Assessment of the knowledge, emotions and behaviours of secondary school students towards the environment and recycling in Southeastern Türkiye

Improving the scope of environmental education given in schools and establishing environmental awareness among students are the most important steps to be taken to transfer this awareness to the next generations. The aim of this study is to examine the knowledge, emotions and behaviours of secondary school students ranging from 11 to 13 for environmental health and environmental protection. The study was carried out in the district of Karaköprü, a metropolitan settlement in Şanlıurfa for the 2020–2021 academic year, regarding environmental health and environmental protection, which has decreased with the effect of the pandemic. In this study, a questionnaire was applied to students and their attitudes were evaluated according to a 5-point Likert scale. The attitudes of the students were detailed on the basis of ‘gender’ and ‘mother education level’ factors. It was found that the male students in the study group had more knowledge about environmental health and protection compared to the female students. However, no relationship was detected between students' environmental awareness and their mothers' educational levels.