(2013) EFFECT OF AN ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION INTERVENTION PROGRAMME ON RURAL WOMEN'S ENVIRONMENTAL KNOWLEDGE

摘要

Environmental problems have persisted not only in urban centres but also in rural areas in Nigeria. Alot of measures have been adopted to mitigate these problems but these efforts have yielded little orno success. Again, most of the studies that have been carried out on environmental education havenot really focused on women, especially in rural areas. This study, therefore, determined the effect ofan environmental education intervention programme on rural women's knowledge, attitude andpractices. The study adopted a pre-test; post-test control group quasi-experimental design with a 2 x2x3 factorial matrix. Two hundred and fifteen women were randomly selected from three localgovernments purposively selected for the study and were assigned to experimental and controlgroups. (Two for experimental and one for control) Four instruments used were EnvironmentalKnowledge Test (r= 0.55), Environmental Attitude Scales (r= 0.70), Environmental PracticesQuestionnaire (r=0.71) and Focus Group Discussion Guide. The control group was not exposed to anytraining on environment issues. Data were subjected to Analysis of Covariance. Scheffe Post-hoc testtreatment had significant main effect on rural women's Environmental Knowledge (F (3, 211) = 47.676,P < 0.05, η= .326), women taught with environmental education intervention programme (EEIP) hadhigher mean score of 44.57 than the control group with a mean score of 38.64. The environmentalintervention programme was effective on rural women environmental knowledge. It is thereforerecommended that the intervention programme used in this study be popularized among women inrural areas in Nigeria.