Field Of Environmental Education Research Articles

Didactic Preconditions for Environmental Education in the Macedonian Secondary Schools

The objective of this research is to determine the basic didactic preconditions for environmental education in secondary schools in the Republic of Macedonia. This was done on the basis of subjective assessment of 972 students from 19 high schools in the Republic of Macedonia. “Knowledge of the environmental education's goals” (78.92%) and “students’ motivation during the environmental education course” “(78.34%) are on the highest level. On the other hand” students’ information about their advancement in the field of environmental education” (51.84%) and “incorporation of the new knowledge in previous one” (65.57%) are on the bottom. In general, didactic preconditions are achieved about 70% in 2002 and 66% in 2009. Almost all didactic conditions are fulfilled on a higher level in the “old” secondary schools than in the “new” ones.

Environmental issues in the voice of teacher trainers in the discipline of environmental studies in chemistry

This paper shows the investigation results related to identifying the prospects of addressing environmental issues in the discipline of environmental studies, included in the bachelor degree course in chemistry at nine institutions of higher education in the south and southeast. From the analysis of the interviews we found that environmental issues are part of the initial licensing, but still require a deepening of possible interfaces and convergences between the dimensions of environmental chemistry and green chemistry, as well as a greater approach to and association with the field of environmental education in addressing environmental issues.

Education for sustainable development in chemistry – challenges, possibilities and pedagogical models in Finland and elsewhere

This article analyses Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in chemistry by reviewing existing challenges and future possibilities on the levels of the teacher and the student. Pedagogical frameworks that are found eligible in practice are reviewed. Lesson themes that are suitable for implementing socio-scientific issues (SSI) related to ESD into basic chemistry education at schools are discussed. Based on this analysis, three new demonstrative pedagogical models for ESD in chemistry are presented to help guide the work of teachers. The models draw on an interdisciplinary reading of research in the field of SSI-based science education, sustainability science, green chemistry and environmental education. The current state of ESD in Finnish chemistry education is used as an example case throughout the article. Two tasks where future development is required were recognised. The first task concerns supporting chemistry teachers in overcoming the challenges with SSI and ESD they face in their work. The second task is to ensure that students are more often provided with more relevant and flexible chemistry content and studying methods.

IziNambuzane: IsiZulu names for insects

We provide a tool for communicating about insects in isiZulu to facilitate research and knowledge sharing in the fields of indigenous knowledge, cultural entomology, environmental education and community extension involving isiZulu speakers. A total of 213 different names for 64 insect specimens were encountered among a sample of 67 respondents in 11 communities distributed across the province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. This list includes 93 names that can be considered core isiZulu vocabulary and which are widely used to identify insects that are agriculturally, medically, domestically, culturally or ecologically common or significant. Substantial variation was found regarding the names for particular insects, especially between regions, suggesting dialectal differences between isiZulu speakers. Grammatical and social variation in names was also recorded. This study highlights interdisciplinary teamwork in the field of indigenous knowledge research and the influences affecting the standardisation of South African languages for technical and scientific work.

High School Students’ Environmental Attitude: Scale Development and Validation

This study aimed to develop a valid and reliable instrument to be used for measuring high school students’ attitudes toward environment and its applications. Data gathered from 350 high school students provided evidence for the validity and reliability of the new instrument which consists of 35 attitude items on a four point Likert type scale. Results of the factor analysis with varimax rotation showed that, items constituting Environmental Attitude Scale (EAS) grouped under four subscales: (1) Environmental awareness; (2) Attitudes towards recovery; (3) Attitudes towards recycling; (4) Environmental consciousness and behavior. Each environmental attitude item had a factor loading of at least 0.40 with its own scale. The alpha reliability coefficient for the subscales ranged from 0.70 to 0.84. According to these findings, the EAS is a valid and reliable instrument that can be used in the field of environmental and science education.

DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF A POLYMORPHIC PEDAGOGICAL MATERIAL FOR SUPPLEMENTARY DISTANCE LEARNING IN PRIMARY EDUCATION IN THE FIELD OF ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION IN GREECE

This article deals with a documented research in order to create a pedagogical framework for the application of a supplementary distance learning program in the field of environmental education for pupils of primary education, in remote and multi-grade schools of Greece. This prospect has been considered as an interesting idea with multilateral, socio cultural and democratic dimensions, as it could enrich the school and learning environment of children of the outermost regions. In this paper, there are described the planning criteria and the development of a polymorphic pedagogical material for distance learning, under the title: 'Captain SOS, His Bunch and the Moving Island', the needs according to the characteristics of the target group, the choice of learning theories and the determination of the teaching techniques, the specific teaching techniques and the teaching methodology, the structure of the learning material, the characteristics and the structure of the educational software, the categorization of activities, the supplementary learning material. Moreover, there are described the pilot application and the ways of the evaluation.

Environmental literacy, ecological literacy, ecoliteracy: What do we mean and how did we get here?

Numerous scholars have argued that the terms environmental literacy, ecological literacy, and ecoliteracy have been used in so many different ways and/or are so all‐encompassing that they have very little useful meaning. However, despite the seemingly arbitrary and, at times, indiscriminate use of these terms, tremendous efforts have in fact been made to explicitly define and delineate the essential components of environmental literacy, ecological literacy, and ecoliteracy, and to firmly anchor their characterizations in deep theoretical and philosophical foundations. A driving purpose behind these ongoing conversations has been to advance complete, pedagogy‐guiding, and broadly applicable frameworks for these ideals, allowing for standards and assessments of educational achievement to be set. In this manuscript, we review a diversity of perspectives related to the often nuanced differences and similarities of these terms. A classification of the numerous proposed frameworks for environmental literacy, ecological literacy, and ecoliteracy (advanced within the fields of environmental education, ecology, and the broader humanities, respectively) is presented, and used to compare and contrast frameworks across multiple dimensions of affect, knowledge, skills, and behavior. This analysis facilitates close examination of where we have been, where we are, and where we might be headed with respect to these vital conversations. This work also offers points of reference for continued critical discourse, and illuminates a diversity of inspiration sources for developing and/or enriching programs aimed at cultivating these types of literacies.

EcoMOBILE: Integrating augmented reality and probeware with environmental education field trips

Positioned in the context of situated learning theory, the EcoMOBILE project combines an augmented reality (AR) experience with use of environmental probeware during a field trip to a local pond environment. Activities combining these two technologies were designed to address ecosystem science learning goals for middle school students, and aid in their understanding and interpretation of water quality measurements. The intervention was conducted with five classes of sixth graders from a northeastern school district as a pilot study for the larger EcoMOBILE project, and included pre-field trip training, a field trip to a local pond environment, and post-field trip discussions in the classroom. During the field experience, students used mobile wireless devices with FreshAiR™, an augmented reality application, to navigate the pond environment and to observe virtual media and information overlaid on the physical pond. This AR experience was combined with probeware, in that students collected water quality measurements at designated AR hotspots during the experience. We studied the characteristics of learning and instruction using measures of student attitudes, content learning gains, and opinions teachers provided via written and verbal feedback. We observed gains in student affective measures and content understanding following the intervention. Teachers reported that the combined technologies promoted student interaction with the pond and with classmates in a format that was student-centered rather than teacher-directed. Teachers also reported that students demonstrated deeper understanding of the principles of water quality measurement than was typical on prior field trips without these technologies and that students had expanded opportunities to engage in activities that resemble scientific practice. Overall, results of the students' surveys and teacher feedback suggest that there are multiple benefits to using this suite of technologies for teaching and for learning.

Una mirada a mi entorno. Fotografía y Medio ambiente

This article sets out to expound upon the importance environmental education starting from the first years of primary education. It is of great importance in our society to the able to transmit to young students conceptual, procedural, and attitudinal and in the field of environmental education. To attain this objective, we consider that photography can be a powerful tool. Through the programme ‘A Look at my Natural Space’ we can introduce issues about the environment both within the school at in the home and, in this sense, favour awareness within the citizen.

Globalisation and education for sustainable development: emancipation from context and meaning

This article tries to contribute to the critical debate on the ideological and globalising potential of education for sustainable development (ESD), which exists in the research field of environmental education, by highlighting potential contradictions in the argumentation for ESD’s ideological and globalising tendency. Further, the authors of this article argue for an alternative perspective on how education policy on ESD can be seen to contribute to globalisation and homogenisation by merging two conceptualisations of ‘globalisation as connection' and the role of ‘empty signifiers' in political discourse. The ambition with the merger is not to provide a universal explanation of globalisation and ideology, instead, the intention is to outline an alternative theoretical outlook that allows for an empirical study of the processes that can be seen to feed into or interrupt the preservation of hegemony in a global setting.

Community Education and Green Jobs

Green jobs are currently a much-discussed topic in political, economic, and educational forums. Millions of Americans would be very glad to have one. But what are they exactly? Or more pointedly, what should they be and how can the field of adult education support their development? From the perspective of a community educator who has worked in the field of environmental education and environmental justice for more than 15 years, green jobs should be more than environmentally friendly employment, as defined by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. They should serve to advance the development of sustainable societies. To do this, there are three elements that, woven together, can create green jobs that will serve society in significant ways. These elements are workforce development; science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education; and community education for sustainability. Examples of existing programs that address these elements will be discussed below.

Mobilidade urbana, transporte consciente em busca da sustentabilidade

The issues of most concern to experts and governments are, currently, traffic and increasing utilization of vehicles by urban population. The impact on society, human health and environment, occur at local, regional and global areas. Urban landscape, by holding great economic and technological potential, is still compelled to surrender to the pressure from the real estate market to the detriment of the search for the people welfare that live therein. This is the scenario the issue of the urban mobility and its impact on the environment is inserted. Aiming to enable the students, through collective dialogue, to form themselves a reflection on the issue of urban mobility, enabling them to be positioned and sensitize on the importance of daily use of bicycles as means of transport, sport and leisure. Aiming to make the local community to think about, it was adopted an educational intervention to make sensitive to a group, as a starting point for the appropriation of existing public policies aligned to local realities, reflecting the changes needed in the field of environmental education. Therefore, it was performed a short action in which fifty people of the city of Piracicaba (SP) were interviewed. From the content analysis of the interviews, it was evaluated the perception stage of the local population regarding to problems of urban mobility. With all the above, it is possible to conclude that to make feasible the adoption of alternative solutions to solve the current problem of urban mobility, it is essential a collective reflection on the needs that the reality presents.

Environmental Attitudes and Environmental Behavior—Which Is the Horse and Which Is the Cart?

The present article challenges the prevailing perception in the field of environmental education that acquisition of environmental behavior is an ultimate goal of the educational process, in comparison to acquisition of environmental attitudes, which is perceived as a minor goal. The article presents a compilation of results obtained from two studies that shed new light on the relationship between influences on environmental attitudes and influences on environmental behavior. The results suggest that: (a) among adults, the strategies required for influencing attitudes are different from those required for influencing behaviors; (b) the mechanisms for achieving influence among children are different from those among adults; and (c) conventional educational approaches, such as behavior modification, can influence behavior more easily than they can influence attitudes. The results provide grounds for questioning the prevailing belief that individual acquisition of responsible environmental behavior can drive changes on the global political scale. We suggest increasing the focus of environmental education on construction of attitudes.

Development and validation of Children’s Responsible Environmental Behavior Scale

Though environmentally responsible behavior (ERB) has been a focus of many studies in the field of environmental education, very few scales have been developed to assess children’s ERB. In this regard, this article focuses on the development and validation of Children’s Responsible Environmental Behavior Scale (CREBS) and also reports the psychometric properties of this scale. The items in the CREBS were developed initially from the responses to four open-ended items by 229 fourth and fifth grade students. This initial form was pilot tested with 673 fourth and fifth graders and then subjected to exploratory factor analysis. Later, the revised version of the scale was administrated to 2412 fifth graders, and those results were subjected to confirmatory factor analysis and reliability analysis. CREBS consists of 23 items measured using a seven-point Likert-type scale, which have been organized into four sub-scales: political action (six items, α = .92); eco-management (six items, α = .70); consumer and economic action (five items, α = .70); and Individual and Public Persuasion (six items, α = .80). Study results indicate that CREBS can be used for exploring the extent to which elementary school students in Turkey demonstrate four types of behavior to help prevent and resolve environmental problems and issues.

The Death and Life of a School-Based Environmental Education and Communication Program in Brazil: Rethinking Educational Leadership and Ecological Learning

This article presents an exploratory case study of the sustainability of an environmental education and communication (EEC) project at an elementary public school in Brazil. Our analysis shows that a narrow view of institutional educational leadership and ecological learning negatively affected the resilience of that particular EEC development. We conclude our study by suggesting that the idea of distributed leadership be expanded into the field of environmental education and communication as a potential solution to the unsustainability of similar projects. It is hoped that our discussion will assist those interested in making decisions that will have the longest positive influence on the social, physical, and natural environments of schools.

Innovative Outreach Methods for Adult Education in the 21st Century: Knowing Your Audience and Moving From the Centerpiece to the Sideline

The field of environmental education (EE) has been criticized for scarcity of research findings that can be used to compare the approaches and outcomes of various interventions and contexts. This is particularly problematic for EE programs that are implemented across multi-cultural settings because very little academic attention has been devoted to cross-cultural EE research methods. Intending to address this gap, we set out to develop and pilot a pre/post survey in Costa Rica that could help us investigate the impacts of a bird-focused curriculum on Latin American children’s knowledge, attitudes, behavioral intentions, and behaviors toward birds and the natural world. This article describes the challenges encountered and subsequent adaptations made throughout our ongoing, iterative survey development process, in order to appropriately address language, sociocultural context, audience, and research-to-practice tensions. We present key lessons learned, including the importance of having strong local partners, the need to create a realistic research timetable that accounts for unique challenges involved in undertaking cross-cultural EE research, and the limitations of quantitative methods in this sort of research.

Student Attitudes Toward and Recall of Outside Day: An Environmental Science Field Trip

ABSTRACT Field trips are effective because they situate learning and facilitate knowledge transfer, thereby influencing students learning attitudes, interests, and motivation. Variations in field trip configurations and the subsequent affective and cognitive influences provided the motivation for this study of Outside Day—an environmental education field trip for 6th-grade students. The participants were immediately postassessed on their attitudes toward the event and 1 month later assessed on their event activity recall. Results indicate the students held positive attitudes toward the field trip and recalled a hands-on orienteering activity most frequently. The discussion provides explanations and implications of findings.

Green pedagogy – guidance and doubt in teaching Outdoor and Environmental Education

This article grapples with my endeavour to guide teacher education students to think critically about environmental issues and action. While students repeatedly claim my efforts helped them to think critically, my interviews with them about environmental issues and practices cause me to doubt their claims of burgeoning critical engagement. This article demonstrates the fraught nature of critical pedagogy and my inability to create a climate in which guidance in the field of Outdoor and Environmental Education might come to be doubted. Drawing from a larger longitudinal study of the formation of environmental ethics among tertiary Outdoor and Environmental Education students, in this article I examine the experience of one student to critique my pedagogical practice and also to consider how this has provoked a revision of my own approach to teaching in this field. In the final section, I highlight the importance in teacher education more broadly of providing space for guidance to be doubted and opportunity for students to self-stylise and create their own responses to current issues.

Current State of Environmental Education in Mexico: A Study on Practices, Audiences, Settings, and Topics

Environmental education in Mexico takes many forms and plays a wide variety of roles. Through an online survey, we addressed the need to present a wider picture on the current state of environmental education practices in Mexico: Who is engaging in environmental education practices, how important is it for their organization, who are they targeting, which methods and settings are they choosing and what environmental issues are they addressing? Representatives from 118 conservation and environmental education agencies and organizations responded to the survey. Results show that conservation Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) are taking the lead in the field of environmental education in Mexico. Conservation education represents a big piece of the overall environmental education field in Mexico. Education appears to be an important tool used widely by environmental and conservation organizations. At the same time, there seems to be a serious lack of funding.

Engaging Students to Learn Through the Affective Domain: A new Framework for Teaching in the Geosciences

To motivate student learning, the affective domain—emotion, attitude, and motivation—must be engaged. We propose a model that is specific to the geosciences with theoretical components of motivation and emotion from the field of educational psychology, and a term we are proposing, “connections with Earth” based on research in the fields of environmental education and art education. When all three of these components (motivation, emotion, and connections with Earth) are combined in the classroom, students may experience greater interest in and connection to the content. This interest and connection may lead to greater motivation to learn and value the content. We use our model to evaluate three practices in geoscience education and show that their demonstrated success in achieving student learning lies in the attention to students' affective needs as well as to delivery of content. We propose a future research agenda using currently developed, validated instruments that can measure these motivational and attitudinal shifts to determine what practices work best for our students from both cognitive and affective perspectives. Although this was conducted in both Europe and the United States, the implications of this research may extend across cultures and nationalities. Additional research needs to be conducted to understand these implications.