The Study on the Effectiveness of Community-Based Environmental Programs: Focusing on Alternative School Children's Environmental Behavior, Pro-Environmental Behavior, Environmental Sensitivity and Awareness

Objectives The purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of community-based environmental programs for alternative school children, focusing on environmental behavior, pro-environmental behavior, environmental sensitivity and awareness. Methods The subjects of the study are 19 students from Alternative School A in Seoul. The trends (M, SD) and normality (Kolmogorov-Smirnov, Shapiro-Wilk) of the pre-post mean scores for the research variables, namely environmental behavior, pro-environmental behavior, environmental sensitivity and awareness, were verified using SPSS 23.0. Since normality was not met, the Wilcoxon test, a non-parametric statistical method that analyzes differences between paired pre- and post-samples, was used to verify effectiveness. Results The main results are as follows: First, the trend of research variables was analyzed by differentiating between pre-mean scores (a) and post-mean scores (b), and examining the difference (b-a). The results showed improvement in post-mean scores compared to pre-mean scores for all research variables. Second, the normality of the pre- and post-test mean scores of the study variables was not satisfied, so nonparametric statistical methods were used to test for differences. Third, all study variables showed higher post-test mean scores than pre-test mean scores, and the results were statistically significant. Conclusions The findings of this study suggest that community engagement programs operated by alternative schools should be expanded to support optimized programs by identifying and implementing improvements through continuous monitoring. The proposal focuses on measures for experiential project activities through strengthened collaboration with the local community.