Abstract
Knowledge and understanding about how the Earth functions and supports life create the foundation for ecological literacy. Industrialisation, urbanisation and population growth have resulted in changed relationships between many human communities and the natural world. A potential consequence is a compromised capability to make well-informed decisions about how to live sustainably. To gain a measure of ecological literacy within the South Australian community, we collaborated with senior scientists and educators to develop and apply an instrument with the capacity to determine indicative levels of ecological knowledge and understanding. A formal, variable credit, multiple-choice assessment instrument was distributed online to groups and individuals within diverse community sectors and industries. Quantitative analyses of scores indicated that levels of ecological knowledge and understanding within a self-selected sample of over one thousand individuals ranged from very low to extremely high, with the majority of respondents achieving moderate to high scores. This instrument has a demonstrated capacity to determine indicative levels of ecological literacy within and between individuals and groups. It is able to capture mastery of ecological knowledge and understanding achieved through both formal and informal pathways. Using the results, we have been able to establish a range of standards and an aspirational target score for the South Australian community. The value of this work is in its potential to deliver insights into relationships between humans and the rest of the natural world, and into characteristics of eco-literate individuals and communities, that might not otherwise emerge.
Highlights
This paper explores the concept of ecological literacy and describes the development, application and initial results of an instrument capable of providing an indicative assessment of the level of knowledge and understanding of ecological systems and processes within a self-selecting sample of the adult community of South Australia
Ecological literacy was the theme of the 93rd Annual Meeting of the Ecological Society of America (ESA) in 2008, from which the question arose: what should every citizen know about ecology? The authors speculated that while the level of ecological literacy within the population of the United States and other countries was not known, “there is widespread concern that it is too low to enable effective social responses to current problems” ([5] p495)
The test can deliver a determinant of ‘extremely low’ through to ‘extremely high’ standards, including an identified aspirational target score. These standards can be used to benchmark individuals, groups, organizations and communities within the South Australian population
Summary
While the extent and consequences of impact by industrialised societies on nature have been debated for many decades [1], interest in the concept of ecological literacy has only emerged relatively recently. As a response to a perceived lack of scientific literacy amongst the American public, Risser urged ecologists to consider the essential elements of basic ecological literacy and to promote an ecologybased literacy to their students and communities [3]. The concept of ecological literacy, since that time, has continued to evolve within scientific and educational communities. The authors speculated that while the level of ecological literacy within the population of the United States and other countries was not known, “there is widespread concern that it is too low to enable effective social responses to current problems” ([5] p495). Approaches to, knowledge are complex discussions in themselves, it is widely accepted that the field of ecological literacy incorporates a range of disciplines [5,6] and forms an important foundation for the broader concepts of environmental and scientific literacy [7,8]
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