnational curriculum term were shown in Table 2. For the 1st grade students, ‘EC’, ‘Natural Environment (NE)’,‘Artificial Environment (AE)’, ‘R’, and ‘ES’ were given much importance, while ‘Population (P)’, ‘Industrialization
and Capitalization (IC)’, ‘Environment Pollution (EP)’, and ‘Environmental Ethics (EE)’ were partiallyconducted in the 7th national curriculum.
The environmental content of ‘NE’ was reflected in various subjects such as ‘Social Studies’, ‘Science’,‘Disciplined Life’, and ‘Intellectual Life’, while ‘AE’ was reflected in the ‘Social Studies’ subject. ‘P’, ‘EP’, and‘IC’were included only in the ‘Social Studies’ subject, while ‘R’ was reflected in several subjects including ‘Moral
Education’, ‘Social Studies’, ‘Practical Arts’, and ‘Disciplined Life’.

－96 －Ann. Rep. Env. Edu. MUE. Vol.5 No.2, 2003

Table 2. Environmental Contents in Elementary Ed. in the 7th National Curriculum
S*

Moral
Ed.

G**

NE AE

P

IC

R

EP EC ES EE

3Cleanness, Sanitation, Arrangement
Sparing and Caring Objects
Protecting Environment

4Etiquette and Order in the Public Placeo

5

Pursuing Common Profitso6

Caring Life
Preserving and Loving the Nature3

Way of Living in the Community
Terminal Station and Transportation
Changes in the Traffic and Communication
Institutes and Organization in the Community
Efforts of People in the Community

4

Shape of our community
Resource & Production Activity in Community
Self-government of and Life in Community
Problems and Solutions of Community
Future of the Community

5

Nature Environment and Life in Korea
Efforts for Preserving Environment
Life in the City Area
Life in the Rural Area

SocialStudiesContents

o

o

o

o

o

o
o

o

O
o
o

o

o

o

o

o
o

o
o

O
o

o

O
o

o

o

o

6

World Problems and Korea

o

o

o

o

4

Observing Animal Life

o

o

o

o

5

Life and Environment

6

Pleasant Environment

5

Arranging Living Environment

6

Utilizing Resource
Decorating Indoor Environment

3

HygieneoPhysical4

HygieneoEd.

5Hygieneo6HygieneoDisciplined

1

Cleaning Body
Caring the Public Goods

Life

2

Saving and Arranging Objects
Cleaning EnvironmentIntelligent

1

Looking for Animals and Plants
Arranging Objects

o
o

Life

2

Observing Surroundings
Observing the Animal (Plants) Growingoo

1st G***

1

Cleaning Body
Cleaning the Room

Science

Practical
Arts

o
o
o
o

o

o

o

o
o

o
O

O

O
o

O

Total

8

*: Subject, **: Grade, ***: We are the 1st Graders

－97 －

8

2

2

7

4

14

7

4

The environment content of ‘EC’ was provided in most of all subjects. ‘ES’ was dealt mainly in ‘Physical
Education’, and partially in the ‘Practical Arts’ subject. ‘EE’ was reflected in 2 subjects, ‘Moral Education’ and‘We are the 1st Graders’.

Conclusions, Discussions, and Recommendations
Conclusions and discussions
Based on the results of this study, the following conclusions were made:1. The Practical Arts subject is appropriate to conduct environmental education. Environmental educationin elementary education should have contents related to daily life environment, should take hands-on
teaching methodology, and should be conducted in integration with other subjects. These three points forenvironmental education in elementary education are directly related to three major characteristics of thePractical Arts subject including the ‘life subject’, the ‘experience subject’, and the ‘integrated subject’.
2. The Practical Arts subject set the basis to start environmental education in Korea. Environmental
education has been conducted and focused on the Practical Arts education before other subjects started
to teach environmental education (1982- ). From the 1st national curriculum term (1954-1962), theenvironmental contents of ‘Resource’, ‘Environment Conservation’, and ‘Environment Sanitation’ were
taught in the Practical Arts subject.
3. The ‘Life Resource and Environment Management’ area in the Practical Arts subject is composed ofcontents, which are related to environmental education except one sub chapter. Therefore, the ‘Life
Resource and Environment Management’ area is very suitable to widely conduct environmental education.
Recommendation
1. There is no environmental content in the ‘Understanding Family and Work’ area in the Practical Arts
subject. However, there should be environmental content included. Therefore, it is recommended for thePractical Arts subject teachers to conduct environmental education in various ways such as introducing
environment-related jobs, daily work related to preventing environmental pollution, and so on, whenteachers are teaching the ‘Understanding Family and Work’ area.
2. The environment contents should be included in all sub chapters in the ‘Living Skill’ area in the Practical
Arts subject. Or when setting the objectives for the lesson plan for the ‘Living Skill’ area, teachers should
include the environment-related objectives in each lesson plan.
3. ‘Hands-on’ education or ‘experience-based teaching skill’ should be executed in teaching the Practical Arts
subject.
4. Some of the environmental contents in elementary education such as ‘Population’, ‘Industrialization andCapitalization’, ‘Environmental Pollution’, and ‘Environment Ethics’ are less focused while others are
given much more importance in the national curriculum. That is, some of the environmental contents
are overlapped in several subjects. Therefore, teachers should conduct more specified content analysis toseparate each environmental content. Then, they should find a way to conduct environmental education
in a way of content integration between subjects so that teachers can save some time to perform
experience-based teaching which takes more time than other teaching skills.

－98 －Ann. Rep. Env. Edu. MUE. Vol.5 No.2, 2003

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