On the basis of research and the syllabi for mathematics and environmental education, which promote integrated teaching, a model of integrated teaching of mathematics and environmental education has been designed. 331 basic school second grade pupils participated in the experiment (163 pupils in the experimental group and 168 in the control group). The differences in the results were statistically significant after the second test, as compared to the control group, the experimental group performed better at all levels of TIMSS taxonomy. With this the importance of interdisciplinary integration or of holistic teaching, indispensable in the first years of schooling, was confirmed.

The aim of this research was to find out if the environmental education program prepared for preschool pupil s is effective in helping the 5 - 6-year-old age group gain environmental consciousness. For these purposes, a single group, pretestfinal test pattern was used. In the research, “Children’s Environmental Attitudes Scale” was used in the experiment group, before and after application and the data obtained were compared. An educational program of 8 weeks including drama, games and activities, Turkish, music and art activities subjects about air, water, soil, extinction of animal and plant species, climate change and waste problems was applied to the children.

The aim of the research was developed in need to determine the level of environmental content (Environmental protection issues) in the didactic material of primary and secondary schools in the Republic of Serbia, as an important factor of the development of students’ environmental awareness. Mixed content analysis was used for the purpose of this study. This analysis included techniques for data collection. All textbooks and workbooks for primary and secondary school were used. The research showed that there is no equal distribution of questions about environmental protection within curricula and programs by classes and levels of education. Basically, didactic material includes about 5.4% of the content related to protection and preservation of the environment, which can influence the development of students’ environmental awareness.

In today’s world of rapidly increasing environmental concerns, traditional environmental education provides the level of knowledge that will meet teaching targets but is ineffective in achieving the highest goals in this context. Effective environmental education should facilitate the highest level of attitude development in individuals, helping them to form value judgments and attain participatory skills. In this study, a program of authentic learning-based teaching was designed to be used in the teaching of today’s environmental issues and an attempt was made to determine the effectiveness of such teaching. The research data were collected by posing 10 open-ended questions to 168 pre-service teachers before and after the teaching program. The data were subjected to qualitative and quantitative analysis. The results showed that teaching by making use of the authentic learning-based technique of panel discussion was markedly effective in achieving the higher level skills of forming value judgments and increasing initiative-oriented participatory skills focused on the environment.

Children from modern societies often enter the compulsory education system with a lack of experience in the outdoors. On the other hand, they possess much knowledge that they often cannot properly apply to the events in their environment and to their own everyday actions and activities. This study is based on research into the outdoor learning experiences in elementary education. By posing open-ended questions about previous outdoor school learning, we examined its effects on pupils in Slovenian elementary school. In this way, we confirmed correlations between the experience of observing life in water and around it and better knowledge of small organisms in an aquatic environment among 10-year-olds. For the water-pollution-related experience, a correlation with favourable attitudes and more appropriate use of water was not statistically confirmed. Outdoor learning provides pupils with the opportunity to combine and develop their knowledge of actual environmental and everyday phenomena. To overcome the gap between pupils’ knowledge and their actions in terms of environmental education we suggest that teachers should integrate outdoor learning into their teaching practice. Conclusions are drawn with reference to the implications for the development of real and meaningful outdoor learning in order to develop in pupils the skills that are required for appropriate sustainable development in the future.