الملخص الإنجليزي
This study aimed to investigate the effect of using Facebook in improving the awareness of grade ten students in Basic Education about climate changes, and their attitudes towards using Facebook in learning. The sample of the study consisted of (118) students, including (54) males and (64) females tenth graders in Muscat Governorate. The sample was divided into two groups. The first group was the experimental group which included (58) students; (26) males and (32) females taught by using Facebook discussions. The second group was the control group and it included (60) students; (28) males and (32) females taught by using the traditional way. The period of the experiment was six weeks during the second semester in the academic year 2012/2013.
s. The females he sanction ab To answer the study's questions, two instruments were developed. The first instrument was a scale of awareness of climate changes, and it had three parts: the first part was a test of students' knowledge of climate changes and it had (32) questions with total reliability of (0.764). The second part was a scale of students' attitudes towards climate and its changes and it had (38) statements with total reliability of (0.874). The third part was a scale of students' behaviors in the real life situations which related to climate changes and it had (12) statements with total reliability of (0:739): The second instrument was a scale of students' attitudes towards using Facebook in learning, and it had (35) statements with total reliability of (0.865).
The study's results revealed that there were statistically significant differences between the control and the experimental groups in students' knowledge of climate changes in favor of experimental groups. However, there were no significant differences in the students' attitudes and behaviors related to climate changes. In addition, the results revealed that there were no significant differences in the students' knowledge, attitudes and behavior related to climate changes according to the gender variable. Moreover, the results showed that there were no significant differences in the parts of the climate change awareness with respect to the interaction between the method and gender. Besides, the results showed that students' attitudes towards using Facebook was positive and there were statistically significant differences between the means of male and female students in the experimental group regarding their attitudes towards using Facebook in learning in favor of female students.
In light of the previous results, the study recommended encourage the teachers and students to use group property of Facebook to discuss environmental, climate, and the dialectic issues in science subject. In addition, the study suggested conducting similar research on using other social networks such as Bloggers and Tweeter and test their effects on other types of dependent variables like critical thinking, scientific communication skills or motivation to learn.
