An-Najah Staff

This study aimed at identifying the environmental concepts necessary to be introduced in the social studies curriculum in the primary stage, according to teachers’ point of view, in Nablus Governorate, by answering the following questions: 1- What are the environmental concepts to be introduced in the social studies curriculum, in the primary stage, from teachers’ perspective in Nablus Governorate? 2- Do environmental concepts, to be introduced in social studies curriculum in the primary stage, differ according to the sex, experience, specialization, qualification, place of residence, site of school and supervising authority variables? To answer the questions of this study, the researcher developed a questionnaire consisting, in its final version, of 65 items distributed into seven basic domains: technical terms; information and facts; Palestinian environmental problems, generalizations; values and attitudes, activities and training and skills. The questionnaire reliability was checked by presenting it to a group of referees in education and ecology. its validity was checked by using Pearson’s correlation coefficient as well as Alpha - Kronbach equation. The percentage of variance ranged between 0.95-0.96, By using the arithmetic averages and deviation standards, the results of the study revealed the suitability of the questionnaire for the population of the study as follows: 1- The environmental concepts, necessary to be introduced in the social studies curriculum, as seen by the subjects of the study, were arranged as follows; generalizations, technical terms, activities and training, values and attitudes, skills, information and facts and Palestinian environmental problems. The degree of the necessity to include the environmental concepts on the domains combined was very appropriate. 2- There was a difference in the degree of the necessity to include the environmental concepts in the social studies curriculum in the primary stage, from male and female teachers’ point of view, which may be attributed to sex variable in favour of female teachers, in favour of those who had less than five years of experience, in favour of those majoring in Geography, in favour of those holding a B.A. degree, in favour of villagers, and in favour of village schools and in favour of private schools. Based upon these findings the researcher has arrived at the following conclusions and recommendations. Of these, first, there is a need to introduce environmental concepts in the social studies curriculum in the primary stage in particular and in the remaining stages and the curricula in general. Second, there is also a need for further research to be conducted on other governorates schools in Palestine to deepen the possibility of generalizing the results of this study.