Online training of prospective language teachers : exploring a new model

This chapter reports on a language teaching practicum course of a Master of Teaching Chinese to Speakers of Other Languages (MTCSOL) program in China in Fall 2020. Driven by the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, this report presents a model to guide practice in online language teacher training via virtual learning communities. In the course, native and nonnative students in the MTCSOL program formed study groups in which they conducted discussions regarding the lectures and completed teaching demonstrations through videoconferences. All students provided online feedback on their peers’ teaching demonstrations. The content analysis of post-task interviews revealed that both native and nonnative students benefited from online interactions. Nonnative students had opportunities to practice language and professional skills, while native students developed intercultural communication competence. Peer feedback was also highly rated, as feedback receivers had different perspectives on how to improve their teaching, and feedback providers learned from their peers’ strengths and weaknesses. We argue that the model can (1) promote learning autonomy and cultural exchange and (2) boost teachers’ self-confidence, which could thus become a desirable new model for language teacher training.

Introduction
With the global spread of the COVID-19 epidemic, many countries have implemented border controls. This change has massively impacted international education and student exchanges. The consequences of this shift are particularly evident in second language (L2) teaching and learning. In China, for example, because most international students (Chinese degree pursuers or short-term Chinese learners) were unable to return to China after the winter recess, all Chinese classes for international students were moved online for the 2020 Fall semester. This change posed severe challenges for MTCSOL programs designed for international students. As professional degree programs, MTSCOL programs must, on one hand, introduce theories and, on the other hand, cultivate the ability to solve practical problems in the classroom by providing students with knowledge and training on teaching skills and techniques. For international students, attention also needs to be paid to the improvement of their target language. The contemporary curriculum also includes the goal of cultivating student teachers' intercultural competence and their ability to integrate foreign cultures in classrooms (Gay, 2013).
Nonnative MTCSOL students opt for programs in the target language environment because immersion learning contexts can rapidly increase their language proficiency (Xiao, Taguchi, & Li, 2019) and enrich their target cultural understanding (Taguchi, Xiao, & Li, 2016). Immersion programs also often provide hands-on training by allowing students to participate in experienced teachers' classrooms.
Turning to online learning poses major obstacles to nonnative MTCSOL students' linguistic and professional development. First, most MTCSOL programs have not been prepared for the rapid conversion to online teaching, either technologically or pedagogically. Second, hands-on teaching practicums are difficult to conduct in online environments. Third, isolated learning environments significantly affect students' target language use. Consequently, international students have limited access to natural language learners to practice their teaching skills and native speakers to improve their language proficiency.

Objectives
The example we present below is from an online teacher practicum course for MTCSOL students at a Chinese public university. The purpose is twofold: to adapt to the new teaching and learning settings and to explore the possibility of establishing a new model for language teacher training.
As a compulsory course for the MTCSOL program, the teaching practicum course introduces junior graduate students to various aspects of Chinese L2 classroom teaching through critical discussions of prominent theories, interaction with experienced teachers, and engagement with fellow students' teaching demonstrations. The goal is to expand students' expertise as Chinese teachers in the classroom and other learning settings and to develop their ability to make informed decisions in future instructional contexts.
In the program that we are investigating, Chinese Native Students (NSs) and Non-Native Students (NNSs) complete the course in separate sections. Both sections are taught by the same instructor using the same syllabus.
In the 2020 Fall semester, NSs resumed regular on-campus classes. However, all NNSs' classes were converted online. Due to this situation, both NS and NNS classes changed, as demonstrated in Table 1.  Table 1 shows that major changes occurred to NNSs' classes, including individual tasks, small group tasks, and peer feedback. The following section will explicate the rationales of these tasks and how they are operationalized.

Instruments
For both international and Chinese students, the course materials are published on the course website built on Chaoxing, an online learning platform (similar to Moodle) designed for and widely used by higher institutions across the Chinese mainland.
Students who enroll in the course may access the system with their college account. International students in our study reported no difficulty logging onto the system. Students must also use videoconferencing platforms, such as Tencent, Voov, or Zoom, to perform group tasks.

Participants
Seventeen NNSs are advanced Chinese learners from ten countries: Egypt, Russia, the Czech Republic, Thailand, Poland, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, France, and South Korea. The 17 NNSs and 34 NSs are assigned to 3 member mixed groups. Each group includes one NNS and two NSs. The three students complete all group work together.

Course tasks
The NNS course primarily involves five sequenced tasks, as shown in Figure 1. Tasks 2 through 4 are all group work.

Asynchronous lectures
Task 1 involves students watching asynchronous lectures and participating in the asynchronous discussion forum. The main function of the asynchronous task is that teachers can remain present and attend to students' needs, so students can feel a sense of belonging to a learning community (Meskill & Anthony, 2005). In this course, asynchronous lectures are brief and focused audio-visual PowerPoint presentations created and uploaded by the instructor. Students can only watch the lectures on the platform, which enables teachers to monitor students' learning processes, as the system can track the total time each student spends on a lecture. After watching the lectures, students can post their questions on the discussion forum. The instructor responds to all questions in a timely fashion.

Group work
As shown in Figure 1, most course tasks (Tasks 2 to 4) are group work. Small group interactions between learners are often used in L2 classrooms. The interaction hypothesis states that learner interactions may draw learners' attention to their ungrammatical utterances, stimulate learners to practice language forms in meaningful contexts, and promote autonomous learning (Gass, 1997).
The output hypothesis suggests that interactions between NNSs and NSs can stimulate learners to notice the distance between interlanguage and target-like forms and reflect on their own language use (Swain, 2000).
In Tasks 2 and 3, students are required to conduct group meetings by videoconferencing, discussing lecture-related topics, and preparing teaching demonstrations. Videoconferences create a virtual face-to-face situation which allows remote interlocutors to synchronously exchange both verbal and nonverbal information. Nonverbal information, such as gestures or facial expressions, can be captured by the interlocutors fairly clearly, even with minor signal latency. All videoconference sessions are recorded by the team leader and submitted to the instructor.
In Task 4, NNSs are required to make a teaching demonstration video with their NS partners using videoconferencing. The purpose of teaching an artificial lesson is to demonstrate approaches and techniques that students have learned in class. In the video, the NNS 'teacher' teaches two NS 'students' a 10-minute lesson assigned by the instructor. Some groups choose to use the full-screen model to present the PowerPoint slides without showing the speakers' faces; other groups choose to present the slides as well as show all interlocutors' faces (see Figure 2). NNSs' teaching demo videos are uploaded to the course website for both NNSs and NSs enrolled in the course to watch.

Peer feedback
After watching each teaching demonstration, both native and nonnative students are required to provide feedback on each other's teaching demos. In L2 acquisition, peer feedback was proven to improve feedback givers' awareness of their own performance and provide feedback receivers with different perspectives (other than the teacher's perspective) on how to make improvements (Rollinson, 2005).
The review-reflect-revise process can also encourage students to be more independent learners. In this course, students are asked to provide feedback on the following three questions.
• What do you think are the best parts of this teaching demonstration?
• Do you have any suggestions on how this teacher can improve his or her teaching?
• What have you learned from this teaching demonstration?
The instructor collects and anonymizes the feedback, compiles it in a Word document, and then gives it to the student 'teacher'.

Data collection and analysis
Because the course began in August 2020 and is still in progress, we report our observations and reflections on the online section as of the date of manuscript submission.
Thus far, four groups have completed all group tasks. The instructor initiated a one-on-one online text interview with these students using the following questions.
• What do you think about the remote teamwork learning model?
• Which changes would you suggest to improve the model?
• Which major difficulties have you experienced in using this model?
Students' peer feedback and interview responses were analyzed using exploratory content analysis.

Findings
Overall, both native and nonnative students hold a positive opinion of the online group interactions and peer feedback.

Online group interactions
Regarding the group discussions, as demonstrated in Excerpts 1-3, nonnative students had opportunities to practice the Chinese language and understand Chinese culture, and NSs developed intercultural communication competence.
• Excerpt 1 (Thai student) "我喜欢，因为我一边练习汉语一边更好了解中国人，中国文化什 么的。我觉得我的组的中国学生很热情。我有不懂的地方，她们 给我解释，很清楚。" (I like it, because I can practice Chinese while better understanding Chinese people, Chinese culture, and so on. I think the Chinese students in my team are very enthusiastic. They explain to me, very clearly, the places that I don't understand).
• Excerpt 2 (Czech student) "其实不管怎样我都喜欢，因为我比较想跟中国学生交流。现在 疫情的问题没办法当面，能在网上讨论已经是很不错了，我对 线上讨论没有什么不满的。" (In fact, I like it anyway because I do want to communicate with Chinese students. Currently, there is no way to discuss face-to-face because of the epidemic. It is good enough to be able to discuss online. I have no dissatisfaction with the online discussion model).
• Excerpt 3 (Chinese student) "能锻炼我和留学生交流的能力，为以后课堂教学做铺垫吧。" (I can practice my communication skills with international students, thus paving the way for future classroom teaching).

Peer feedback
Regarding peer feedback, as demonstrated in Excerpts 4-6, feedback givers provided both comments (see Excerpt 4) and suggestions (see Excerpt 5) and often made self-reflections when giving feedback (see Excerpt 6). After reading feedback, receivers also made self-reflections on their teaching performance (see Excerpt 7).
• Excerpt 4 (a native student to a nonnative peer) "一开始直接了当复习上节课内容，这种导入承前启后，也挺自 然的。" (In the beginning, (the teacher) reviewed the content of the previous lesson directly. This kind of introduction serves as a link between old and new knowledge and is also quite natural).
• Excerpt 5 (a nonnative student to a nonnative peer) "老师可以用母语或者英语来解释新词，也多做一点互动。" (The teacher may use learners' native language or English to explain the new words and have more interactions).
• Excerpt 6 (a native student to a native peer) "我学到了在讲生词的时候应该讲它的适用范围，让大家会认的同 时会用。" (I learned that when teaching a new word, we should teach its scope of application so that everyone can recognize it as well as know how to use it).
• Excerpt 7 (Russian student) "关于例子，很多同学说少。我自己先也写比较多例子，但是我 故意地把它们删除，因为这是学生的第二课，他们除了'你好' 以外什么都不知道，所以我把简单的一两个例子放在PPT上。" (Many students said the examples were too few. I wrote many examples initially, but I deliberately deleted them because this is just their second lesson. They don't know anything except 'hello'. So I put one or two simple examples on the PPT).

Challenges and suggestions
Both native and nonnative students reported challenges in technology use and time differences among group members. Nonnative students also conveyed challenges in language proficiency, stating that "I feel I could not fully express my opinions" or that "I don't always know how to express my ideas. That's why I particularly value the opportunities to talk to Chinese students".
When asked about their suggestions, nonnative students expressed the fact that they liked the model as it was, saying that "nothing needs to be changed" and that "I do not think there is any problem with it". The other two stated that they had no opinion on the model. Some NSs expressed that they hoped to have largerscale meetings or additional meetings in the future. For example, students stated: "I hope to add more team members, especially foreign students", "it would be better if the instructor could join us occasionally, so it could help us to answer difficult questions", and "I hope to have more chances to talk to international students".

Discussion
Based on our observations of students' progress and our evaluations thus far, we believe that the course design we have developed can offer a desirable permanent model for remote language teacher training rather than just a temporary change.
There are three major potential achievements of this model.

Promoting learning autonomy
When classes are suddenly moved online, students are forced into a situation where they must rely more on themselves to learn. One desirable outcome is that online learning fosters learning autonomy (Little, 1991). The question is what instructors can do to promote and monitor autonomous learning processes. In regular classrooms, autonomous L2 learning comprises learners' engagement, self-reflection, use of the target language, and collaboration (Little & Brammerts, 1996). Our study shows that these aspects can be achieved via virtual learning communities created by instructors. The native-nonnative teamwork ensures peer collaboration and the use of the target language. Peer feedback encourages students to reflect on their teaching behaviors. Each task is monitored by the instructor through online platforms, which ensures learner engagement. Meijer, Verloop, and Beijaard (1999) highlighted that teachers' beliefs about their teaching stem from classroom practice and that these beliefs continue to guide their behavior in future classrooms. Combined with theoretical knowledge and teacher expertise, these beliefs are the premise for teachers' further refinement of their teaching practices (Verloop, Van Driel, & Meijer, 2001). In our study, the three integrative and reflective training practices allow prospective teachers to "critically examine their own beliefs and teaching styles and to explore other avenues of professional development" (Lord & Lomicka, 2007, p. 514).

Stimulating cultural exchange
Modern language teaching aims to engage in various forms of communication across cultures and communities (Huhn, 2012). In this unprecedented period, when countries tend to shut their doors to one another, the successful implementation of global understanding and cultural tolerance depends upon classroom teachers. Thus, it is important to cultivate students' global perspectives and intercultural communication competence before they become teachers. In this study, nativenonnative interactions not only improve students' professional skills but also enhance their intercultural awareness, which will mobilize their future students' cultural resources and cultivate the values of diversity, equity, and inclusion in their future classrooms.

Conclusion and future classes
In response to the worldwide COVID-19 crisis, we initiated an attempt to develop online teacher training classes. The model is still being tested, and the observations reported here are by no means conclusive. However, we believe that the model can be more than a temporary adaptation and has potential for application to language teacher training programs in the future. The virtual communities built for nonnative and native student teachers can promote learning autonomy, help shape teachers' beliefs, and ultimately train foreign language teachers with global perspectives. The computer-assisted teaching model also archives longitudinal data, which enables us to trace and analyze learners' progress over time and to uncover the complexity of student teacher development.
Despite the positive feedback regarding this new model, some obstacles and drawbacks of the model must be noted for future classes to consider.
First, different countries may use different desktop videoconferencing tools. Thus, international students may have to spend time adapting to new or less familiar platforms to complete group work. Students reported that unstable connections could sometimes be "a waste of time" and "interrupt our discussion". One principle proposed for online synchronous L2 learning tasks is practicality, referring to "the fit between the task and the capability of the videoconferencing tool(s) to support task completion" (Wang, 2013, p. 593). Future classes may consider choosing one fixed videoconference platform with a relatively larger user base and providing a training session on how to use that platform before the group work begins.
Second, at the beginning of the course, we found that some international students were not as open as others to peer feedback, particularly critical feedback from Chinese students. To address this situation, the instructor wrote a letter to all students that addressed some points of giving and receiving feedback guided by the three key attitudes proposed for teacher reflection, namely, open-mindedness, responsibility, and whole-heartedness (Dewey, 1933). To feedback providers, the instructor wrote, "[p]lease be honest as well as respectful so you can help your classmates improve their teaching without hurting your peers' feelings. Remember, you will also receive feedback from your classmates, so put yourself in others' shoes".
To feedback receivers, the instructor wrote, " [p]lease be open-minded because your classmates only mean to help you make progress, and your classmates' perspectives are unique as they are both teachers and learners and can be more thorough than I can.
Remember, you will receive feedback -probably more reserved -from your students in the future. An important quality of a good teacher is the ability to embrace different opinions".
One cause of the situation could be that native and nonnative students may have different standards and perspectives regarding what is 'good' versus what is 'poor' performance. Future classes involving collaborations between native and nonnative student teachers should consider learner fit, which emphasizes the individual proficiency level and the way in which the interlocutor aligns with that level (Wang, 2013).
Finally, one component missing from the model is interactions between NNSs. Because nonnative students come from countries in different time zones, finding a mutually convenient time to meet online is not always feasible. However, interactions between nonnative learners are important in L2 acquisition. Research has found that different partnerships may influence students' perceptions of the learning experience and even affect learning gains (Tocaimaza-Hatch & Santo, 2020). Partnerships among NNSs can reduce learners' anxiety and provide them with more time to speak the target language (Brown, 2001). Our interviews also revealed that some international students felt nervous when interacting with two Chinese students simultaneously. Future classes may consider developing another form of group work involving students in matched partnerships.

7.
supported by the Ministry of Education in China Youth Funds of Humanities and Social Sciences (18YJC740144) granted to the second author.


The profile of students’ eco-literacy at nature primary school

Eco-literacy play a crucial role in instilling awareness in children about the importance of protecting the environment. The purpose of this study was to describe the profile of nature school students’ eco-literacy. The research method used qualitative research with a case study approach. The research subjects were selected through the purposive sampling technique. Data collection techniques in this study were questionnaires, observation, interviews, tests, and document study. The data analysis technique employed in this study was the interactive data analysis technique. The results revealed that: (1) cognitive aspects were quite good, indicated by a systematic understanding of nature; (2) emotional aspects were good, shown by high caring and empathy; (3) spiritual aspects were good, indicated by the attitude of respecting nature; (4) high activity aspects, shown by ability to apply ecological knowledge into life practices. This research concludes that the profile of eco-literacy in nature school was quite good.

Introduction
Environmental damage is increasing day by day. It is due to human behavior that exploits natural resources excessively and does not pay attention to environmental renewal. Hence, it is necessary to understand ecosystems' principles and use these principles to form a sustainable society called ecoliteracy (Nurfajriani et al., 2018). Eco-literacy must be owned by every individual. Individuals who have eco-literacy will be able to harmonize development growth with the environment to create a harmonious environment between society and the environment (Agsari et al., 2018). Rosyid et al. (2019) also stated that eco-literacy is needed to produce residents who have knowledge of environmental biophysics and related problems, build awareness and participation in overcoming environmental problems, and motivate them to find solutions to these problems. Eco-literacy itself is an ability that each individual must have to adapt to the ecology where the individual is located (Goleman, 2010). Eco-literacy is a process of increasing understanding, knowledge, attitudes, and behavior based on ecology. Eco-literacy seeks to introduce and renew one's understanding of the importance of global ecological awareness to create a balance between society's needs and the earth's ability to sustain them (Sapanca & Etmagusti, 2012;Sartika et al., 2014). In short, eco-literacy is defined as the ability to understand the ecology and overcome environmental problems for the sake of the sustainability of human life (Pilgrim et al., 2007;Suryanda et al., 2019). Furthermore, ecoliteracy is considered as a guideline for measuring the individuals' ecological knowledge, ability, and willingness to use ecological standards in implementing a sustainable lifestyle (Monaghan & Curthoys, 2008) to create a balance between human needs and the sustainability of the earth that supports it (Pitman & Daniels, 2016).
Several attitudes describe a person's eco-literacy ability, including sensitivity or empathy to the environment, being responsible with his group friends, following the steps, procedures, or rules in a system, being fully responsible for his work, and being aware of environmental management (Goleman, 2010;Rusmana & Akbar, 2017). According to Capra (2007), the eco-literacy aspects are the principles of living systems, design inspired by nature, systems of thought, ecological paradigms and transitions for sustainability, collaboration, and building community and citizenship. Then, McBeth & Volk (2010) presented four components of eco-literacy: (1) foundational ecological knowledge; (2) environmental affect-verbal commitment, environmental sensitivity, environmental feeling; (3) cognitive skills-issue identification, issue analysis, action planning; (4) behavior-actual commitment, i.e., pro-environmental behavior. On the other hand, Okur-Berberoglu (2018) classifies eco-literacy into five sub-sections: ecological intelligence, social intelligence, emotional intelligence, economy, and green consumer behavior. The eco-literacy aspect used in this study refers to the literacy components proposed by the Center for Eco-literacy (2013), namely cognitive (head), emotional (heart), spirit (connection), and activity (hand).
First, the cognitive aspect of eco-literacy is the ability to identify and define environmental problems/issues and analyze them; synthesis and evaluation of information about these problems use primary and secondary sources and one's personal perspective (Hollweg et al., 2011). According to McBride et al. (2013), the cognitive eco-literacy ability is the ability to choose the right strategy or action and create, evaluate, and carry out actions from the plans that have been designed. On the other hand, cognitive abilities in eco-literacy are also defined as the ability to carry out scientific investigations and analyze environmental risks scientifically and think systematically, predictively, progressively, and innovatively (Muthukrishnan, 2019). Knowledge in eco-literacy itself is all information that provides facts about the environment and natural balance. An ecologically intelligent person has knowledge of the importance of understanding the relationship or interrelation between one group and other components and being concerned about a job. It means that ecologically literate someone knows how to relate and behave with the ecosystem (Schimek, 2016). According to Moskaliuk et al. (2017), the cognitive aspect of a person is vital. It is because if someone does not master and understand information related to the environment and natural balance, various forms of action and decision-making that damage the environment can increasingly occur.
Second, the emotional aspect is the ability to manage feelings, the ability to perceive situations, act in accordance with these perceptions, and determine a person's potential to learn practical skills based on self-awareness, motivation, self-regulation, empathy, and skills in building relationships with others (Yuksekbilgili, Akduman & Hatipoglu, 2015;Serrat, 2009). According to Fiori & Maillefer (2017), the emotional aspect is the ability to feel, understand, and effectively apply emotional power and sensitivity as a source of human energy, information, connection, and influence. Furthermore, Lobaskova (2015) affirms that people who have good emotional aspects have the ability to be aware of their own emotions and the emotions of others.
Emotions affect a person's behavior, such as strengthening or discouraging enthusiasm, disrupting learning concentration, and influencing a person's social adjustment and attitudes (Ebinagbome & Nizam, 2016). It is in accordance with Kant's (2019) opinion, stating that emotions could influence individual behavior. In line with the above opinion, MacCann et al. (2020) also revealed that students with good emotional aspects were more likely to determine the success of building their knowledge and reducing self-aggressiveness. The emotional aspect in this research is the ability to feel caring, empathy, and respect for other people and living things, understand and appreciate various perspectives, work and respect other people with different backgrounds, motivations, and intentions, and committed to equality, fairness, inclusiveness, and respect for all people.
Third, the spiritual aspect is the ability to face and solve problems of meaning and value, namely intelligence to place behavior and life in a broader and richer context of meaning, in other words, intelligence to judge that one's actions or way of life are more meaningful (Vokey, 2001;Yocum, Densmore-James & Staal, 2016). The spiritual aspect makes human beings who are truly intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually intact, and it can bridge themselves and others. It is because spiritual intelligence makes humans better understand their self-identity and meaning for themselves and understand how they can give a meaningful place to themselves or other people or the environment. Thus, in the end, these meanings will educate and form a person who has good character, has a complete ethic, and manifests in everyday life, whether social, family, or to face ordinary problems to severe problems, such as suffering (Arweck & Nesbitt, 2007;Pandya, 2017). Preston (2012) adds that the spiritual aspect is the ability of a person's soul to develop himself through various positive activities to solve problems and face challenges through the meaning of them. The spiritual aspect in this research is the ability to respect the earth and all living things, admire nature, be close to the natural world, and use that feeling to others.
Fourth, the activity aspect in eco-literacy is the ability to create and use tools, objects, procedures needed by the community, turn beliefs into practical and effective actions, apply ecological knowledge into life practices, and assess and adapt the use of energy and natural resources (McBride et al. al., 2013). The active participation of students in eco-literacy is aimed at solving problems and environmental problems. For example, action through certain lifestyle activities includes environmentally sound consumer purchasing, using methods to conserve resources, assisting with environmental regulation, using personal and interpersonal means to promote environmentally sound practices, and supporting environmentally sound legislative initiatives and policies (Alexandar & Poyyamoli, 2014;Veselinovska & Osogovska, 2012). Eco-literacy activity refers to enacting the psychomotor domain to develop practical learning skills and work with the physical, such as building, planting, improving the environment, etc. (Singleton, 2015). The students' active involvement is needed in the context of implementing environmentally-friendly behavior. A meaningful educational experience has the potential to excite student activities towards loving the environment (Jagannathan, Camasso & Delacalle, 2018). It is supported by the opinion of Locke, Russo & Montoya (2013) that to increase student eco-literacy activities, learning needs to include real-life problems that students must solve, student-centered learning, group interactions, and authentic assessments that measure student progress.
Based on the explanation on the importance of eco-literacy aspects above, it can be concluded that eco-literacy must be instilled from an early age. It is in line with Agra's (2018) opinion, which states that eco-literacy is part of early childhood education. It is because eco-literacy plays a crucial role in instilling awareness in children about the importance of protecting the environment and forming social awareness and sensitivity to the surrounding environment so that environmental damage can be prevented. It is also reinforced by Desfandi, Maryani & Disman (2017) and Locke, Russo & Montoya (2013), who assert that eco-literacy is an aspect of concern in the field of education because ecoliteracy education can form future generations who are independent and active in conserving resources to develop or make regulations based on environmental, economic, and community conditions. Orr (2011) suggest that eco-literacy is essential to be developed in the learning process because school graduates will act as 1) agents of change in society, namely agents in developing community behavior who have knowledge, insights, attitudes, and behaviors that uphold sustainability, 2) agents who are aware of limited natural resources and the issue of global warming, and 3) agents who can apply eco-literacy or learning applications that are eco-pedagogic in life.
The importance of developing children's eco-literacy through the education level supports the emergence of schools that carry the theme of being close to nature, one of which is nature schools. Nature schools are outdoor learning initiatives as tools for learning and development (Coates & Pimlott-Wilson, 2018). Through the nature school, students are given the opportunity to explore open nature. They will learn how to deal with risks and challenges in the open nature in their style (Harris, 2015). It is in agreement with Leather (2016), who states that nature schools provide stimulation of imaginative play when playing in the open nature so that students who attend nature schools feel more independent and have a greater sense of personal, social, and environmental responsibility. Nature schools encourage students to think creatively to get out of their comfort zone, take risks, and cooperate with their peers. They also feel more physically active while in nature school because they learn to move safely in areas that are difficult to predict and challenging (Barrable & Arvanitis, 2019). The nature school in its ideal form is a practical answer to ecological inequality.
One school that has implemented eco-literacy is the Bengawan Solo Nature School (SABS). Unlike other nature schools, this school occupied an unspoiled nature, not creating nature in the school environment. The implementation of eco-literacy at SABS could be seen from the curriculum, learning, and activities. The SABS curriculum was divided into four pillars, each of which had eco-literacy values. The four pillars were the moral curriculum with exemplary methods, the cognitive curriculum, which is a science with the action learning method to learn with nature, the leadership character curriculum with the outbound training method, and the business mental curriculum with business methods from the results of internships and learning from experts (learn from maestro). SABS activities that facilitated student eco-literacy varied, such as Outbound, Leadership Training, Night Camp, OTFA (Out Tracking Fun Adventure), Outing Class, Science Project for the Environment, etc. In contrast to SABS, the Baturraden Nature School (SABar) had a location setting in the resin tree forest, an upland area in Baturraden, Banyumas. SABar education's goal focused on core values, including soulful, moral, beyond, achieve, and responsible by making educators facilitators for children. SABar used a curriculum of four pillars of value dimensions, comprising the philosophy of science curriculum, the akhlakul karimah (Noble Characters) building curriculum, the leadership curriculum, and the entrepreneurship curriculum. Another distinctive feature of SABar was maximizing the involvement and use of the natural environment and parents' role as educational partners.
Therefore, based on the explanation above, this study aims to describe learning that has an impact on the eco-literacy of nature school students. It is due to the lack of literature on eco-literacy learning in elementary schools. This study's results can be used as an overview and guidelines for eco-literacy learning, especially at the level of primary school students.

Research Design
The research method used was qualitative research. Qualitative research is research used to describe and analyze phenomena, events, social activities, attitudes, beliefs, perceptions, and people individually or in groups (Williams, 2007). This qualitative research was the most suitable because the researcher wanted to emphasize the process and a detailed description of the problems regarding eco-literacy learning in primary schools. The form of this research was a case study. Case study research aims to explore problems with certain limitations, retrieve data in-depth, and include informants (Baxter & Jack, 2010). In qualitative research, researchers position themselves as a key instrument, which means that researchers collect their research data through document study, behavioral observation, and in-depth interviews (Miles & Huberman, 2014).

Sample
The subjects of this study involved the principal, teachers, and all students of the Bengawan Solo Nature School and the Baturaden Nature School. The research subjects who were used as informants were considered through purposive sampling techniques. Informants were selected because of particular characteristics based on the theoretical concepts used, personal curiosity, and empirical characteristics (Tongco, 2007). The reason the researcher chose Bengawan Solo Nature Primary School and Baturaden Nature Primary School as research sites were, among others, because of (1) easy licensing, (2) the availability of research subjects to be involved in the research, (3) this school was established for humanitarian reasons (there are still many students who drop out schools because of costs), and concern for the environment (the condition of the Bengawan Solo River which is concerning and the environment of the neglected forest), and (4) the location of the school was quite strategic and still in a beautiful natural environment.

Data Collection Techniques
Data collection techniques in this study were questionnaires, observation, interviews, tests, and document study. The questionnaire disseminated in this research was in the form of statements relating to emotional and spiritual aspects. It was enough to fill in this questionnaire by placing a checkmark in the "Yes" column if students agreed with the statement and placed a checkmark in the "No" column if students did not agree. Students were asked to fill in the 20 points of the eco-literacy questionnaire statement. Then, observations were made as an effort for the researcher to collect data and information from primary data sources by optimizing the researcher's observations that involved listening, reading, smelling, and touching activities. Observation techniques were employed to obtain complete and detailed student eco-literacy activity data regarding direct conditions based on direct observations in the field (Debby, Stokes & Peter, 2010). The observation technique utilized in this research was a non-participant observation, in which the researcher acted as an observer and did not engage in the activity being observed. The researcher observed the low and high classes to determine the learning process between the two class levels.
The researcher's interview technique was an in-depth interview technique to obtain more detailed, valid, and detailed research data. Besides, the in-depth interview technique allows for a harmonious relationship between the researcher and the resource person (Jamshed, 2014). The stages of in-depth interviews, according to Boyce & Neale (2006), are starting from determining suitable sources, making interview indicators, preparing interview data collection tools, making interview guidelines, making arrangements for a place and time to conduct interviews, recording all interview data obtained, transcribing all interview data into written form, making observations in writing, and analyzing the results of interviews obtained. Then, the researcher distributed the eco-literacy test instrument to students of the Bengawan Solo Nature Primary School. This question contained five essay items. The questions given were related to eco-literacy learning. The researcher could find out the students' ecoliteracy abilities from the answers given. The researcher employed this documentation study to complete the data. Documents are records of events/incidents that have passed in the form of writings, pictures, or someone's work (Bowen, 2009). Through these documents, it was hoped that they could become a source for answering not possible questions to ask through interviews or observations so that the use of this document study technique helped in the process of validating the data obtained before data analysis was carried out.

Data Analysis Technique
The data analysis technique utilized in this study was the interactive data analysis technique of Miles & Hubberman (2014), consisting of data validating, data collection stages, data reduction, data presentation, and conclusion drawing. The validity of the data was carefully considered to prove that the study is scientific research in which the data are based on reality and are credible, representative, and appropriate (Whittemore et al., 2001). Triangulation was used to increase the trustworthiness of the study. The triangulation employed in the study is the method triangulation and source triangulation. The source triangulation is to collect data from multiple data sources, such as teachers, principals, and parents. In addition, the method triangulation is to collect data by using multiple methods of data collection such as interviews, observation, questionnaires, and document analysis to obtain complete data.
Data collection was done by collecting observational data, in-depth interviews, and document studies. The data obtained in the study were checked and tested for their validity first to be accounted for and serve as a strong basis for drawing research conclusions. In this study, the technique used to test the data's validity was triangulation, which covered the triangulation of sources, techniques, and time. Source triangulation was carried out by comparing data based on interviews with information sources, namely students, teachers, and school principals. Technique triangulation in this study served to validate the data obtained by using several different data collection techniques against the same source. From some data obtained through various data collection techniques, the results were then compared with other techniques and conclusions drawn to obtain more substantial data validity. Finally, time triangulation in this study was employed to obtain credible data because by using this method, patterned or repetitive data could be obtained so that the data's credibility level could be determined or decided.
At the data reduction stage, there was a process of selecting, concentrating attention, simplifying, and transforming the rough data that emerged from field notes obtained by researchers-in each research cycle carried out. After the data obtained from the field were sorted into essential parts, they were separated according to categories (between uppercase, lowercase, numbers) and discarded data that was not used. Then, these data could be presented in the form of tables, graphs, or diagrams. Therefore, through the data presentation, the data could be organized and arranged in a relationship pattern so that it was easier to understand. The conclusions were drawn in stages. The initial conclusions put forward were still provisional. Through analysis conducted by the researcher from various data obtained, conclusions could be drawn in response to the problem formulation. The results of this conclusion were used as a result of the report on the research implementation.

Cognitive Aspect
Based on the eco-literacy evaluation test results, it was found that 23.75% or 19 students got the criteria for low eco-literacy ability, 50% or 40 students were categorized as moderate, and 26.25% or 21 students were classified as high. The average test score of students was 80.5, with the category of moderate eco-literacy ability. The lowest score was 60, and the highest score was 100. The summary of the evaluation test results can be seen in the following figure. The facts based on the evaluation test results above were supported by the interview results with the principal, who stated: "The students' cognitive abilities in this school are quite good; it can even be said to be above average. It can be seen when students are faced with problems in the form of questions, such as students being able to explain the impact of building houses in mountainous areas, which will reduce water absorption and cause landslides; students can predict the time a forest area will become deforested if every month there is deforestation; students can explain the causes of flooding from an area based on some information or news. It is evident in the students' answers in the assignments." Based on the observation results, students learned directly with nature. For example, when students learned about plants and plant functions, students would investigate and experiment with dioramas, and they would directly observe erosion and flooding so that they understood that one of the functions of plants is to prevent flooding. Students also learned directly from the natural Low Moderate High environment. For example, when they learned about animal body parts, they would observe directly by catching fish in the pond, then they would dissect it and identify the parts of the fish's body. They also learned the types of bees, bee body parts, nectar and its benefits, and harvest bees from bee cultivation.
Based on the eco-literacy evaluation test results, it was found that the students' cognitive ecoliteracy abilities could be categorized as good. It corroborates with the research by Adela, Sukarno & Indriayu (2018), which stated that the ability to understand elementary school students' eco-literacy, especially schools that implemented the Adiwiyata program, could be categorized as very good. Adiwiyata program itself is an environmental education program. However, this study contradicts Iskandar, Rahmawati & Hamdani (2019), which stated that elementary school students' eco-literacy skills in their understanding or cognitive aspects were still low.
The students' cognitive aspects based on the eco-literacy evaluation test were characterized by scientific inquiry skills, method and risk analysis, problem-solving, and critical thinking related to serious environmental issues. It aligns with the opinion of Hollweg et al. (2011) that the cognitive aspects of eco-literacy are characterized by the ability to identify and define environmental problems/issues and analyze them; synthesis and evaluation of information on these problems use primary and secondary sources and one's personal perspective.
In nature school, there were four curricula, and one of them was the cognitive curriculum. The facilitator gave students assignments, making them think logically and analytically so that they completed their assignments and recognized the connection of their knowledge with real-life applications. The learning method used in this natural school was special in its implementation because it was adjusted to each student's growth. The methods employed were discussion, outing class, work with the parent, design project, swimming, and others. Outing classes were usually carried out in natural environments, such as eel docking stations, eco-bricks, and fish docking on the beach. The science projects carried out were like making greenhouses and eco-bricks.
Several factors influence the cognitive aspects of student eco-literacy. According to Rigolon (2012), learning places have an active role in increasing eco-literacy. The closer the students are to the beautiful nature, the higher the level of understanding of eco-literacy. It is in line with the opinion of Koc & Ontas (2020) that meaningful learning that should be in the curriculum for elementary school students is learning that involves students' cognitive activities directly with their learning resources. Another factor that affects the understanding of eco-literacy is the learning material. The learning material must raise environmental issues that are familiar to students to help students think critically and creatively, discuss and find solutions to these problems with natural scientific investigations (Arga & Rahayu, 2019). Moreover, the books provided must also be environmentally based. Eco-literacy books are more suitable for pictorial designs to stimulate imagination and help students understand them (Adriani, Hartati & Kurniawan, 2017;Muthukrishnan, 2019).

Emotional Aspect
Emotional aspect data were obtained from student questionnaire answers and interview results with students and teachers. The summary of the answers' analysis results to the students' questionnaires can be seen in the following diagram. Based on the information presented in Figure 2, it could be concluded that the indicators that received the highest questionnaire scores were caring and empathy. The emotional aspect of ecoliteracy has three indicators. The first indicator is feeling caring, empathy, and respect for other people and sentient beings. The existence of this competency makes students more sensitive to the environment, other people, and living things. Students can feel what other people feel. The observation results showed that students had high empathy by often sharing lunch. In fact, sometimes, some students deliberately asked their parents to make more lunch. It was because, during lunch, students gave and received food from other students, especially students who did not bring food. Students' care for their environment was manifested by the act of disposing of garbage properly and awareness of cleaning the school environment. Besides, students also had the awareness to encourage each other. For example, when walking, they would be careful and avoid the plants around them and remind each other of friends. It aligns with the interview results with a third-grade teacher, who stated: "Students already have the awareness to dispose of organic and inorganic waste. Here, a separate trash can between organic and inorganic has been provided. Even lower-class students can distinguish between organic and inorganic waste well. They are also aware of the cleanliness of their environment, such as when there is a dirty side of the study room, they will take a broom and clean it without prompting and without aiming to be praised". Students' empathy for the environment was shown by disposing of trash regularly, while students' empathy for their peers was exhibited by sharing lunch. Empathy is the ability to understand what other people feel, see it from that person's point of view, and imagine oneself in that person's position (Faisal & Ghani, 2015). Empathy greatly determines the direction of a person's life by building social relationships, regulating self-emotion, training in helping behavior, reducing the possibility of stress, and increasing self-achievement (Wahjudi, Findyartini & Kaligis, 2019;Bozkurt & OZden, 2010).
The second indicator is seeing and appreciating different perspectives and working and appreciating other people with different backgrounds, motivations, and judgments. The observation results revealed that students were accustomed to making projects, so they were accustomed to discussing problems raised as the project's main idea, discussing project planning, collaborating in project implementation, and solving problems together. Working and respecting others was also focused on group discussions not only with classmates but also with parents. Routinely, students were given assignments related to critical thinking skills and their analysis with parents. The interview results with the first-grade teacher stated: "Teachers routinely give assignments done with parents. For the first graders, their tasks are raising fish at home with their parents, telling them how often they feed them and caring for the fish. Yesterday, there was a fish that died, so we analyze it together. I invited students to think about why fish die, the causes, and the solution". The observation results showed maturity in other emotional aspects was respecting other people with various backgrounds. Students could mingle with students with special needs and did not discriminate against those who were not the same as their friends in general. It indicated the success of inclusive education, where normal children treated children with special needs homogeneously, and there was no special treatment from the teacher or school (Zimina & Bruxgelevicience, 2016). Students could adept at dealing with differences in groups, shown by interactions in learning, such as discussing and solving problems together. It is because, during group discussions, the interaction between students foster mutual respect, an attitude of democracy; some activities develop thinking, knowledge, and experience, create creative and analytical processes, and practice speaking skills (Meleady, Hopthrow & Crisp, 2012;Stenlund, Jonsson & Jonsson, 2017).
The third indicator is a commitment to equality, fairness, inclusiveness, and respect for all people. Ecologically literate students are active community builders and citizens. Ecological education takes place in the natural environment and local communities. Students can build relationships and apply their understanding in real-world settings. One way to do this is to commit to equality, justice, inclusiveness, and respect for all people, especially in the community. Students have already committed to equality, fairness, inclusiveness, and respect for all school members. Based on the observation results, every morning, before the lesson began, the teacher and students would commit to the Morning Promise. Every morning, students would promise to help friends, protect the environment, clean the environment, and so on, but these promises varied every day according to conditions. Besides, this student's commitment was dominantly shown in peer interaction. The interview results supported this fact with a fifth-grade teacher, who stated: "At Bengawan Solo Nature Primary School, we accept students with special needs so that, both from the school, teachers, and peers, these students with special needs are treated equally with other students. Students already understand equality, fairness, and inclusiveness aspects in school by treating their peers equally. No one differentiates; like creating a special gang, it does not exist." Students were already committed to equality and inclusiveness in all things people. It was displayed by not discriminating between normal friends and friends with special needs. This view of equality showed that the emotional aspects of students were mature. It is supported by the opinions of Joy & Mayhew (2018) and Rajeshwari & Raj (2017), which stated that the emotional aspect of maturity is characterized by the easy flow of love and affection, the ability to judge things positively, and the ability to determine the right behavior towards things that are incompatible with or different from oneself or the environment. These students' emotional maturity was driven by the Morning Promise as a habit that was always done so that every day, they felt that they had an emotional task to do as a form of their responsibility. This fact is reinforced by Kucukkaragoz's (2020) theory that an emotional quotient can be formed through continuous habituation.

Aspect of Spirit
Similar to the emotional aspect, data on the spiritual aspect were also obtained from student questionnaire answers and the interview results with students and teachers. The summary of the answers' analysis results to the students' questionnaires can be seen in the following diagram. Based on the information displayed in Figure 3, it could be concluded that the indicator that received the highest questionnaire score was kinship with nature. Figure 6. Students walk without stepping on plants The spiritual aspect of eco-literacy has indicators in the form of extraordinary experiences to understand nature. Extraordinary experiences can be provided through practical eco-literacy learning. Students learn directly in the wild (environment) and become more meaningful learning. SABS had many activities that provided a great experience to understand nature. The interview results with the principal stated: "Almost every activity here is related to eco-literacy so that it always interacts directly with nature. It is because, in my opinion, eco-literacy is concerned with the environment. In learning, it means that we learn must involve the environment. We study the environment, so we must go directly to the environment. Besides, it is easier for SABS students to be taught eco-literacy to go directly to nature rather than sit down to do assignments or listen to the subject matter".
The interview results reinforced this fact with a fourth-grade teacher, who stated: "The way to teach eco-literacy is by holding activities outside. Environmental sensitivity activities are more relevant in the event of an accident like yesterday, several roofs of the huts collapsed. They were taught for community service. The facilitator put aside the material that had to be studied to get the right moment to train students' eco-literacy".
The spiritual aspect in this research was the ability to appreciate the earth and all living things, admire nature, be close to the natural world, and use that feeling to others. The spiritual aspect of students was shown by caring for the environment when learning took place in nature. The students' sensitivity to the environment was naturally shown when they worked together to repair the hut's collapsed roof. It was a student's self-effort to make himself more meaningful to others or the environment. It is in accordance with the theory of Arweck & Nesbitt (2007) and Pandya (2017, stating that a person who has a complete spirituality can make himself have good character, have complete ethics, and be meaningful for the social and family environment.
The next indicator is respect for the earth and any living things in it. Students who have already understood and applied eco-literacy in their daily activities would definitely respect the earth, living things, and everything on earth. The love of protecting and caring for the environment was embedded in students. It was because regularly, students were presented with interesting shows that contained many meanings to preserve the environment. The interview results with the fifth-grade teacher stated: "Every day, learning is carried out using interesting learning media, for example, multimedia. We, the facilitators, routinely show learning videos with the theme of the environment; for example, yesterday, I just showed a video of Kampung 3G in Malang, where all the residents emphasize the importance of protecting the environment so that the environment is very beautiful and pleasing to the eye. For today, I want to show a video that has an implicit meaning that the cleanliness of our environment has an impact on personal health". Students have also mastered the indicators of spiritual aspects in the form of being able to draw strong bonds and appreciate deeply about a place and connect students with the environment. It was shown by their participation in green lab activities and outing class practices, where students were invited to get involved directly to create a bond with a place, which would later be analyzed and made into knowledge so that solutions were found for the problems that existed in that place. It is in agreement with Preston's (2012) theory that the spiritual aspect is the ability in a person's soul to develop themselves entirely through various positive activities to solve problems and face challenges through the meaning contained in them.
Indicators of spiritual aspects are able to attract strong bonds and appreciate in-depth about a place and be able to connect students with the environment. Natural systems gave students a liking for a place and an understanding of their environment. Students would discover and learn the ecoliteracy principles. The interview results with the fifth-grade teacher stated: "The way we instill a love for the environment in students, one of which is by making green labs or after practicing outing classes, children are invited to think and analyze everything related to the environment, such as analyzing causes, impacts, and solutions". It was also supported by the interview results with fourth-grade teachers, who stated: "How to instill a love for the environment is by inviting children to think directly when practicing in the environment. Besides, usually, every morning, the facilitator also tells about nature by making the name of the student as the character so that students are much more interested in listening ". As for indicators of feeling a kinship with the natural world and showing these feelings with what around them, it was marked by the students' eco-literacy understanding increasing and developing over time. With an increasing understanding of eco-literacy, the students would show a feeling of kinship with nature in the form of daily actions. Besides, this natural school always reflected at the end of each lesson and was linked with relevant verses to the lesson that day so that students could better understand the meaning of life in the natural world with its relationship to God.
The spiritual aspect was highly emphasized in nature school education, which was marked by a reflection at the end of each lesson linked with relevant verses in the Koran. As educators, they should instill meaningful values in life implicitly in every educational process (Ryndak & Saldaeva, 2020). Additionally, self-reflection in learning can also determine student interest in learning and learning success starting from strategies, models, methods, media, and learning approaches (Tichonova & Schoroskiene, 2013). Therefore, spiritual education is very much needed because it is an effort to equip individuals, which refers to the formation of harmony in relationships, both with themselves, fellow humans and the environment, as well as with God (Hamjah, Rasit & Sham, 2012;Bachtiar et al., 2018).

Activities
Based on the observation results with the eco-literacy observation sheet, the information listed in the following diagram was obtained. Based on the information exhibited in Figure 4, it could be concluded that the activity aspect indicator that scored the highest was applying ecological knowledge into life practices.
The first indicator for the activity aspect is creating and using tools, objects, and procedures needed by the community. Based on the observation results, students already could create or use tools, objects, and procedures needed by the community. For example, when students found a leaky pipe, students would consciously look for items that could leak the pipe, stopping using the tools and objects around them. Students could also design windmills for power generation in project-based learning, modify tools to water plants automatically, and make a blender. The student's ability is an eco-literacy activity, where this activity is a form of developing practical learning skills and working physically, such as building, planting, and improving the environment (Singleton, 2015). Experiences like the above were included in meaningful eco-literacy education, which can stimulate student activities towards environmental love (Jagannathan, Camasso & Delacalle, 2018).
The next indicator is applying ecological knowledge to life practices. Based on the observation results, each student had an ornamental plant planted next to the class. Students consciously and regularly took turns watering and fertilizing the ornamental plants. Not only with plants, students also got knowledge of ecology for raising, cultivating catfish to bees, which they then applied in their daily lives. Besides, when students learned about healthy and unhealthy environments, they also had the initiative to make bins from woven bamboo, which were then placed in houses, which according to 19% 25% 40% 16% Ability to create and use tools, object and procedures

Turning beliefs into ecological actions
Applying ecological knowledge into life practices them, were lacking. It indicated that these students had a provision of ecological knowledge provided by the teacher, which was then applied in life practice.
Students have become skilled at applying ecological knowledge into life practices, which was exposed by the students' conscious behavior to care for ornamental plants based on the knowledge they gained during learning. Humans who have ecological knowledge and apply it well will understand every behavior and action, not only having an impact on themselves and others but also on the natural environment in which they live, which must be maintained so that they still have the carrying capacity for the lives of themselves, others, and their environment. (Horton, & Horton, 2019;Boafo et al., 2015). This opinion is also supported by the opinion of Orr (2011) that someone who has ecological knowledge and can apply it in everyday life must know how to relate and behave with their ecosystem.
In the activity indicator in the form of assessing and adjusting the use of energy and natural resources, students had the skills to assess and an awareness of the use of energy and natural resources. The observation results uncovered that students had the awareness to turn off the lights when they were not needed, even though for students with special needs, some did not yet have this awareness. It was supported by the interview results with teachers who stated: "At Bengawan Solo Nature Primary School, the weather often changes at a time. For example, sometimes, it is cloudy in the morning, later in the afternoon it is very hot, then after that, suddenly, the sky becomes dark again and cloudy. Here, students are aware of when they need lights and when they do not need them. Students have an awareness of energy-saving; likewise, with fans or other electronic devices. However, there are indeed some students with special needs who have not shown awareness of energy saving. " This fact was reinforced by the interview results with parents who stated: "Children have the awareness to turn off the lights, air conditioner, and TV when they are not in use. Then, another example, when doing ablution (wudhu), they will save water. Unlike children in general who like to play with water, they will close the faucet and continue their activities when they finish doing ablution." The next indicator of student ecological activity was to assess the use of energy and natural resources, indicated by the awareness of students turning off lights, TV, air conditioning, and fans when not in use, both at school and home. Besides, students were also aware that they always carried a drink bottle to reduce the use of plastic when they had to buy drinks. This student behavior is the active participation of students in eco-literacy addressed through specific actions, activities, or lifestyles, including environmentally friendly consumer purchases, using methods to conserve resources, assisting in the enforcement of environmental regulations, using personal and interpersonal ways to promote environmentally sound practices and support environmental policies and legislative initiatives (Alexandar & Poyyamoli, 2014;Veselinovska & Osogovska, 2012).

Conclusion and Recommendations
Based on the research results and discussion, it could be concluded that (1) the cognitive aspects of most students were classified as good, indicated by a systematic understanding of nature. (2) The students' emotional aspects were good, signified by caring and empathy, cooperation and mutual respect, and commitment to student justice, which was evident in every activity. (3) Students' spiritual aspects were categorized as good, shown by respecting nature, understanding nature, appreciating nature, and kinship with nature, both in learning and activities outside of learning. (4) The students' active ecological activity was displayed by proficiently applying ecological knowledge into life practices, the ability to convert beliefs into ecological actions, the ability to create and use high tools, objects, and procedures, and the ability to assess and adjust the use of energy and natural resources, both at home and school. Based on these aspects, the profile of eco-literacy ability in nature schools was quite good.
The study recommends educators, teachers, and counselors to focus on the eco-literacy of students because to introduce and renew one's understanding of the importance of global ecological awareness to create a balance between society's needs and the earth's ability to sustain them. Ecoliteracy also plays a crucial role in instilling awareness in children about the importance of protecting the environment and forming social awareness and sensitivity to the surrounding environment so that environmental damage can be prevented. The results showed that students' eco-literacy in nature schools were very good. It recommended to investigate this trend among public schools or private schools in different countries.


A Study of Faculty Retention Factors in Educational Institutes in Context With ABET

A typical higher education institute classically has all the five major constituents, i.e. current students, alumni, faculty members, employers and industrial advisory board. Expectations of the rest of the constituents are fully dependent on the faculty members, as they play a pivotal and backbone role in building up an educational institute, to a high repute. Faculty members provide the knowledge and skills necessary to students, to address market needs. Letting go of skilled, professional and enthusiastic faculty members can have a huge impact on any higher education institution’s reputation and in fulfilling the market needs. In this research, we explore the different influencing factors and criteria for retaining teaching staff at schools and higher education institutes. These criteria are then evaluated against Accreditation Board of Engineering and Technology (ABET) accredited institutes criteria data of “faculty” and “Institutional support,” to see the impact. Study shows that only very few faculty members leave the institution because of higher student-to-faculty ratio or denial of tenure. Also, most of institutions concentrate on providing reduced number of lecture hours per week to keep their faculty members happy and perform research at the institution. Out of 737 faculty members of 27 institutes included in this study, only 0.54% faculty members left ABET accredited institutions.

INTRODUCTION
Faculty members of higher education institutions mainly have three major elements in their job description, i.e. teaching, administrative duties and research. Keeping a sound balance of distribution among all the three elements over an academic year, either in a semester-based system or in a yearly based system, is of utmost importance for the job satisfaction of a faculty member. All these three components need time, devotion, dedication, skills and expertise. Teaching the courses which are relevant to the expert area or the domain of the faculty members need to be considered. i.e., subjects that consume less time for preparation. Administrative tasks must be assigned in such a way that the faculty member have prior knowledge, training and know how to do the job. On the other hand, faculty members must be given proper training or instructions or manual via a workshop or a seminar before the assignment of any new task. Research work is solely expertise-based job where a researcher only digs more into the area of interest. However, all the three main tasks mentioned and explained above, needs proper planning for the distribution of a balanced and fair load in any educational institution. Providing a friendly environment wherein faculty members can polish and nurture their skills and knowledge is also considered of great importance. A continuous enhancement in skills, knowledge and experience in terms of teaching and research is a must because it will help faculty members to retain their positions because talented and productive employees have always been the center for any organization who can play a significant role in building stronger academic institutes. These institutes who always keep hunting such productive faculty members, in return must implement policies that could potentially support and maintain the retention rate which will contribute to the progress and growth of a characterized work environment, not only for the faculty itself but also for their peers. One of the most important factor for a faculty member to stay in an educational environment may be the status of job, i.e. tenure tracked, permanent, contract based, temporary, adjunct etc. Permanent employees are more relaxed and their retention is expected to be higher than others. On the other hand, contract based and adjunct faculty members usually search for better opportunities. There are several other factors such as opportunities for personal investments and social benefits, immigration policies of the country for life-time planning and children's education. These factors may also play a significant role in retention of faculty members. Solutions to recruit, retain and maintain academic faculty members in Medical Education shows the need to consider various diversified factors (Lo et al., 2020). Specific study towards improved retention of nursing faculty from minority community shows the need to integrate various cross-cultural and peer mentoring into the academic environment (Julion et al., 2019).
The objective of this study is to investigate the criteria and impact of influencing factors on faculty retention and to find any correlation, if exists between Accreditation Board of Engineering and Technology (ABET) and retention. Note that our investigation is not meant to be a generalized framework, rather an observation that may be considered by the faculty members to support in their decision-making process for their careers.
Here we describe the hierarchy of the study. Section 2 presents literature review which is divided into two parts. In the first part, we discuss state-of-the art criteria for retaining teaching staff at educational institutions, while in the second part we will explore the relationship of professional development on teaching staff retention along with data collected from multiple sources. Section 3 presents methodology to explain, how the overall study was carried out, whereas Section 4 presents discussion of results and Section 5 concludes the overall concept.

LITERATURE REVIEW
Different theories for retention at different transition points exists, such as Ajzen theory (Ajzen, 1991) and transition theory (Anderson, 2011). These theories are considered for studying retention, improvement and research by education experts, researchers and administrators. Limited literature is available for employability measurement, however a study (Heijde and Heijden, 2006) shows assessing the employability of hired people is actually based on supervisor rating of onthe-job performance which is directly linked to professional development (Reynolds et al., 2002). However, it is pertinent to say that employability must be assessed through three ways, i.e. employer interview, observation of actual teaching and through the tools designed for assessing employability attributes (Espinoza et al., 2020). Approximately 20% of new teachers leave by the end of the year, while 40% leave by the end of the fifth year (Avalos, 2011). Movers (who switch job) having industrial experience, for them transferring industrial/practical experience to teaching skills is a motivator as a second-career (Mayotte, 2003). Statistical figures from two state-wise datasets, acquired from Texas and Florida in 1999, shows that movers accounted for 47% of teachers (Kersaint et al., 2007). It is interesting to note that 56% vacancies were filled by movers who have worthy experiences and only 16% by fresh graduates whereas 5-50% of teachers quit/switch their jobs in their first 5 years of career (Schaefer et al., 2012). These numbers seem provoking for many of us but we should remind ourselves that different educational institutes may have different strategies and policies to hire fire and retain faculty members with different skills, backgrounds and varying range of experiences. Here, we present some of the retention criteria from the multiple sources in educational institutes.

Retention Factors at Educational Institutes
A study at US schools examines why teachers leave, plan to remain or resign, and the likelihood of returning of faculty members through Ajzen theory of planned behavior (Ajzen, 1991). Family issues are termed as the most crucial factor in determining the possibility of a faculty member's decision of whether to stay or leave a job. Family, administrative support, joy of teaching, financial support and volume of work are considered as the key stimuli for joining an institution. Firing decisions can be triggered due to less students-teachers ratio and last-minute hiring of underqualified professionals (Kersaint et al., 2007). In another study, on retention factors for local faculty members, due to their low representation in key organizations in Australia, it was found that family support is one of the main factors for any indigenous pre-service teacher (Trimmer et al., 2018).
Educational research and its inapplicability due to cultural factor is alarming. The outcome of educational research is hardly followed by practitioners because the willingness to apply the results is negligible. At the same time, a major concern in educational research is the minimal contribution of researchers to a professional knowledge base. An online discussion forum was implemented to validate the research, however it concluded that it is impractical to generalize all the experimental results conducted at school level due to variety of cultural differences that may vary based on geographical locations. Research and practice of the concluding methods to enhance the quality cannot be applicable in two different cultures (Joram et al., 2020).
An emergent ecological school model was proposed (Zavelevsky and Lishchinsky, 2020) based on an educational literature terminology of Novice teacher, which refers to the teachers with three to 5 years of experience. It was found out that the main retention factors are individual (knowledge, skills), interpersonal (relationship with other colleagues), organizational (rules and regulations), community (promoting social norms) and policy (local, state and federal).
Study of elementary teachers' needs suggested that financial benefits, school environment to earn respect and support of students and others at work, and long holidays are some of the factors attracting faculty members to stay in the same workplace. Moral and financial appreciations of work are also considered very encouraging and motivational factors in retention (Cockburn, 2000).
A longitudinal study revealing the complex pattern of changes, over 3 years of second career/movers was performed in which attrition and retention was termed as a big concern for schools and teaching institutions. Administrative tasks, workplace conditions, schools support, mentoring (Professional development) and personal beliefs (perceptions and characteristics) were considered as factors for retention/ attrition in the study (Goodwin et al., 2019).
Teaching needs adequate knowledge and skills that require a proper mechanism of supply and demand and a study was carried out by the principals to elaborate the process of maintaining the supply and demand among schools (Donitsa-Schmidt and Zuzovsky, 2014). Authors have shown that principals employed strategies like overloading the teachers, hiring under or overqualified teachers, and employing temporary teachers for long periods of time to meet the supply and demand requirements and it ended up with low retention rate. Zhou and Volkwein (2004) studied the factors influencing the retention of all the faculty members including tenured and nontenured. Based on National Study of Postsecondary Faculty (NSOPF-99) dataset, the study reveals that tenured faculty members are influenced by compensation, while non-tenured faculty are influenced by satisfaction with job security. Senior faculty members are expected not to shift job positions. Also, the influence of three factors such as seniority, satisfaction with job security, and satisfaction with compensation are higher than other factors. Johnsrud and Rosser (2002) studied the reasons behind leaving of a faculty member, at varied academic or administrative positions, from an institution. Study reveals that "morale" defined as "the well-being that an individual or group is experiencing in reference to their work life" is the main cause for leaving an institution. Higher morale can be achieved through the culture in the organization, involvement of faculty members in decision making, feeling of momentum in the organization, and how much a faculty is known within the institution.
Vocational-technical faculty are influenced or attracted towards private industry (Rosser and Townsend, 2006). This study further elaborates that in public community colleges, faculty members are well satisfied with their work environment. Increasing the technical support given to faculty members, improving the library holdings and classroom facilities will improve the retention of faculty members.
Importance of campus life on faculty retention is a wellstudied and reported topic (Anderman et al., 1991;Darling-Hammond, 2003;Dee, 2004;Gardner, 2012a;Piercy et al., 2005). Anderman et al. (1991) suggests the importance of supportive and conducive environment for maintaining satisfaction among faculty members. Time commitment (Barnes et al., 1998) along with the knowledge of the faculty about their institution do affect the intention to leave. Therefore, authors have suggested giving emphasis on schedule-based rewards and providing an environment with appropriate stimulus. Recent study has shown the importance of organizational rewards to retain star faculty (Desselle et al., 2021). Borman and Dowling (2008) studied the problem further and suggested that along with work environments, mentoring programs also play an important role for faculty retention. Authors have also suggested a need for an extensive randomized experiments or well-crafted quasi-experiments to have a convincing evaluation. Furthermore, Ponjuan et al. (2011) showed that understanding the feasibility of tenure process encourages the collegial relationships among faculty members. Dissatisfaction about the environment has caused many woman faculty members to leave the institution (Gardner, 2012a). A recent study (Tawafak et al., 2020) has invested the importance of using IT governance towards enhancing academic performance. Factors like graduates' attributes, teaching and assessment methods are to be improved through e-learning systems.
Changes in curriculum, governance and faculty development are common. But these changes should be made in such a way to be attractive towards faculty members (Dee, 2004). Selection of candidates for teaching jobs is influenced by grade scores and interviews. A study (Bowles et al., 2014) suggests the consideration of previous achievements, reasoning skills and social interaction skills as important factors for selection.
Based on all the above factors some are extracted that can potentially affect the retention rate. Some of the factors that can potentially effect the retention are financial benefits, academic reputation of the institution, good working environment, long holidays/time off, work family balance and teaching load. These retention factors are not exhaustive as it is evident from literature that it is very subjective matter and decision making of a faculty member to quit or remain in the job depends on variety of influential reasons and some of them are shown in Figure 1. There may be several other factors that could possibly affect the retention rate.

Retention and Professional Development
Huge investment (millions of dollars) is made for professional development in teaching institutions, to engage teachers in professional development activities and retention (Avalos, 2011). NTE (National teacher examination) scores of PDS (professional Frontiers in Education | www.frontiersin.org December 2021 | Volume 6 | Article 678018 development schools) and non-PDS (non-professional development schools) suggest no significant difference (Long and Morrow, 1995). A comparison of professional development schools (PDS) and nonprofessional development (non-PDS) schools indicates that professional development has no link to retention of teachers, however it is solely dependent on individual effectiveness (Reynolds et al., 2002). Usually the PD (Professional development) members chosen for professional development training and courses, are the talented faculty. The only edge of PDs over non-PDS is that PDS are more effective in teaching and as observed are rated high by their directors (Reynolds et al., 2002). The effect of professional development is very limited, as its focus is usually not on multiple but on single subject area, intended for small group and a minor part of teaching practice. Appraisal and recognition of work are important factors seen by teachers for their retention (Gore et al., 2017). The effect of professional development on teacher's career was observed to have good impact on student outcomes but with lesser retention dependability. Teachers see themselves likely to maintain their position progressively when the organization engage them in professional development programs. Professional development is usually for promotion and/or leadership skills enhancement (Coldwell, 2017). Relationship among three factors i.e. distributed leadership, professional collaboration and job satisfaction for school teachers shows that distributed leadership is directly associated with job satisfaction of teachers. Professional collaboration was defined as joint team lecturing, observing other teachers and collaborative professional development, and it was noted that professional development has a direct link with job retention (García Torres, 2019). Teachers training for retention was investigated in three Chilean universities, considering the socio-economic factor. Study shows that classroom management was considered a top employability factor for hiring of individuals in lower income places, while in higher income places academic knowledge of individuals was a priority influencer. For retention at any place, family was considered as one of the most important factors. Hiring alumni is considered as an aspect to assess the program's success in Chilean universities (Espinoza et al., 2020). A summary of faculty retention factors at different educational institutes is presented in Table 1.

METHODOLOGY
Retaining qualified professionals for any educational institute is of utmost importance and faculty also considers the available facilities arranged by the institutes in addition to other benefits and resources such as lab equipment and technical resources, supply and demand of their professional needs, official resources, opportunities and arrangement for professional trainings. Institutes following various academic accreditation standards adhere to planning, management and delivery of assessment results in terms of learning outcomes. Focus of accreditation on technology enhancement, student learning outcomes and faculty technology experience is reported (Tawafak et al., 2018).
Such facilities are readily available in most of the well reputed institutes but an institution with ABET accreditation must ensure the availability of all possible required resources for their faculty and students as well because it is a matter of high prestige for the institution, and they try their best efforts to retain the high profile faculty and it plays a role of stimulating factor for faculty to decide either to remain in the position or to quit the job. In other words, both the institution and faculty may be considered necessary and sufficient conditions for each other. It is generally assumed that any institution applying for ABET accreditation must fulfil all the criteria required for the accreditation purpose. We are only interested in two of them i.e., criterion 6, "Faculty" and criterion 8. "Institutional Support." Criteria 6 states that "Each faculty member teaching in the program must have expertise and educational background consistent with the contributions to the program expected from the faculty member. The competence of faculty members must be demonstrated by such factors as education, professional credentials and certifications, professional experience, ongoing professional development, contributions to the discipline, teaching effectiveness, and communication skills. Collectively, the faculty must have the breadth and depth to cover all curricular areas of the program 1 ." Criteria 8 states that "Resources including institutional services, financial support, and staff (both administrative and technical) provided to the program must be adequate  to meet program needs. The resources available to the program must be sufficient to attract, retain, and provide for the continued professional development of a qualified faculty. The resources available to the program must be sufficient to acquire, maintain, and operate infrastructures, facilities and equipment appropriate for the program, and to provide an environment in which student outcomes can be attained2." It is self-explanatory by the statements of both criteria that there are strong requirements to be ensured and maintained by the ABET accredited institutes which are needed for retention of faculty members. Such institutes are supposed to demonstrate their best efforts to make sure the presence of retention factors and to avoid those factors that may have negative impact on retention. Hence, we assume that ABET accredited institutes may have high retention rates. This has been the basis of our hypotheses of the study.
Like individual interview, group interview and nominal group technique (NGT), document analysis is a traditional technique of requirement engineering whereby the organization's business documents i.e. written work procedures, forms, reports and existing information systems are given for the requirement gathering purpose. In this research, we have followed document analysis approach for data acquisition which is one of the traditional techniques for requirement engineering to validate our research hypotheses in context with both criteria 6 and 8 i.e. whether the requirements of criteria 6 and 8 have any effect on faculty retention in ABET accredited institutes or not? One obvious reason to use document analysis is that it was the only source of information available to us due to insufficient resources for the conduction of the study. If we had other sources of information, we would surely have utilized them and validated our results.
There may be variety of document available such as "Faculty Profiles" in an educational institution that could provide data about their faculty members, but we decided to extract such data from a document called "Self-Study Reports" 3 (SSR) due to provision of base-line requirements availability and also because the data is well-structured and well organized. Note that completion of SSR document is a fundamental requirement for an institution when it applies for an ABET accreditation, therefore, document analysis of 27 different Self-Study Reports (for ABET accreditation) was performed for the data collection of faculty size, faculty professional development programs, ratio (instructor-students) and workload of the faculty members. Our approach depicted in Figure 2 suggests that documents available in elementary schools, secondary schools and higher education institutes are analysed and assessment of retention and exit factors is performed. Our scope of study was only confined to those higher educational institutes which have acquired ABET accreditation because we can validate the extracted data from the literature against the data available in SSR and also can effectively compare among them. We can see that the factors of retention at schools and higher education were studied and these factors were then listed in the form of table as shown in Table 1, refer to the last column. Comparing these factors against the requirements of criteria 6 and 8, it will be well understood that the institutions with ABET accreditation, ensure by all means, all the factors needed for retention. Therefore, we expect high retention rate in such institutions.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
The document analysis technique was conducted to have a dataset from the institutional support and faculty criteria from the SSRs of different ABET accredited institutes as depicted in Table 2. As it can be seen from Table 2, out of 737 faculty members of 27 institutes, only 4 (0.54%) faculty members left ABET accredited institutions. Based on the SSR's analysis, we could conclude that faculty retention is good in all these universities. This might be because they are institutions procuring ABET accreditation and thus might be following some standards to maintain their academic performance. Two cases out of 27 SSRs reveal that faculty members leave the academic institution either due to denial of tenure or probably due to higher student-to-faculty ratio. Further analysis reveal that average number of courses taught by a faculty in one semester is two to three.

CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK
In this research, we have explored the different influencing factors and criteria for retaining teaching staff at higher education institutes. These criteria are then evaluated against ABET (Accreditation Board of Engineering and Technology) accredited institutes criteria data of "faculty" and "Institutional support," to see the impact. Study shows that only very few faculty members leave the institution because of higher student-to-faculty ratio and/or denial of tenure.
Note that our investigation is not meant to be a generalized framework, rather an observation that may be considered by the faculty members to support in their decision-making process for their careers.
Since institutions applying for ABET accreditations, usually see themselves fulfilling the criteria and that's the reason for them applying for it. In the SSR usually the formal system is portrayed through procedural documents, however as informal systems (the way the system actually works) can be better judged through institutional visits, interview and observation techniques. In future we will investigate institutions which are relatively new, private and not accredited, to cross check the findings of the literature review.

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT
The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/supplementary material, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.