Evaluating the impact of an environmental education programme: an empirical study in Mexico

This study draws on information from 11 in‐depth interviews, two focus groups and 72 written questionnaires to evaluate an extra‐curricular environmental education programme on forestry designed for preparatory school students from a small rural community in Mexico. Specifically, the study assessed the impact of the programme on the ecological knowledge of 72 students. Qualitative feedback suggests that students learnt about forestry, acquired greater awareness of the importance of conservation for the local environment and enjoyed the participatory teaching methods used in the programme. Quantitative results show a positive and significant association between the number of times a student participated in the programme and the student’s ecological knowledge. Students who participated in the programme once had a 16.3% higher knowledge on ecological concepts and knew, on average, 1.5 more local forest plants than students who never attended it (p<.001). Findings suggest that the inclusion of participatory environmental education programmes in preparatory schools would improve the acquisition of ecological knowledge. Further research could consider the consistency of the findings by replicating participatory methods presented here and by using an experimental research design.     

MetaMaps: Assessing understanding of large, complex or distributed knowledge domains

Many traditional assessment instruments and procedures are developed for the purpose of assessing a carefully defined degree of understanding of specific items, such as competence in arithmetic or demonstrating a particular physical skill. The knowledge or skill to be assessed is learnt through a limited set of learning experiences, in conjunction with selected texts and other resources as defined in the curriculum—often in a closed system. Evaluating learners understandings of wider and more complex knowledge systems can require a different approach. MetaMaps—a reflective, hypertext alternative to the traditional essay, provides an alternative approach to the linear essay, term paper or minor thesis for evaluating students holistic understandings of open knowledge systems. For students, MetaMaps have the advantage of being developmental, allowing for the ready inclusion of developing knowledge and perspectives, and they make the learning/evaluation cycle more holistic by using the MetaMap as both a learning and assessment tool. This paper describes the development and ongoing revision of the MetaMap concept.     

Assessing Precollege Science Education Outreach Initiatives: A Funder's Perspective

We describe an assessment of the collective impact of 35 grants that the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) made to biomedical research institutions in 1999 to support precollege science education outreach programs. Data collected from funded institutions were compared with data from a control group of institutions that had advanced to the last stage of review but had not been funded. The survey instrument and the results reveal outcomes and impacts that HHMI considers relevant for these programs. The following attributes are considered: ability to secure additional, non-HHMI funding; institution buy-in as measured by gains in dedicated space and staff; enhancement of the program director''s career; number and adoption of educational products developed; number of related publications and awards; percentage of programs for which teachers received course credit; increase in science content knowledge; and increase in student motivation to study science.     

国内外环境意识研究进展

面对日趋严峻的全球性环境危机,世界各国开始就环境保护问题展开合作,而环境意识也成为环境问题的研究热点之一。国内外学者从环境意识的内涵、结构到环境意识的评测不同角度做了深入探索研究工作,并取得了丰富的理论成果。     

以科研促教学在环境影响评价课程中的应用探讨

在总结科研对环境影响评价课程作用的基础上,论述了＂以科研促教学＂在课堂讲授、布置作业、学生学术基金、毕业论文撰写等方面的具体应用,并指出了教学中存在的问题与不足。     

大学生环境意识的培养与提高

本文分析了我国大学生环境教育的现状，论述了大学生环境教育的必要性，并在此基础上对在高等院校开展环境教育、培养和提高大学生的环境意识提出了建议和措施。     

"环境影响评价"课程教学探索

环境影响评价是一门实践性很强的课程,教师应结合实际环评工作进行教学活动;我国环评制度发展迅速,而教材相对滞后,这就要求教师以最新的环评动态和热点对教学内容进行更新、调整和补充;教学应强调学生的主动性,并引导学生关注环评动态,引导学生不断拓宽知识面;以信息量大且直观性强的多媒体教学为主,辅以灵活性强的板书教学可以起到较好的教学效果.     

Threshold concept theory as an enabling constraint: a facilitated practitioner action research study

International interest is growing in how threshold concept theory can transform tertiary teaching and learning. A facilitated practitioner action research project investigating the potential of threshold concepts across several disciplines offers a practical contribution and helps to consolidate this international field of research. In this article we show how a focus on threshold concept theory enabled tertiary teachers to work collaboratively to investigate tertiary pedagogical practices. The purpose of the article is to argue that threshold concept theory can serve as a guiding principle of pedagogical design. The article draws on findings from a research study conducted over two years by a team consisting of five practitioner researchers in four disciplines and two educational researchers who facilitated the inquiry. The act of constraining the research to thresholds, both in and across different fields, enabled the team to intensify discipline-specific insights and to explore wider cross-disciplinary links and differences. A threshold-constrained focus entailed making specific discipline, knowledge management, and pedagogic practices explicit to ourselves as individual practitioners and comprehensible enough to enable conversations with colleagues from other disciplines. As a result of the research, we argue that threshold-concept thinking enables three processes: usefully unsettling the meaning of being a disciplinary expert; providing a structured framework for both disciplinary and cross-disciplinary knowledge and learning; and intensifying insight into curricular content and teaching methods. We also provide an account of how the collaborative action research sparked fresh experiments, searches for new data, and reflections on the impact of threshold concepts on individual disciplines and beyond.     

Ethnography and environmental education: understanding the relationships between schools and communities in Costa Rica

Environmental education has been at the centre of international and national policies of sustainable development for the last several decades, and has stimulated debate regarding both its inclusion in curricula and proposed methods for its implementation. Research has given critical attention to diverse theories and practices of environmental education, but has tended to take a narrow methodological focus on specific curricula and policies or on activities within strictly delineated sites such as classrooms or natural areas. In contrast, this research is based on anthropological fieldwork conducted in a rural community in Costa Rica, and argues that using a wider ethnographic approach allows for a fuller exploration of the ways in which environmental education programming is negotiated and practised.     

Lonergan's insight and threshold concepts: students in the liminal space

Threshold concepts are a widely used idea, particularly in curriculum design and evaluation of student learning. However they can be criticised as being hard to identify, vague and teacher imposed. Using the cognitive theory of Bernard Lonergan we argue that his epistemology enables us to reframe threshold concepts by adding a learner focussed understanding. We extend this to include considerations of liminality and ‘stuckness’, as well as the multiple paths to the threshold learners may take. Adding an understanding of cognitive process to the idea of threshold concepts also enables us to understand how they can be identified in disparate subjects.     

环境影响评价听证程序实效性问题研究

作为公众参与的重要形式之一——听证会在我国行政管理模式中逐渐为政府所适用。就环境行政来说,首次以法律形式规定听证程序的是环境影响评价法。自圆明园湖底防渗工程听证程序后,环境影响评价行政许可听证程序逐渐在实践中被适用。但听证程序立法的缺失与不足,直接影响了环境影响评价行政许可行为的实施效果。而听证程序实效性研究将成为打破这一瓶颈的必然选择。     

An investigation of the goals for an environmental science course: teacher and student perspectives

This investigation uses an ethnographic case study approach to explore the benefits and challenges of including a variety of goals within a high school Environmental Science curriculum. The study focuses on environmental education (EE) goals established by the Belgrade Charter (1975), including developing students’ environmental awareness and behavior, but also explores alternative goals including empowerment, presenting a balanced perspective, improving critical thinking skills, and developing an emotional connection with environmental issues. This research, which was conducted at a public high school in the northeast United States, aims to understand the teacher’s reasoning for including the above goals within the curriculum and the students’ reactions to the enactment of these goals. Interview data from 10 student participants and the teacher reveal areas of alignment between teacher and student perspectives regarding goals such as presenting a balanced approach, as well as misalignment in areas such as the teaching of environmentally friendly behaviors.     

Assessing students' disciplinary and interdisciplinary understanding of global carbon cycling

Global carbon cycling describes the movement of carbon through atmosphere, biosphere, geosphere, and hydrosphere; it lies at the heart of climate change and sustainability. To understand the global carbon cycle, students will require interdisciplinary knowledge. While standards documents in science education have long promoted interdisciplinary understanding, our current science education system is still oriented toward single‐discipline‐based learning. Furthermore, there is limited work on interdisciplinary assessment. This article presents the validated Interdisciplinary Science Assessment of Carbon Cycling (ISACC), and reports empirical results of a study of high school and undergraduate students, including an analysis of the relationship between interdisciplinary items and disciplinary items. Many‐faceted Rasch analysis produced detailed information about the relative difficulty of items and estimates of ability levels of students. One‐way ANCOVA was used to analyze differences among three grade levels: high school, college Freshman–Sophomore, college Junior–Senior, with number of science courses as a covariate. Findings indicated significantly higher levels of interdisciplinary understanding among the Freshman–Sophomore group compared to high school students. There was no statistically significant difference between Freshman–Sophomore group and Junior–Senior group. Items assessing interdisciplinary understanding were more difficult than items assessing disciplinary understanding of global carbon cycling; however, interdisciplinary and disciplinary understanding were strongly correlated. This study highlights the importance of interdisciplinary understanding in learning carbon cycling and discusses its potential impacts on science curriculum and teaching practices.     

Effect of conceptual change approach accompanied with concept mapping on understanding of solution concepts

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of conceptual change texts accompanied with concept mapping instruction, compared to traditional instruction (TI), on 8th grade students understanding of solution concepts and their attitudes toward science as a school subject. Solution Concept Test was developed as a result of examination of related literature and interviews with teachers regarding their observations of students difficulties. The test was administered to a total of 64 eighth grade students from two classes of a general science course, taught by the same teacher. The experimental group received the conceptual change texts accompanied with concept mapping in a lecture by the teacher. This instruction explicitly dealt with students misconceptions. It was designed to suggest conditions in which misconceptions could be replaced by scientific conceptions and new conceptions could be integrated with existing conceptions. The control group received TI in which the teacher provided instruction through lecture and discussion methods. The results showed that conceptual change text accompanied with concept mapping instruction caused a significantly better acquisition of scientific conceptions related to solution concept and produced significantly higher positive attitudes toward science as a school subject than the TI. In addition, logical thinking ability and prior learning were strong predictors for the concept learning related to solution.     

环境教育:高校人文素质教育的重要内容

环境意识是现代人道德意识，是衡量21世纪人才综合素质优劣的重要标志：环境教育是高等院校21世纪素质教育的主题，是素质教育中培养人之为人的人格教育。肩负教育培养21世纪人才的高等院校，应当把环境教育纳入21世纪人文素质教育范畴，要从世界观、人生观的高度对大学生进行环境教育。     

绿色环保理念于室内设计之运用探析

社会的不断进步促使人们追求更美好的生活质量,而什么样的生活才算得上是美好的呢?在新时代中,我们提出了要与环境和谐相处的绿色思想,也正是这种环保意识在人们心中日渐加强,各种绿色设计理念才孕育而生并运用于我们的日常生活当中。今天我们将要探析的话题是关于绿色环保理念在室内设计中的运用。     

Quantitative evaluation of air pollution in transport strategic environmental assessment: a case study based on uncertainty analysis and graphic information system technology

Although the impact of road transport on urban air quality has achieved a high profile in China, still greater attention is required as it has not yet been considered fully even in relation to the road network linking cities and urban areas. Strategic environmental assessment （SEA） is a systematic and comprehensive process for evaluating the environmental impacts of a policy, plan or program in publicly accountable decision-making. Air pollution has been recognized as a significant issue in most transport SEA practices. The Strategic Environmental Assessment of the Hubei Road Network Plan （2002-2020） （HRNP） was introduced as one of the World Bank＇s pilot SEA projects. An effective framework was developed to investigate the functional relationship between the road network and its potential air pollutant emissions. In this study, two indicators were identified： emission intensity/ inventory of pollutants and the spatial distribution of the most polluted areas. Because strategic actions are inherently nebulous and data quality is often disappointing, three alternative scenarios were employed to address uncertainties and data/scale issues. Calculations were made using emission models and results were analyzed with the help of statistical tools and the geographic information system （GIS）. The results from the project implementation and the feedback from the World Bank have both shown that the proposed framework is effective in the transport SEA process.     

Enhancing environmental educators' evaluation competencies: insights from an examination of the effectiveness of the My Environmental Education Evaluation Resource Assistant (MEERA) website

To conduct evaluations that can benefit individual programs as well as the field as a whole, environmental educators must have the necessary evaluation competencies. This exploratory study was conducted to determine to what extent a self‐directed learning resource entitled My Environmental Education Evaluation Resource Assistant (MEERA) can enhance environmental educators' evaluation competencies. The multiple case studies relied on data from eight environmental educators with limited evaluation experience who used MEERA to evaluate one of their programs. Results suggest that MEERA can (1) increase environmental educators' perceived evaluation competencies, (2) help environmental educators produce quality evaluation outputs, and (3) foster their use of evaluation results. Perceived benefits of using MEERA included obtaining evidence of program success, insights into how to improve programs, and alternative ways of thinking about programs. Perceived challenges included varying difficulties with evaluation tasks such as prioritizing evaluation questions and designing data collection instruments and, in line with this, desiring personal expert assistance for context‐specific advice and reassurance. This research contributes to expanding understanding of how to enhance environmental educators' evaluation competencies and practices.