The Effectiveness of Experience and Nature-Based Learning Activities in Enhancing Students' Environmental Attitude

Abstract

This study investigated the effectiveness of experience and nature-based learning activities in enhancing college students’ environmental attitude. It employed pre-test-post-test experimental research design. The participants were the class of fifty-three college students of a higher education institution in Region 2, Philippines. Seven learning activities were employed by the researcher namely pamphlets making, environmental-themed movie poster making, collage making, miniature plant exhibit, vegetable gardening, community clean-up service, recycled art crafts making, and tree planting drive. In like manner, the pre-attitude score and post-attitude scores in the standardize environmental attitude inventory test were compared and the significant differences were determined using paired sample t-test. Results of the study revealed that the different experience-based learning activities were generally rated interesting. Moreover, it was also revealed that the different learning activities significantly increased the environmental attitude of the students towards nature enjoyment, support for interventions and conservation policies environmental movement activism, conservation motivated by anthropocentric concern, confidence in science and technology, environmental threat, altering nature, personal conservation behavior, human dominance over nature, human utilization of nature, and ecocentric concern. This implies that allowing students to be exposed to the different environmental learning activities where direct learning experience is involved significantly increased students' environmental construct.