Making connections: a conference approach to developing transformative environmental and sustainability education within initial teacher education

Abstract

Children today face significant challenges in response to living in a globalised world and the predicted environmental threats to the planet. However, implementing environmental and sustainability education (ESE) within schools can be complex and is often ignored within initial teacher education (ITE). In response, this project aimed to evaluate pedagogies for developing transformative learning for ESE within the context of university-based ITE. We ran a conference for trainee teachers informed by critical, participatory and arts-based pedagogic approaches. Alongside this, we undertook an interpretive case study, collecting data through questionnaires, focus groups and in-conference spoken reflection. Findings suggest trainee teachers gained a more nuanced understanding of the value and nature of ESE, as well as more affective and informed engagement with it, across the conference. Implications for ESE within ITE focus around the potential of pedagogies which provide affective experiences, in particular participatory and arts-based pedagogical approaches, for inspiring and empowering trainee teachers to enter into schools and develop their own ESE practice as classroom teachers.     

Using online tools in participatory research with adolescents to promote civic engagement and environmental mobilization: the WaterCircle (WC) project

Abstract

The WaterCircle (WC) project was implemented in a school, with young adolescents, to address environmental problems. Framed in a participatory research (PR) approach, this school-and-community based intervention includes the use of online tools through which environmental problems in the community are discussed within and by a group of students. Using a quasi-experimental design, with intervention and control groups, the present study involved 361 young adolescents, in grades 7 to 9, from a public school in the northern region of Portugal. Mixed methods were used for data collection and analysis, namely based on questionnaires administered in the pre- and post-test moments, as well as on students’ discourses produced in the classroom during planned activities. Statistically significant changes on self-efficacy were found for the experimental group, suggesting that the intervention program has the potential to raise young people’s empowerment regarding environmental issues. The WC program seems to foster students’ awareness of the socio-political dimensions of environmental problems, since they were able to identify different actors in the community who should be involved in the proposed solutions. Longer-term intervention is required to foster the impact of the PR on the students’ experience.     

形成性评价在课程教学中的应用研究

以大学英语课程教学为案例,通过行动研究,以考察形成性评价对学生学习态度、学习行为及结果的影响程度为目的。采用问卷调查、访谈、学生学习档案等工具采集数据。结果显示,形成性评价的应用确实能给学生的学习态度、动机及学习行为带来积极变化:大多数学生(70%以上)欢迎形成性评价在课堂教学中的应用;学生学习英语的信心更足、积极性更高;学生更愿意花更多时间在平时的学习过程中而非以往的考前突击应付、更注重培养和使用适合自己的学习策略;对学习成绩的提高也起到了良好的促进作用。     

Teachers’ attitudes towards inclusive education: a critical review of published questionnaires

Teachers’ attitudes towards inclusive education affect its successful implementation within mainstream schools. This paper reviews nine questionnaires which capture primary school teachers’ attitudes towards inclusion, with the aim to support researchers in selecting the most appropriate measure according to the purpose of their study. Most of the reviewed questionnaires showed acceptable reliability and validity. The Multidimensional Attitudes towards Inclusive Education Scale (MATIES) and the Sentiments, Attitudes, and Concerns about Inclusive Education Revised Scale (SACIE-R) were the only questionnaires with adequate psychometric properties which addressed the affective, cognitive and behavioural components of teachers’ attitudes. As another psychometrically sound scale, the Teachers’ Attitude towards Inclusion Scale (TAIS) was found to use more up-to-date terminology and suitably addressed the cognitive and behavioural components. This paper provides a useful resource to facilitate the appropriate selection of questionnaires that measure teachers’ attitudes towards inclusion.     

Students’ Motivation in the Mathematics Classroom. Revealing Causes and Consequences

Students’ affective domain has been popular in the mathematics education community in an ongoing attempt to understand students’ learning behavior. Specifically, enhancing students’ motivation in the mathematics classroom is an important issue for teachers and researchers, due to its relation to students’ behavior and achievement. This paper utilized achievement goal theory—an important theoretical prospect on students’ motivation in school settings—to investigate the existence of a model presenting the relation between motivation and other affective constructs and students’ performance in mathematics. In this regard, two types of tests were administered to 321 sixth grade students measuring their motivation and other affective constructs and their performance in mathematics. Using structural equation modeling, we examined the associations among the affective constructs, motivation, and the extent to which these constructs influence students’ performance and interest in mathematics. The data revealed that students’ performance and their interest in mathematics were influenced by fear of failure, self-efficacy beliefs, and achievement goals. We discuss these findings in terms of teaching implications in the mathematics classroom.     

Family Environmental Correlates of Students’ Affective Characteristics: a South African study

This study examined the relationships between family environmental contexts, sibling structure, immediate family settings and students’ affective characteristics. Data were collected from 460 (234 female and 226 male) South African senior high school students. Using partial least-squares path modelling the findings suggest that environmental contexts and family immediate settings combine to have modest to large concurrent validities in relation to differing measures of students’ affective characteristics, immediate family settings are related more strongly to measures of student affect than are indicators of family environment contexts and there are gender-related differences in how social-status indicators form environmental context constructs and in the nature of the relationships between students’ family environments and their affective characteristics.     

Students’ Motivation in the Mathematics Classroom. Revealing Causes and Consequences

Students’ affective domain has been popular in the mathematics education community in an ongoing attempt to understand students’ learning behavior. Specifically, enhancing students’ motivation in the mathematics classroom is an important issue for teachers and researchers, due to its relation to students’ behavior and achievement. This paper utilized achievement goal theory—an important theoretical prospect on students’ motivation in school settings—to investigate the existence of a model presenting the relation between motivation and other affective constructs and students’ performance in mathematics. In this regard, two types of tests were administered to 321 sixth grade students measuring their motivation and other affective constructs and their performance in mathematics. Using structural equation modeling, we examined the associations among the affective constructs, motivation, and the extent to which these constructs influence students’ performance and interest in mathematics. The data revealed that students’ performance and their interest in mathematics were influenced by fear of failure, self-efficacy beliefs, and achievement goals. We discuss these findings in terms of teaching implications in the mathematics classroom.

     

Environmental art as an innovative medium for environmental education in Biosphere Reserves

A key goal of Biosphere Reserves (BR) is to foster environmental education for sustainable development. In this study we systematically analyse two cases in which environmental art is used as a mechanism to engage communities in ‘building environmental understanding’, in Noosa BR in Australia and North Devon BR in the United Kingdom. Data were derived through document analyses, site visits, questionnaires and semi-structured interviews conducted with the audience, artists, and residents. The study concludes that environmental art can build understanding through (1) exchanging ideas and providing dialogue (2) building a sense of place (3) clarifying and enhancing the understanding of information and issues, and (4) generating concern. Consequently environmental art should be considered an innovative addition to the suite of environmental education tools used in other BRs and community organisations that aim to educate about the environment.     

Assessing impacts of locally designed environmental education projects on students’ environmental attitudes,awareness, and intention to act

This study investigates whether consistent effects on students’ environmental attitudes, awareness, and behavioral intentions could be discerned in an initiative that supports environmental education (EE) designed at the classroom level. Students of grades four, five, and seven participated in an assessment at the beginning and end of the school year. Quantitative assessment questions were adapted from the Children’s Environmental Perception Scale. Factor analysis identified three factors related to intentions for environmental learning and behavior, environmental appreciation, and awareness of the potential to impact nature. Qualitative items assessed students’ perception of their EE experience. Over one school year, fourth- and fifth-grade EE students gained awareness of the potential to impact nature, but EE students did not exhibit changes to environmental appreciation or intentions for environmental learning and behavior. With increasing years of EE experience, students demonstrated slight increases in environmental appreciation and intentions for environmental learning and behavior. Students’ recollection of in-class discussions primarily related to cognitive and psychomotor domains, with minimal mention of social or affective themes. Student perspectives highlighted individuals’ unique interests, which may not be fostered when all students conduct the same activity. Over a third of all students most enjoyed the EE experience for the chance to be outside, and only five percent most enjoyed gaining environmental knowledge.     

Pupils’ attitudes to school and music at the start of secondary school

This study aims to explore pupils’ affective engagement with school and music during their transition to secondary school. A gender comparison is also being made to ascertain any differences that may exist between boys and girls during this time. A sample of 182 pupils completed two questionnaires (attitudes to school and attitudes to music) three times (at the end of Year 6, at the beginning and end of Year 7). A series of one-way repeated measures analysis of variance tests showed that pupils’ overall attitudes to school dropped significantly from the end of Year 6 to the end of Year 7 with their enjoyment towards school and their satisfaction with the work environment declining. Pupils’ attitudes to music presented a significant fall at the end of Year 7 after a slight improvement at the beginning of secondary school. Girls held consistently more positive attitudes towards school and music than boys. It is suggested that pupils’ attitudes are malleable and responsive to environmental change and, therefore, this problem can be remedied if appropriate interventions are put into place particularly regarding the teacher-pupil relationship and pupils’ perceived autonomy in their learning.     

Korean Year 3 Children’s Environmental Literacy: A prerequisite for a Korean environmental education curriculum

The purpose of this study was to investigate Korean children’s environmental literacy levels and the variables that affect their environmental literacy. An instrument, the Environment Literacy Instrument for Korean Children (ELIKC), was developed that measures four different dimensions (knowledge, attitude, behaviour, and skills) using 69 items and 13 demographic variables. The ELIKC was administered to 969 Year 3 students from large cities, medium‐sized cities, and rural areas. The students were given 80 min to answer the questions. Statistical analysis was performed on each of the scales that make up the ELIKC and a multivariate analysis of variance was performed to identify the variables that affect environmental literacy. Results indicate that the correlation between attitude and behaviour is the strongest while that between knowledge and behaviour is the weakest. Also, it was found that gender, parents’ school background, and the source from where students obtain environmental information affect all categories of environmental literacy.     

高校青年教师职业承诺与其职业生涯管理的结构关系

高校青年教师的职业承诺和职业生涯管理不仅影响着教师个体的发展,也影响着高校的发展。为了了解高校青年教师职业承诺与其职业生涯管理之间的结构关系,本研究运用＂职业承诺问卷＂和＂自我职业生涯管理调查问卷＂,对来自不同高校的218名青年教师进行了调查。结果发现,高校青年教师职业承诺对其职业生涯管理的影响仅在有限的几个维度之间存在：（1）情感承诺、继续承诺对个体的职业探索存在显著性影响;（2）情感承诺对继续学习存在显著性影响;（3）情感承诺、继续承诺对职业目标、注重关系以及自我展示的影响是以规范承诺为中介的。     

The relationship between university students’ environmental identity,decision-making process,and behavior

Environmental education scholars have argued for the need to focus on identity as a more predictive factor than attitude of individuals’ environmental behavior. We examine individuals’ decision-making as a mediating process between identity and behavior. University undergraduates (N = 299) were surveyed, with a select sub-sample interviewed. As expected, environmental identity was correlated with pro-environment behavior (recycling). However, students with lower pro-environmental identity also recycled regularly. Similarly, analysis of decision-making revealed most students, regardless of their environmental identity, do not think much when recycling. Environmental structures such as presence of recycling bins surfaced as a powerful influence on pro-environment behavior.     

Looking Backward at Science Writing

Abstract

Different environmental education programs (field trips, hiking, camps, adventure activities) aim to develop pupils' affective relationship to the natural environment, their environmental sensitivity, and outdoor behavior, as well as their social relationships, through personal experiences. This study discusses the results of experiences from outdoor activities involving 11- and 12-year-old pupils in Rovaniemi and Vaasa, Finland. The qualitative research methods comprised case studies involving questionnaires, individual interviews, drawings, photographs of landscapes, and participant observations during camps. Nature experiences developed the pupils' self-confidence and feelings of safety, in particular, which in turn increased their willingness to participate in future outdoor activities. In this way, nature began to have new meanings for them on a personal level. Comparing pupils who were experienced in outdoor activities with pupils who were not, it was found that the former seemed to have a strong and clearly definable empathic relationship to nature. They also exhibited better social behavior and higher moral judgements. The reasons for conflicts between environmental attitudes and action, still observable in some experienced boys of the Vaasa group, are discussed in terms of conscious vs. unconscious action and applied knowledge. The role and possibilities of outdoor education in environmental education and natural studies are emphasized for schools as well as for teacher education.     

An action research study designed to implement student negotiation to improve speaking classroom practice in Turkey

This paper reports the second stage of an action research study designed to improve the effectiveness of speaking classes through negotiating the lesson contents with students. The data were collected through interviews, questionnaires and observations as a way of eliciting students’ views. The research, conducted in an English language teaching department at a university in Turkey, comprised eight weekly-based interventions that involved planning, action, observation, and reflection, in which students were given a voice and classroom activities were designed accordingly. Student negotiation allowed for the identification of both structural and affective factors influencing the quality of speaking classes. The teacher’s roles in activities, the number of students in group work activities, the level of control in speaking activities, and the role of input were found to be issues worth considering in designing speaking classes. Issues such as finding the activity ‘interesting’ and ‘useful’, ‘feeling comfortable’ and ‘being competitive’ also influenced the effectiveness of activities. Involving students in this action research study promoted positive attitudes towards classes since students reported feeling valued and important.     

Sustainability behaviors among college students: an application of the VBN theory

While Value-Belief-Norm (VBN) theory has been widely applied to various populations, it has seldom been tested on college students. This study extends VBN theory to examine what socio-psychological factors influence sustainability behaviors among university students. Undergraduate students are an interesting and novel population, as they are still forming their values and beliefs, and therefore may be more open to engage in sustainability efforts. This study assessed five sustainability behaviors: (a) support for political candidates who say they will strengthen environmental policies, (b) recycling, (c) electricity use, (d) food selection, and (e) transportation choices. Findings support the notion that one’s values matter in environmental decision-making, but that different values are associated with different behaviors. Those who adhere to biospheric and altruistic values were more likely to engage in a range of sustainability behaviors whereas those who adhere to egoistic values were less likely to engage in most behaviors. Those who adhere to traditional or openness to change values showed mixed results. We discuss the theoretical application, practical recommendations for behavior change campaigns, and offer suggestions for future research.     

The effect of the father-child relationship on the social conduct of 2 1/2 year old children in preschool

Our goal is to study the effects of early paternal involvement on a child’s socialization. Usually in works concerning the question, we study the father’s contribution with questionnaires, we base our evaluation of involvement on the behavior declared by the subject. We have attempted to analyze the affective dimension of this involvement. We have developed a model of the father-child relationship which articulates the affective investment with the father’s functions (mediation and sanction). Starting with this model, we analyzed the contents of ten nondirective interviews, then we ranked these ten fathers according to their relationship with their children. We have studied early socialization with the concept of mimesis, more pertinent than that of interaction. The social behavior of ten children was observed in a nursery school class during a period of free time. Their conduct was placed into two categories: behavior directed towards the peer or behavior directed towards conformity to the pupil’s social role.     

关于幼儿家庭功能的测查分析

通过测查幼儿所在家庭功能的现实状况,评估家庭功能实现过程中存在的主要问题,找寻积极调整的教育工作重点。采用分层整群抽样技术抽取在园幼儿家长,用《家庭功能评定量表》(Family Assessment Device,FAD),获得有效卷87份。结果:第一,沟通、情感反应和问题解决等功能基本健康,但情感介入、行为控制及角色等功能存在一定问题。第二,除问题解决功能外,有一定比例幼儿的家庭角色、情感反应、情感介入、沟通和行为控制等家庭功能存在较多问题。第三,当前幼儿所在的家庭功能整体健康水平有所提高,尤其是问题解决功能明显好转。笔者认为应对幼儿所在家庭功能健康水平的差异有足够重视,可计划、建立和实施家庭教育支持系统,有效提高幼儿的家庭功能健康水平。     

A Qualitative Study on Turkish Preschool Children's Environmental Attitudes Through Ecocentrism and Anthropocentrism

This study explores preschool children's attitudes towards environmental issues with a focus on the issue of gender as a factor affecting their attitudes. The study sample comprised 40 preschool age children living in Ankara, Turkey. The research adopted a qualitative approach, and the data were collected through interviews in which a questionnaire was administered. The interview questionnaire was adapted from ‘The Children's Attitudes Toward the Environment Scale-Preschool Version’ which contains 15 interview questions and sub-questions. The findings of our study indicate that most of the 5–6-year-old children initially appear to have ecocentric attitudes towards environmental issues in all the dimensions. However, when the children explained their reasons for choosing one of the two pictures, their responses were evaluated as emanating from anthropocentric attitudes. No difference in the attitudes of the preschool children was detected in relation to their gender. In conclusion, this study shows that the educational programmes at the preschool stage need to be broadened and improved, particularly in the provision of outdoor study in natural settings for the children to develop a more ecocentric attitude towards the environment.