The Effect of Out-of-School Learning Activities on Gifted Students’ Affective and Behavioral Tendencies Towards The Environment

This study investigates the effect of out-of-school activities on gifted students' affective and behavioral tendencies. Mixed method research with a single group pre and post-test experimental design was used in this study. Twenty-five gifted students from Turkey-İstanbul participated in this study. “Environmental Affect Scale” and “Environmental Behavior Scale” were used, and semi-structured interviews were conducted. Results showed that out-of-school activities positively affected the students’ affectiv e and behavioral tendencies toward the environment. It was also found that the awareness of students on environmental problems increased, and they began to produce their solutions to these problems.


INTRODUCTION
With the developing technology, the viewpoints and expectations of people towards the environment and livable world have changed.The unlimited consumption desire of people causes unplanned use of natural resources.However, preserving natural assets and the atmosphere is the first condition for a livable world (Postel, 1994).The misuse of natural resources that make up the environment brings environmental problems with itself.According to Brown (2000), loss of plant and animal species, decrease in agricultural land per capita, a reduction of groundwater levels, degradation of forests and decrease of forestlands, global warming and the greenhouse effect, population increase, decrease in fish potential in oceans are among the main environmental problems.Although various legislative and technological measures are taken to struggle with environmental problems, they are not problems that can only be solved by technology or law (Erten, 2003).It requires an individual effort that develops with personal awareness.As gifted individuals have the potential to direct the future as leaders in society, as well as their sensitivity to their environment, environmental awareness becomes much more essential for them too.One of the most effective ways of raising individual understanding about the environment is through environmental education (Ardoin, Bowers, & Gaillard, 2020;Ardoin, Bowers, Roth & Holthuis, 2018;White, Eberstein & Scott, 2018) through out-of-school activities (Demirçelik, Karaçetin, & Dadaşer-Çelik, 2022).In the last ten years, The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye has granted projects within the scope of the "Education in nature and Science Camps / Schools Support Programme''.Our study, one of these projects, aims to investigate the effect of outof-school learning activities on gifted students' affective and behavioral tendencies toward the environment.So, our research question is how out-of-school learning activities affect talented students' affective and behavioral preferences toward the environment.

Theoretical Background
The traditional thinking in environmental education (EE) has been that we can change behavior by making human beings more knowledgeable about the environment and its associated issues.This thinking has primarily been linked to the assumption that if we make human beings more knowledgeable, they will, in turn, become more aware of the environment and its problems and, thus, be more motivated to act toward the environment in more responsible ways.Other traditional ways of thinking have been linked to knowledge and behavior attitudes.Research on EE, unfortunately, does not bear out the validity of these linear models for changing behavior (Hungerford & Volk, 1990).Some researchers suggested new models explain factors influencing behaviors (e.g., Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975;Hines, Hungerford & Tomera, 1987;Dunlap, Van Liere, Mertig & Jones, 2000).In the theory of reasoned action (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975) and its developed version of planned behavior, behavioral intention to perform actual conduct is the best antecedent of overt behavior.Behavioral intentions (verbal commitment) are the statements of individuals willing to act about environmental issues (Hines, Hungerford & Tomera, 1987).According to the Belgrade Declaration, environmental education, raising awareness, giving knowledge, building behavior, ability, evaluation skills, and participation was aimed, whereas the Tbilisi Declaration aimed to gain consciousness, knowledge, attitude, skills, and participation.Recognizing the environmental issues to eliminate and solve these problems is essential to provide environmental education, which aims to alter the learner's cognitive, affective, and participative knowledge, skills, and behavior (Carleton-Hug & Hug, 2010).In the current study, we studied gifted students because they are more curious about nature and sensitive to the environment, living things, etc., than their peers (Smutny & Von Fremd, 2004).Gifted students are more effective in making observations on environmental-related issues to realize the problems experienced and produce solutions for these problems (Meador, 2003).
Gifted students know very different facts about nature and science, understand the concepts they have learned from a scientific perspective deeply (Gould, Weeks & Evans, 2003) and have an insight and understanding in transferring their knowledge from specific points to more general cases (Kopelman, Galasso & Strom, 1977;Ngoi & Vodracek, 2004).As a result of this intense curiosity, interest, and insight, they observe nature very well (Karnes & Riley, 1999), and they identify problems that others may not see (Meador, 2003).Making connections with realworld issues and situations, cultivating higher-order thinking skills, and adopting teaching strategies and learning settings that will stimulate the interest and curiosity of gifted children are thus seen as essential components of learning for gifted students (VanTassel-Baska & Stambaugh, 2006).Moreover, since real-world problems and issues are complicated, open-ended, and contentious, they will satisfy talented students' needs for abstraction, complexity, and depth in their learning process and make them think more critically (Kaplan, 2020;Means & Voss, 1996;Renzulli & Reis, 2014;Reis, Renzulli & Renzulli, 2021).
Enrichment is one of the practical training strategies used in the education of gifted students (Sak, 2010).Content transfer, seminars, conferences, field trips, learning centers, and competitions / Olympics can be examples of enrichment strategies.At this point, out-ofschool learning activities (OSLAs) can be essential enrichment opportunities for gifted students.Exposure activities, the initial enrichment activities, aim to familiarize gifted students with different areas of interest and activities such as museum visits, concerts, theaters, university laboratory trips, observations, and studies, visiting scientists working in different fields, etc. OSLAs expose gifted students to educational opportunities that may not be feasible in many typical school environments, and students can increase their content understanding, skills, and academic achievement with these OSLAs (Best, Dickinson, Hugstad-Vaa Leer & Kalina, 2017;Morris, Slater, Fitzgerald, Lummis & Etten, 2021;Shin & Lee, 2012;Young, Young & Ford, 2019).
The OSLA carried out as the first type of enrichment, constitutes the basis of the third type of enrichment, the level of creating self-controlled creative projects and products in the first type of enrichment (Reis & Renzulli, 2009).OSLAs for gifted students during childhood and adolescence significantly impact their career choices and successes (Milgram, 1991;Milgram & Hong, 2010;Super, 1984).Also, OSLA is one of the gifted students' most preferred learning experiences (Aktepe & Aktepe, 2008).
Gifted students are sensitive to the environment around them (Renzulli & Reis, 2014;Schroth & Helfer, 2017), and OSLAs create good opportunities to develop awareness and sensitivity to the environment (Ayaydın, Ün, Acar-Şeşen, Usta-Gezer & Camcı-Erdoğan, 2018; Pfouts & Schultz, 2003).The environment can be used as a context for learning.By integrating it into OSLA, students can enhance different experiences through field trips, community-based tasks, and school ground activities (Kannel-Ray, 2006;So & Chow, 2019;Stevenson, 2007).In Tortop (2007)'s study with 12 gifted students, renewable energy sources were studied with field trips as OSLA.As a result of the survey, there observed a significant increase in the knowledge level of students about renewable energy sources and post-test scores of students in environmental attitude scales.Furthermore, Ceylan (2022) used out-ofschool learning environments in a summer program for gifted students.It was found that this program contributed to the student's environmental attitude and cognitive development.Also, Choi et al. (2021) investigated the impact of a STEAM program on the climate literacy of gifted students, and they discovered that both the students' understanding of responsible national and global citizenship and their climate literacy had improved.
When gifted children realize that sustainability or environmental problems threaten their world, they can decide to prevent or struggle with these threats (Schroth & Helfer, 2017).It can be an individual commitment to conserving the environment or gifted individuals acting as a driving force to activate other parts of society as a leader.Gifted students have complex and interdisciplinary questions by looking at climate change from very different perspectives, similar to those of experts working in this field (Tolppanen & Aksela, 2018), and they can think at a high level to prevent and solve these questions since they are more knowledgeable, critical and creative (Winocur & Maurer, 1991;Clark, 1992;Esen, 2011;Ceylan, 2022).
When the literature is examined, it is seen that environmental education studies for gifted students are pretty limited.The existing studies are qualitative studies that focus on environmental attitudes and knowledge of gifted students in terms of demographic features such as gender, class level, socio-economic level, etc.However, as Winocur & Maurer (1991) expressed, gifted students will develop higher-order thinking skills and exhibit behaviors to solve environmental problems with their increasing interest of them in global issues as they are educated on topics such as environment, environmental protection, and environmental concerns.For this reason, it is also important to contribute to the positive development of affective and behavioral tendencies for the environment by providing enriched training in out-of-school learning environments to create a livable world.

METHOD
This study used a mixed research method with a singlegroup pre and post-test experimental design.This method is identified by Tashakkori & Creswell (2007) as the diverse research approach as a process in which the researcher collects and analyses data in one research using qualitative and quantitative methods, integrates the findings, and makes inferences by using the results obtained from both sources.Within this context, received data from the quantitative and qualitative data collection tools were analyzed separately, and the findings were discussed together.
2.1 Participants gifted students, of which 13 are female, and 12 are male, that graduated from 6th grade participated in this study.The criterion sample method was used to select participants.The reason for choosing this sampling method is to identify students following the research aims.Being diagnosed as gifted by Guidance Research Centers of the Ministry of National Education in Turkey, İstanbul, having graduated from the 6th grade, having an interest in the environment, and being voluntary was the study's criterion.

Environmental Affect Scale
To determine the influential tendencies of students towards the environment, Environmental Affect Scale developed by Sontay, Gökdere & Usta (2015) was used before and after the treatment.The scale's content and face validity were reviewed by three science educators, one expert on measurement and evaluation, two experts on statistics, six faculty members, and 12 science teachers.It was applied to 258 8th-grade students.While developing this scale, all the objectives of science and technology lessons from 4 th grade to 8 th grade are considered.There it is considered appropriate for this research.For the reliability of the scale developed by Sontay, Gökdere & Usta (2015), the Cronbach Alpha (α) internal consistency coefficient was calculated, and this value was obtained as .860.The final form of the 5-point Likert scale consists of a total of 15 items under three factors: Environmental Responsibility (α=.867),Environmental Sensitivity (α=.807), and Environmental Perception (α=.784).

Environmental Behavior Scale
To determine the environmental behavioral tendencies of students, Environmental Behavior Scale developed by Sontay, Gökdere & Usta (2015) was used before and after the treatment.The scale's content and face validity were reviewed by three science educators, one expert on measurement and evaluation, two experts on statistics, six faculty members, and 12 science teachers.It was applied to 258 8th-grade students.While developing this scale, all the objectives of science and technology lessons from 4 th grade to 8 th grade are considered.There it is considered appropriate for this research.For the reliability of the scale developed by Sontay, Gökdere & Usta (2015), the Cronbach Alpha (α) internal consistency coefficient was calculated, and this value was obtained as .773.The final form of the 7-point Likert-type scale is composed of 12 items under three factors Natural Balance Protection Behavior (α=.774),Social Behavior (α=.743), and High-Level Cognitive Behavior (α=.708).
In the analysis of the study's quantitative data, the pre and post-test scores of the students were evaluated using the SPSS 20 package program.The Shapiro-Wilk test was used to determine if the data were suitable for normal distribution.Since the data was not compatible with the normal distribution, it was decided to use nonparametric statistical techniques to analyze the data.Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test was used to compare pre-and-postmeasurements.

Qualitative Data Collection Tool and Data Analysis
The study used the semi-structured interview form developed by taking expert opinions as a qualitative data collection tool.While developing the interview form, it aimed to determine the effect of the activities on the environmental sense and behaviors of the gifted students during the training in the out-of-school learning environment.For this purpose, interviews with nine questions regarding students' Affective and behavioral tendencies were done with ten students based on the findings obtained from the quantitative data collection tools.The conversations were recorded during the one-toone interviews between the researcher and the students, and then the dialogues were written.The analysis of the interviews was done by the descriptive analysis method.

Treatments
In this research, various activities enriched in an out-ofschool learning environment were done towards environmental issues.For six days from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., these out-of-school activities were held in a university in İstanbul province, an Art and Science Centre, an Arboretum, and a Botanical Garden.During the treatment, students actively participated in practical works, which were summarized in Table 1 3. FINDINGS

Findings obtained from Environmental Affect Scale
The descriptive statistics of the Environmental Affect Scale showed the mean score of the students before the application increased from 66.76 to 69.04 after the application.Furthermore, the Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Test results presented in Table 2 showed this increase was significant (z=-2.54,p<0.05).

Activity Name Learning Objectives • Touching the depiction
To express feelings and individual differences.

• Travel-See-Learn
To examine different breeds of plants in light of the scientific process.

• Finding direction in the ecosystem
To determine direction by finding the traces of direction in nature.

• Secret geometry of nature: Fractal
To realize the smallest detail and the fractal structures in the ecosystem.

• Trekking and the relation between living things
To understand the relationship between biotic and abiotic substances in the ecosystem.

• Why are plants green?
To explain the green color of plants and the importance of the chlorophyll molecule.

• Why does the weather get warm?
To realize the causes of global warming and their impact on the ecosystem.

• Soil and water analysis
To analyze the soil and water.

• Ecosystem=Harmony
To realize the harmonics of nature through music.

• My tree is singing
To improve the musical skills and creativity of gifted students.

• Landscape Art
To make landscape art by using the materials found in nature.

• What has happened-what is happening-what will happen
To be aware of the balance in ecosystems.
• Don Quixote of Belgrade To understand the environment, explore and understand the importance of the environment through direct interaction with nature.

• Ecological house
To realize the importance of protecting the ecosystem and recycling.

• Hand in hand for a clean world
To explore the relationship between ecosystems and environmental problems such as air, water, and soil pollution.

• What number is your footprint
To realize the ecological responsibilities of individuals.

• Let's be the chain
To explore the interactions between biotic and abiotic factors of ecosystems.
• The language of nature: Mathematics To integrate mathematics with the ecosystem and understand "Fibonacci Numbers" and the "Golden Ratio".

• Living plants: Resin
To design a product by using dried plants.

• Recycling, packaging wastes, and decay in nature
To evaluate the effects of packaging wastes on nature and living things and comprehend the importance of recycling.
The descriptive statistics presented in Table 3 showed that the scores of the students obtained from each subfactor increased compared to the pre-application level.For example, the Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Tests presented in Table 4 showed no statistically significant difference between the pre-and post-test scores for the Environmental Responsibility factor (z = -1.53,p> 0.05).In contrast, there was a statistically significant difference between the pre-and post-test scores for Environmental awareness (z = -2.18,p < 0.05) and Environmental Perception (z = -2.19,p <0.05) factors.

Findings obtained from Environmental Behavior Scale
The descriptive statistics of the Environmental Behavior Scale showed that the students' mean score before the treatment increased from 46.08 to 53.20 after the application.The results of the Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Tests presented in Table 5 showed that this increase was significant (z=-3.14, p<0.05).
The descriptive statistics in Table 6 showed that the post-points of students obtained from each subfactor increased compared to the pre-application.The results of the Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Tests presented in Table 7 showed that there was no statistically significant difference between the pre and post-test scores for the "Social Behavior" factor (z = -1.55,p <0.05).p <0.05), whereas there was a significant difference between pre and post-test mean scores "Natural Balance Protective Behavior" (z=-2.85,p<0.05) and "High-Level Cognitive Behavior" (z = -2.146,p <0.05).

Qualitative Findings
Within the scope of the study, the findings obtained from semi-structured interviews done with ten students by using semi-structured interview forms are summarized below.Within the research, the question "What comes to your mind when the environmental problem is mentioned?"was posed to the students to determine their perspectives on  8).Direct quotations supported the findings of the research.In this direction, student 6 emphasized many environmental problems using the expression, "When you say environmental problem, water pollution, air pollution, greenhouse gasses and warming of the earth, soil pollution and damage to plants come to my mind".Student 4, on the other hand, expressed the environmental problems as human-generated events that harm nature using the expression, "People throw garbage in nature.So they pollute the environment".Similarly, student 9 emphasized that environmental problems arise from human behavior using the expression "Not recycling and throwing garbage in the seas, polluting forests, throwing garbage into the forest, cutting forests".Student 5 emphasized that the causes of ozone depletion and global climate change, one of the most important environmental problems, are people using the expression "I think of the ozone layer depletion, the increase in global climate change and the pollution of nature by people with plastics and batteries.Besides, I think of the disappearance of trees, increasing carbon dioxide, and ecosystem degradation".
To determine their awareness of their responsibilities to prevent environmental problems, the question "What measures do you take, or do you think about taking to prevent environmental problems?"was posed.Findings obtained from the answers showed that the students had thoughts such as not polluting the environment, recycling, raising awareness of people, collecting waste oil and waste batteries and giving them to relevant institutions, preventing the release of harmful gasses, using public transportation and protecting the forests as precautions against environmental problems (Table 9).
Considering the students' views on the findings obtained from the research, Student 4 emphasized that primarily he would remove the factors that cause environmental pollution as the measures he would take against environmental problems using the expression, "I take the waste oils to the collection containers, throw the papers and cardboards into the recycling boxes, and again, I throw the waste batteries into the waste battery box".Similarly, Student 7 emphasized that he would avoid behaviors that would harm nature using the expression, "I do not leave wastewater to the seas, I do not throw garbage in the ground, I do not harm living things, I do not cut trees unnecessarily".Student 5 stated that he would take precautions against harmful gasses and give importance to recycling using the expression, "The first measure I would take would be factories.I want to prevent the exhaust gasses of cars and household waste.I would bring new solutions for recycling.I would also try to prevent waste batteries for soil pollution".Student 6, on the other hand, mentioned the importance of afforestation of the environment and raising awareness of people using the expression, "Of course, we can plant trees to prevent environmental problems, and we should never leave the water open.Likewise, we should use public transportation, and more than that; we need to influence the masses.A person can influence a mass."Within the research, students' views on the endangered animals are determined, posing the question, "What do you think is the reason for the extinction of animals?What measures should be taken for this?"The findings revealed that students think human behaviors and natural conditions are effective in the extinction of animals and that people should be conscious of preventing animal extinction (Table 10).
Looking at the student views regarding the findings in Table 13, Student 2 stated that humans have an impact on the extinction of animals using the expression, "I know that many of the extinct creatures have disappeared because of humans".Similarly, Student 9 stated that humans are effective in the extinction of animals through global warming using the expression, "Endangered animals are mostly becoming extinct by global warming because of people."Student 4, on the other hand, emphasized the need to protect endangered animals using the expression "We have to try to protect endangered creatures.Because if it goes on like this, almost all living things may become extinct.Because of human influence and natural conditions, living things and plants are becoming extinct."Again, in this direction, Student 6 stated that the extinction of creatures originates from humans and natural conditions.Their knowledge increased with the project using the expression "I think that most of the endangered creatures became extinct because of humans and some of them are due to climatic conditions."Student 5 stated that humans and natural conditions are effective in the extinction of living things.With the project, their knowledge about protecting endangered creatures has increased using the expression, "There are two types of endangered creatures-living creatures, such as dinosaurs, which became extinct by natural causes without human influence.I knew about them.In this project, I learned about the creatures that became extinct due to human influence.In the project, we learned how to protect them and what the endangered animals are." Aiming to determine their behavior towards people who harm the environment, the question "What would you do when you see a person who acts in his daily life in a way that can harm the environment?"was posed to the students.The ratio, and organic wastes.Besides, it was observed that the students stated that the project process contributed to them being more careful with the environment, contributing to recycling, and raising people's awareness (Table 13).
Looking at the students' direct views on the findings of the research, Student 2 stated that with the project, he saw many things he did not see before, understood environmental pollution, and realized what he could do for the environment using the expression "The project helped me to see many things I have not seen in my life, to understand how bad environmental pollution is, and to be aware of the things I can do for the environment and the world."Similarly, Student 8 emphasized that with the project, he learned how important the environment is and how to protect the background using the expression, "I think the environment is a precious thing given to us.If we protect it, it will contribute to us; if we do not, it will be harmful.We learned with the project that we should protect this and what we can do."Student 5 emphasized that they gained knowledge-making applications in the project.In addition to developing their awareness, they transformed what they learned into behavior using the expression, "I mean, people are conscious about the environment, but they don't apply them.They do not prefer to apply much.We learned by applying this in this project.As our awareness has improved, we have also come to apply them." Similarly, Student 9 emphasized that he did not consider many environmental aspects before the project.Still, this situation changed after the project said, "Yes, it was effective.For example, before the project, I would not consider most things about nature.After the project, I started to remember more."Student 7, on the other hand, stated that he had become more conscious about the environment using the expression, "Yes, I've become more conscious when I learned in the project how long a garbage we dumped stays in the soil."The students stated that they gained a lot of information from the project.Accordingly, Student 1 emphasized that he gained new knowledge and learned how much packaging wastes harm the environment using the expression, "We learned about new tree species, new animal species.We learned about the food chain.Sir, we also learned how much damage plastics do when they are thrown in nature, soil, and water."Student 8 stated that he realized how much they harmed the environment and that it is needed to raise people's awareness to protect the background using the expression, " I have learned about endangered animals, how things we do in the environmental damage the environment.Now I learned that we need to protect the environment more, that is, we need to look after it, and this will develop by reaching different people starting from our family."Student 6 stated that he saw the traces of art and mathematics in nature using the expression, "I saw that there was art in the environment.For example, I realized that geometry and mathematics can be in a leaf."

RESULT AND DISCUSSION
Based on the quantitative and qualitative findings obtained in the study, it was found that environmental education enriched with OSLA had positive effects on the affective and behavioral tendencies of gifted students towards the environment and ecological problems.As premean scores of the Environmental Affect Scale were examined, it was found that the ecological awareness tendencies of gifted students were higher from the beginning.Besides, there was a statistically significant increase in their environmental awareness with the experiences they gained during the OSLA six days.Because gifted students attend lots of OSLAs during the study process (see Table 1), and these activities create good opportunities to experience nature (Kannel-Ray, 2006;So & Chow, 2019;Stevenson, 2007) and have the effect of developing awareness of the environment (Ayaydın, Ün, Acar-Şeşen, Usta-Gezer & Camcı-Erdoğan, 2018; Pfouts & Schultz, 2003).However, there was no significant change in sub-dimensions of the Environmental Responsibility factor, and there was a significant increase in the Environmental Sensitivity and Environmental Perception factors before and after the treatment.As pre and post-test scores of the Environmental Behavior Scale were examined, it was found that there was a statistically significant difference between them.It was also found that there was a substantial increase in the sub-dimensions of Natural Balance Protection Behavior and High-Level Cognitive Behavior factors and non-significant increases in Social Behavior factors.These outcomes can be considered as the results of the training.Semi-structured interviews for a better understanding of quantitative data, it was obtained that the awareness of gifted students towards environmental problems increased with enriched environmental education.
Students performed many activities in the botanical garden, greenhouse, and forest (see Table 2).During these activities, students were not only provided with the academic knowledge but also to discover the rhythm of nature, recognize the creatures living in the heart, and realize that these creatures are essential for sustainable life and nature is mathematics.Besides, students who realized environmental problems produced their solutions to these problems (Qualitative and quantitative data also supported this situation); because real-world problems and issues satisfy gifted students' needs for abstraction, complexity, and depth in their learning and make them think more critically, creative as a problem solver (Kaplan, 2020;Reis, Renzulli & Renzulli, 2021).Students, who increased their environmental sensitivity and perceptions, said that the education given to them greatly affected realizing ecological problems.Because gifted students are already sensitive to environmental issues and with training, they can be more sensitive and become effective solution producers for environmental issues (Ayaydın, Ün, Acar-Şeşen, Usta-Gezer & Camcı-Erdoğan, 2018;Ceylan 2022;Esen 2011;Schroth & Helfer, 2017;Winocur & Maurer, 1991).And OSLEs increase gifted students' content understanding (Best, Dickinson, Hugstad-Vaa Leer & Kalina, 2017;Morris, Slater, Fitzgerald, Lummis & Etten, 2021;Young, Young & Ford, 2019).The qualitative data found that the experimental practices in the education process were effective in providing this understanding and awareness.The students who showed a significant increase in the Natural Balance Protection Behavior dimension stated that their education effectively exhibited these behaviors, which supports the quantitative findings.Students especially said they show behaviors such as recycling, raising public awareness, using public transportation, protecting forests, and not polluting the environment.It was also obtained that the activities in Table 2, such as touching the depiction, trekking, why the weather warmed up, soil and water analysis, ecosystem, my tree is singing, what's happened-what is happening-what will happen, what number is your footprint and recycling, packaging waste and decay activities in nature were effective in gaining consciousness.It was found that gifted students became aware of the extinct animals during their education and learned what they needed to do individually and socially to protect them.Students began to examine what was happening in the environment differently.They were also informed about what they should do when they face a situation that causes environmental problems and start to use them in their own lives.In addition to this, they gained experience about how and why recycling is done, what the order of nature is, the extinction of living things, and how the natural balance between living things and other creatures and non-living things are established, and these gains provided a positive development in their environmental sensitivity and behavior

CONCLUSION
Based on the findings obtained from the study, it is clear that the training achieved in out-of-school learning environments about environmental issues contributed not only to academic knowledge but also educated individuals who protect and respect the environment they live in as a member of society.The background should be realized by being experienced one-to-one in out-of-school learning environments.Studies should be increased and extended for a long time to become aware of the domain.So, it is possible to raise equipped individuals for a livable world ACKNOWLEDGMENT

Table 2
Wilcoxon signed ranks test results of environmental affect scale

Table 4
Wilcoxon signed sequence test results of sub-factors for environmental affect scale

Table 6
Descriptive statistics of subfactors of the environmental behavior scale

Table 7
Wilcoxon signed sequence test results of subfactors for the environmental behavior scale