The Effect of Interdisciplinary Science Education on Sustainable Development of 7th Grade Students

A total of 17 global targets related with various topics such as poverty, inequality, climate changes are defined to be achieved by United Nations for sustainable development up to 2030. As the fourth one of these targets, education for sustainable development which is discussed under the quality of education should be started at an early age and students should acquire knowledge and skills on sustainable development. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the 7th grade students’ development on education for sustainable development as a result of employing an interdisciplinary approach based on Science and Technology Course by considering Social Science, Religious Culture and Moral Knowledge and Turkish courses. The sample of the study which used a mixed method research methodology consisted of 199 7th grade students. The data were collected through document review, surveys, semi-structured interviews and observations. While the document analysis was done according to the document review process, surveys, semi-structured interviews and observations were exposed to content and frequency analysis. It was found that the students’ conceptual understandings were positively changed related to the topics of biodiversity, soil pollution, hunger, renewable-nonrenewable energy sources and recycling. Furthermore, it was found that students relate sustainable development topic to Science and Technology, Social Science, Religious Culture and Moral Knowledge Courses but could not relate to Turkish course. As a result of the findings, it was recommended that a holistic approach should be followed including environmental, social, economic and cultural aspects in the education for sustainable development, educational objectives related to Turkish course should be expressed more perceptibly and the number of educational objectives related with Turkish course should be increased