Environmental education

About: Environmental education is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 14551 publications have been published within this topic receiving 211056 citations. The topic is also known as: environmental learning.

Four Steps to Evaluating Environmental Education Learning Experiences

Abstract: The process of evaluating the effects of environmental education learning experiences on program participants involves knowing what evaluation is, its importance, obstacles to evaluation, and the role of educators and participants as evaluators. Program evaluation may be organized around four steps: step one—deciding what to evaluate, developing objectives, and allowing for intuitive and unanticipated outcomes; step two—determining the evaluation design and developing instruments; step three—collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data; and step four—reporting results and improving the educational program.

Message received? Quantifying the impact of informal conservation education on adults visiting UK zoos

Abstract: Humanity is growing ever more disconnected from wild places and wild creatures (Gadgil 1993, Nabhan and St. Antoine 1993; Nabhan and Trimble 1994, Pyle 1993, 2003, Balmford 1999, Kahn and Kellert 2002). Over 50% of people now live in towns and cities, and their numbers are rising by 160000 daily (World Resources Institute 2000). With this in mind the world’s zoos, with more than 600 million visitors each year (WAZA 2005), have enormous potential to educate and inspire the public about conservation. Much is made of this role, in both reviews and policy statements on the conservation significance of zoos (Tribe and Booth 2003, Miller et al. 2004, WAZA 2005). Yet there is evidence that some captive facilities pay only limited attention to conservation education (Dunlap and Kellert 1995, Evans 1997, Mazur and Clark 2000). Against this criticism, very few studies have so far attempted to quantify whether zoo visits change people’s conservation-related knowledge, attitudes, or behavior, or whether such impacts vary across zoos. Most assessment of educational impacts to date has instead been nonquantitative (for reviews, see Kellert and Dunlap 1989, Broad and Weiler 1998, Dierking et al. 2002; seeDiscussion for counter examples).Moreover,

Biology Student Teachers' Conceptual Frameworks regarding Biodiversity.

Abstract: Biodiversity, the variety and variability of living organisms and the ecological patterns of which they are a part, has received a great deal of attention worldwide since the Rio Earth Summit in 1992 (van Weelie & Wals, 2002). The reasons for this attention are the increase of human activities on biodiversity, rainforest destruction, habitat fragmentation, species extinction, water and air pollution, alteration of natural cycles and many other environmental problems. Biodiversity is affected also by global climate changes and its effect on the human population. The protection of biodiversity is defined as one of the basic roads leading to sustainability. However, a global threat to biodiversity increases daily. The dramatic decrease in biodiversity, one of the most serious results of the global environmental crisis, is accepted as one of the most basic issues of our times (Gayford, 2000). Biodiversity generally includes three main factors, namely genetic diversity, species diversity, and ecosystem diversity. These factors are important parameters of sustainable development (Kassas, 2002). Biodiversity is a sign of a healthy environment. However, excessive and unsustainable use of biological or natural resources has caused significant damage to biodiversity and the situation has become a threat to human life. Respecting nature, improving the quality of life, and protecting the biodiversity of the planet are principles of a sustainable community. The dependence of humanity on biodiversity, now and in the future, is unavoidable, because the continuation of man's existence depends on ecosystem services for lodging, clothing, drugs, and food. With regard to sustainable development, in order for humanity to continue its existence, it is necessary to provide a sustainable use of biodiversity. Therefore, it is very important to raise individuals with an awareness of the necessity to protect biodiversity to conserve its global richness. In educational terminology, biodiversity is an environmental and ecological buzz-word and an ill-defined or fuzzy concept (Dreyfus et al., 1999; Richardson & Hari, 2008; van Weelie & Wals, 2002). Furthermore, the lack of clarity regarding assumptions, ethics, possibilities, and limitations about the depletion of biodiversity is part of the problems of education (Gayford, 2000). For these reasons, biodiversity has become the focal point of educational research in recent times. However, little research is presently carried out on biology student teachers' conceptual frameworks regarding the aspects of biodiversity. The study of biology student teachers' conceptual frameworks is quite important from the perspective of the development of environmental education and scientific literacy. Most research about biodiversity is generally focused on biodiversity education (Dreyfus et al., 1999; Gayford, 2000; Kassas, 2002; Lindemann-Matthies et al., 2009; van Weelie & Wals, 2002), loss of biodiversity (Kim & Byrne, 2006; Menzel & Bogeholz, 2009), educational programs (Lindemann-Matthies, 2002), and students' knowledge about biodiversity (Menzel & Bogeholz, 2009; Summers et al., 2001; Yorek et al., 2008). Summers et al. (2000; 2001) investigate the understanding of practicing primary school teachers, and secondary science trainees about four environmental issues (biodiversity, the carbon cycle, ozone, and global warming). Researchers define the well-understood and not understood scientific concepts about the said environmental issues. Results have shown that most participants agree on the necessity of biodiversity and its benefits on humanity. However, some incomplete concepts and misconceptions about biodiversity have been reported. Moreover, in these studies it has been indicated that good subject knowledge is necessary for the best teaching. From the perspective of science education, the teaching of biodiversity in schools for students in the 11-18 age group is considered a controversial issue. …

Ethical Imagining: Ecofeminist Possibilities and Environmental Learning

Abstract: In this essay I explore some of the ways in which nature is known through stories and imagination, with particular attention to the role of ecofeminist narrative for environmental learning and teaching. I wonder how we tell stories that acknowledge other beings as subjects of lives that we share, lives that intersect and are interdependent in profound ways? How do we ensure that these “other” voices are audible and that we co-author environmental stories to live, teach, and learn by? I take up feminist questions of responsibility and accountability for knowledge claims, in order to explore ethical and political issues of agency, vision, and narrative imagination. My contention is that the intertwining of ecofeminist narrative ethics with purposeful attention to developing human imaginative capacities has precious possibilities to offer environmental learning and teaching.