High school students’ perceptions of environmental issues: a case study in Izmir

High school biology curriculum which was revised and restructured in 2013 greatly emphasizesglobal environmental and ecological concerns. the purpose of this study was examining highschool students’ understandings of global environmental issues including biodiversity, carboncycle, global warming, and ozone layer depletion. scales developed for this purpose were adaptedand used in this investigation. the questionnaires were administered online to 425 students in fourhigh schools in izmir, turkey. analysis involved frequencies, percentages, and comparing meansfor students attending different kinds of high schools. analysis of variance for differences amonghigh schools and responses to different issues were also included. results of the study indicatedthat most of the high school students held misconceptions about the ozone layer depletion, globalwarming, and where ozone is located in the atmosphere. implications of the study includedguidelines for high school science teachers in teaching such global environmental issues.