The potential of Utilizing Students Local Environmental Context to Foster Their Plant Awareness Towards Achieving Sustainable Development Goals Puan Helwa Rezha Soraya (1*), Rini Solihat (2), Riandi (3)
Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia
Abstract
Plants play an important role in sustaining human life, contributing to food security, ecological balance, as well as providing ecosystem services (ES). However, students engagement with plants remains a challenge in biology education-a phenomenon often referred to as plant blindness or plant awareness disparity. This study explored students plant awareness at a high school in Indramayu Regency using the Plant Awareness Disparity-Index (PAD-I) questionnaire developed by Parsley (2022). The questionnaire was administered to assess multiple dimensions of plant awareness, including students attention, attitude, and their interest towards plants, as well as their knowledge about the importance of plants. Results revealed that while students demonstrated sufficient knowledge regarding the importance of plants, there was a disparity between their interest in plants and animals in their daily lives. These findings suggest that cognitive understanding on its own is insufficient to foster a meaningful awareness of plants. To address this, it is possible to incorporate local contexts into the learning process. By introducing plants relevant to students lives- such as the regional staple crops that are widely recognized in the Indramayu area- and connects them to the learning process, it is hoped that teachers can create more meaningful and relevant experiences for students, which in turn can foster their interest in and appreciation for plants. This approach has the potential to address the awareness gap identified through the PAD-I, while simultaneously supporting students contributions to biodiversity conservation and sustainable development.
Keywords: Plant Awareness Disparity (PAD), PAD-I, local context, sustainable development goals, biology education
