THE SECONDARY SCHOOL LEARNERS‘ INTERACTION (FORMS 5 - 12) WITH NATURE: THE SEMANTIC STRUCTURE OF ATTITUDES IN TERMS OF LIFE PROTECTION

The theoretical and practical facts prove that humankind increasingly devalue life primarily implementing personal needs and goals. Thus, the major objective of the learners' science (self) education is fostering respect for nature and life. Although the issue is rather vital, the schoolchildren's interaction with nature is poorly investigated in Lithuanian as well as in other European countries. The object of the latter research is disclosing attitudes towards life protection in the process of the interaction with nature. The article deals with the semantic structure and the main peculiarities of the learners' attitudes towards life protection on the basis of which the factors determining the attitudes could be predicted and an effective system of educational support could be developed. 1787 teenagers participated in the survey. A quantitative and qualitative assessment indicates that more than a half of the respondents (64% of the answers) have positive attitudes towards the protection of single plants and animals' species. Less than a half of the surveyed participants expressed neutral and negative attitudes (19% and 17% of the answers respectively). Despite the fact that quite a few learners support an idea about life protection, a semantic assessment of the attitude structure shows that the utilitarian, pragmatic and egocentric components of emotions are mainly prevailing. However, an expression of the ethic and value-based components remains weak and more diffusive. The learners' attitudes towards life protection are full of semantic conversions. Hence, the obtained results presuppose the necessity of educational intervention.