English abstract
The study investigated the effectiveness of an enrichment educational program based on
the interdisciplinary approach to include nanotechnology applications related to environmental
sustainability of economic geography subject in the achievement, the attitude towards
nanotechnology, create and make decisions towards environmental problems among eleventh
grade female students in the Sultanate of Oman. To achieve the objectives of the study, the
researcher followed a quasi-experimental approach. The sample consisted of 100 eleventh-grade
female students in the Governorate of Muscat. It was purposely divided into two groups: an
experimental group including 50 female students and a control group including 50 female
students.
Several tools were used to collect data: the achievement test consisted of 38 items, an
attitude scale towards nanotechnology consisted of 43 items distributed on 6 dimensions,
creativity scale towards environmental problems consisted of 6 situations or environmental
problems and a decision-making scale towards environmental problems consisted of 10
environmental problems.
The validity of the educational program and the tools used to collect data were presented to
several reviewers. The reliability of the tools was also calculated using the Cronbach-Alpha
coefficient. It was 0.72 in the achievement test, 0.903 in the attitude scale, 0.67 in the creativity
scale toward environmental problems, and 0.896 in the decision-making scale toward
environmental problems, while the Kappa coefficient was used to calculate the reliability
coefficient between the two raters in the creativity scale toward environmental problems, which
was 0.91. all the reliability coefficients were considered as an indication that the tools are valid for
the purposes of the study.
The findings related to the effectiveness of the educational program showed that there
were statistically significant differences at the level (α≤0.05). The mean scores of the experimental
group were higher than the mean scores of the control group in achievement, attitude towards
nanotechnology, creative towards environmental problems, and decision-making towards
environmental problems.
In light of the previous results, the study recommended the necessity of using enrichment
programs to enhance and develop the social studies curricula in general and the economic
geography curriculum in particular and reorganizing the content of the units of the economic
geography curriculum in the light of the interdisciplinary approach. It also recommended focusing
on decision-making skills and creativity in the subject of social studies in light of the results of the
study which showed a link between these skills and the nature of the social studies subject and
taking advantage of students’ positive attitudes towards learning nanotechnology in order to
provide them with knowledge related to nanotechnology and its applications.
