Continuity of the Process of Forming Environmental Competence from Primary to Specialized School in the Context of Natural Science Club Activities

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to theoretically substantiate the conceptual foundations for ensuring the continuity of the process of forming environmental competence of learners from primary to specialized school within the framework of natural science club activities, as well as to determine their pedagogical potential as an integrative environment for combining formal and non-formal education. The study employed a set of general scientific and specialized pedagogical methods, including the analysis and systematization of philosophical, psychological-pedagogical, and methodological sources; a comparative analysis of scholarly approaches to the interpretation of the concepts of environmental competence, continuity, extracurricular education, and club activities; structural and functional analysis of the components of environmental competence; modeling to develop a conceptual framework for implementing the principle of continuity in club-based activities; and generalization and theoretical interpretation of the obtained results. It was found that environmental competence is an integrative personal construct that includes cognitive, value-motivational, activity-based, and reflective components, the development of which occurs unevenly at different stages of schooling. It is substantiated that the principle of continuity serves as a key didactic mechanism for ensuring the integrity, systematicity, and consistency of this process. It was revealed that the emotional-value component dominates in primary school, the cognitive-activity component prevails in lower secondary school, and the worldview-reflective component becomes dominant in upper secondary school. It was proven that natural science clubs create optimal conditions for the gradual complication of the content, forms, and methods of environmental education, the development of research skills, the formation of environmental thinking, and socially responsible behavior. A model for ensuring continuity in the formation of environmental competence through club-based activities is proposed, which includes target, content-related, procedural, and evaluative-reflective components. It is concluded that ensuring continuity in the formation of environmental competence within the system of “primary–lower secondary–upper secondary school” is a necessary condition for improving the quality of environmental education. Natural science clubs function as an effective tool for integrating formal and non-formal education, promoting the variability of educational trajectories, the individualization of learning, and the formation of sustainable patterns of environmentally responsible behavior. The implementation of the proposed model ensures the step-by-step development of all components of environmental competence and contributes to the formation of a holistic environmental worldview among students.