Discovering Ecological Awareness of Filipino Education Students

Ecological awareness is a way of thinking about the world in terms of its interdependent natural and human systems, including a consideration of the consequences of human actions and interactions within the natural context. Hence, this research determined the level of ecological awareness of Filipino education students, with the aim of strengthening their ecological awareness through enrichment activities. The input of the study was determined by employing self-made questionnaire as the principal tool for gathering data. Through appropriate statistical tools and analyses of data, the study revealed that the respondents are greatly female individuals who belonged to the bracket of middle income, reached high school level which was the parent’s highest educational attainment and acquired General Weighted Average (GWA) in Natural Sciences (NS) ranging from 2.00-2.49. It also revealed that the respondents are aware when it comes to caring and practical competency. Further, it was revealed that there is no significant relationship between sex and ecological awareness while there is a significant relationship between socio-economic status, parent’s highest educational attainment, GWA in NS and ecological awareness. The above-mentioned findings recommend to conduct programs that integrate caring, knowledge, and action that determine potential to enhance student’s ecological awareness and promote transparency and public participation in decision-making, and access to justice in environmental matters.


Introduction
Since the turn of the new millennium, the world is facing different environmental issues that may harm people, societies and ecosystems.Environmental issues are the result of harmful human activities on the biophysical environment.Such issues that people are experiencing today are global warming, climate change, pollution and environmental degradation.It can be clearly seen that humans created this problem.Thus, it is a must to promote environmental awareness through environmental education to prevent this phenomenon.
In the light of promoting environmental awareness, the Commission on Higher Education amended the Republic Act No. 9512, otherwise known as the "National Environmental Awareness and Education Act of 2008‖ which aims to integrate environmental education in school curricula at all levels, whether public or private, including in barangay daycare, preschool, non-formal, technical vocational, professional level, indigenous learning and out-ofschool youth courses or programs with the help of Department of Education (DepEd), the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), in coordination with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) and other relevant agencies.The said order also involved implementing different environmental laws that would help the human beings to be educated and aware to build a more sustainable world (The LAWPHIL Project, 2008).
Pursuant to the policy set forth in the Act, it is stated that the month of November of every year will be known as the "Environmental Awareness Month" throughout the Philippines.Also, for better training, the CHED and the TESDA include environmental education and awareness programs and activities in the National Service Training Program under Republic Act No. 9163, as part of the Civic Welfare Training Service component which required all baccalaureate degree courses and vocational courses with a curriculum of at least two years.
In line with this problem, awareness and literacy is indeed an important variable.Awareness is a human right, a tool of personal empowerment and a means for social and human development.Educational opportunities depend Published by IDEAS SPREAD on literacy.It is at the heart of basic education for all and essential for eradicating poverty, reducing child mortality, curbing population growth, achieving gender equality and ensuring sustainable development, peace, and democracy (Nordquist, 2017;UNESCO, 2010) Literacy is indispensable to raise awareness and gather necessary grass roots participation in efforts to improve the way humans care for the planet and manage its resources.This transformation can only happen if society's most vulnerable youth and adults acquire basic literacy skills that equip them with the knowledge and confidence to improve their own lives and build more resilient communities (UNESCO, 2015).In relation to environmental issues, acquiring literacy in environment and its ecological systems serves an important purpose.The said literacy can be termed as -Ecological Literacy or -Eco-literacy Ecological literacy draws it meaning from multiple time periods and scholars (McGinn, 2014).In Bruyere's (2008) analysis of definitions of ecological literacy, he identifies that although varied definitions of ecological literacy exist, commonalities run through the literature.The similarities boil down to three components; cognitive, affective, and behavioral which must fuse to make an ecologically literate person (Bruyere, 2008).Each of these three components is emphasized or implied in different definitions.In some definitions knowledge is the primary emphasis while in others people 's actions are weighted higher than people 's knowledge.For the purpose of this study, the areas of ecological literacy are considered of equal importance, and a person must have knowledge.They must feel a connection to the issues, and they must exhibit sustainable behaviors.Knowledge alone is not enough to constitute ecological literacy.
Further, another components of ecological literacy are caring (Affective), knowledge (Cognitive), and practical competency (Behavioral).Caring gauges a person 's level of compassion for environmental protection and social justice.A caring person, in this context, feels a desire to and responsible for reducing their personal and communal impact on ecological systems.This section is reflective of a person's mindset, not actions.Knowledge represents an understanding of ecological principals and humans' interactions with their built and natural environments.
Moreover, according to Cherrett, as cited by Mcginn (2014), a person needs to be aware of his environment, as this is the foundation and starting point of literacy.Nowadays, knowledge is no longer limited to extensive memorization of concepts, but raised awareness is a prerequisite for a successful learning.An ecologically aware person would have an understanding of imperative ecological concepts such as ecosystem succession, energy flow, materials cycling, ecological adaptation, food webs, carrying capacity, and species diversity.Further, they are mindful of actions that they can be taken to build sustainable and health communities.
With the importance of honing ecological aware person prior to producing literate populace that this study had conceptualized.The researchers, who are Science educators, can use the findings of this study to be more effective molders of civic-minded youth, who have good sense of humanity to take good actions towards the environment.Lastly, this may also aid them in becoming more engaged and actively involved in promoting care and action for the environment to entail progress and awareness to the world where everyone lives in.

Objectives of the Study
This study determined the level of ecological awareness of Filipino education students at BatStateU JPLPC -Malvar, with an end view of formulating enrichment activities to strengthen their ecological awareness.Specifically, the study sought the respondents' profile in terms of sex, socio-economic status, parent's highest educational attainment, and General Weighted Average (GWA) in Natural Science.Further, this determined the assessments on the level of ecological awareness in terms of caring and practical competency.Lastly, significant relationship of the profile and their assessed level of ecological awareness was sought.

Research Design
This study used of descriptive method of research.This type of research according to Calmorin as cited by Fababaer et.al (2013), is a scientific method which focuses at the present condition for the purpose of the new truth.It is a research that is valuable in providing facts on which scientific judgment may be based on essential knowledge about the nature of objects and persons for closer observation into the practices behaviors, methods and procedures.In this endeavor, the researchers believed that through descriptive method, they could determine the level of ecological awareness and the profile of Filipino education students at BatStateU JPLPC -Malvar.

Subject of the Study
The respondents of this study are the 111 sophomore education students at BatStateU JPLPC -Malvar who were officially enrolled during the academic year 2016-2017, and who had successfully finished and passed Natural Science courses.Published by IDEAS SPREAD

Instrumentation
In gathering the instrument, the researchers used a researcher-made questionnaire that is composed of two parts.The first part focused on the profile of the respondents in terms of sex, socio-economic status, parent 's highest educational attainment and GWA in Natural Science while the last part dealt with the respondents' level of ecological awareness in terms of caring and practical competency.

Data Collection Procedure
This study started through seeking permission from the concerned authorities to utilize the sophomore education students as respondents.After securing the necessary documents, the researchers asked for the list of the students who were officially enrolled in the department.From the list, the target respondents were determined.The revised copy of the questionnaire was prepared, reproduced and administered to the target respondents.The researchers personally distributed and retrieved the questionnaires.The responses were tallied, tabulated, analyzed and interpreted.

Results and Discussions
This chapter covers the presentation, analysis and interpretation of the data gathered regarding the study.The data were tabulated accurately and justified to provide an in depth analysis and interpretation.It was also arranged sequentially in a manner that coincides with the organization of the problems posed in the study.Table 2 shows that the respondents were ecologically aware (3.48) with regards to caring.This implies that students are conscious on how to take good care of the environment.In the study of Anijaobi-Idem (2015), they suggested that adequate measures should be put in place where environmental awareness is sustained in the secondary schools in Calabar metropolis.This does not only increase the principal and teacher's awareness about environmental issues, but also to sensitize the students on this matter.It can be seen from the table that the respondents were aware on practical competency (3.27).This signifies that they are mindful of the value of active involvement in activities and programs concerning the environment.This is justified by Verma (2016), which pointed out that youth continues to be involved in implementing environmental projects, and the experience they have gained qualifies them for increased participation in decision-making about environmental policies.The table revealed that there is no significant relationship between sex and ecological awareness while there is a significant relationship between socio-economic status, parent's highest educational attainment, GWA in NS and ecological awareness.This implies that students' sex has no bearing on their awareness on ecology.It is worth noting that all students are cognizant of their role on environmental conservation and preservation.Table 6 shows the suggested enrichment activities together with its objectives and expected outcomes.The strategies enumerated were believed to strengthen the ecological awareness among the Filipino education students.

Conclusions and Recommendations
Majority of the respondents were female with a GWA in NS falling under 2.00-2.49;with regards to parent's highest educational attainment, the highest attainment was high school and the socio-economic status was middle income.It was also concluded that the respondents were ecologically aware in terms of caring and practical competency.Moreover, there is no significant relationship between sex and ecological awareness while there is a significant relationship between socio-economic status, parent's highest educational attainment, GWA in NS and ecological awareness.
The findings of the study afforded the researchers in drawing various suggested activities which may strengthen the ecological awareness of Filipino education students at BatStateU JPLPC -Malvar.The campus may provide and conduct activities such as clean-up drives for students to be reminded about the importance of not littering in maintaining the cleanliness of the environment.On the other hand, college educators may present video clips and documentaries showing the alarming environmental issues that the world's facing today to give awareness which may encourage the students to join in organizations that work on environmental concerns.The activities suggested may be considered by the concerned authorities for maximum implementation and actualization.Lastly, a followup study may be conducted considering other variables.

Table 1 .
Percentage distribution of the respondents' profile

Table 2 .
Respondents' Ecological Awareness in Terms of Caring

Table 3 .
Respondents' Ecological Awareness in Terms of Practical Competency

Table 5 .
Relationship between the Respondents' Profile and their Assessed Ecological Awareness

Table 6 .
Suggested Enrichment Activities to Strengthen Ecological Awareness among the Filipino Education Students