Abstract

Summary - Dealing with modern environmental problems require, among other things, exhaustive transcription of laypeople’s and especially young people’s knowledge and attitudes regarding these problems, in order to reach relevant conclusions and plan appropriate actions. During the last decade, there has been an increase in the number of Environmental Education Programs (EEP) that are implemented in Greek schools. These programs aim, on the one hand, at the sensitization of students as far as environmental problems are concerned and, on the other hand, at the establishment of institutions and methods promoting Environmental Education. Through Environmental Education Programs, all students, regardless any special needs or characteristics they might have, are called to acquire and develop knowledge and skills that will help them play an active role in society and dynamically contribute to the promotion of sustainable development (Rauch, 2002; Huckle, 2001; Palmer et al., 1998). The present study aims at assessing the effect of school, through the provided school knowledge and the attendance of students in environmental programs, in dyslexic and non-dyslexic students’ amount of environmental knowledge. The present research, which is part of a larger study, took place in 2007, in Greek Primary Schools, and the participants were 122 students aged between 11 to 12 years old, 61 of which were dyslexic and 61 non-dyslexic. The aim of the present study, is on the one hand to examine whether participation in Environmental Education Programs in schools, has an impact on dyslexic and non-dyslexic students’ amount of knowledge about environmental problems, and on the other hand to explore any differences between dyslexic and non-dyslexic students in the way their participation in Environmental Education Programs affects their knowledge on environmental issues. For the implementation of the present study and the collection of data, we used semi-structured interviews, accompanied by relevant pictures, in order to facilitate dyslexic students’ comprehension of the material (Cohen, Manion & Morisson, 2000). Data analysis showed that participation in Environmental Education Programs seems to result in the increase of both dyslexic and non-dyslexic students’ environmental knowledge.