Creating a Space to Learn: A Classroom of Fun,Interaction, and Trust

Abstract. By creating a space for fun, interaction, and trust, teachers and students together can build a learning environment that promotes engagement, deep learning, and meaning. Such a space emphasizes process, not product, personalizes learning, and contributes to whole person development. To facilitate the creation of this space, the teachers show respect for students as individuals, encourage original thinking, and expand the boundaries of the classroom through field trips and guest speakers, and the students share written reflections on critical issues that link to personal experience and conviction, contribute to dynamic class dialogues, and develop and present creative responses to environmental and social complexities.     

Conversations With Environmental Educators: A Conversation With Four Classroom Teachers

Abstract

With the ultimate goal of providing safe, high-quality experiential educational opportunities, decision making on the part of the outdoor instructor has become a critical component in successful programming. Within the outdoor pursuits setting, decisions can be categorized by specific situations and by the person or group affected by the decisions. In addition, decisions can be classified according to the frequency and severity of the consequences of a wrong choice. Correct decision making can be hindered by a variety of situations, such as stress and adversity, which are often present in the outdoor setting. Despite these problems, a number of techniques, such as consensus decision making, can aid the outdoor instructor in making correct decisions.     

An Exploratory Case Study of Dutch Children's Attitudes Toward Consumption: Implications for Environmental Education

This critical essay based on empirical study draws upon research on the differences in attitudes toward consumption among Dutch upper-elementary school children with different socioeconomic backgrounds. This article examines two strands of theory: critical literature on the conceptualization and practice of sustainable consumption, and the theory of postmaterialist values. By synthesizing these strands of theory the author outlines a number of paradoxes and challenges in theory and practice of consumption and lays a foundation for teaching sustainable consumption at the upper-elementary school level. The Cradle-to-Cradle framework is proposed as a form of strategically significant environmental education that can be used for teaching consumption.     

The Communicator's Role in Resource Decision–Making

Abstract

The experience of 8 teenage participants of a 12-day adventure trip was investigated through participant observation and semistructured posttrip interviews. The teen participants conceptualized nature as a place out there—a reality fundamentally different and removed from their home reality of civilization. The teens understood nature as undisturbed, natural, unfamiliar, without people or human material development, relaxing, not busy, and with a sense of freedom. The teens strongly suggested nature does not exist at home. It appears that, with this construction of nature, the teens felt diminished motivation to take care of their home environment.     

Undergraduates' orientations towards student–university relationships: Measurement and associations with student characteristics and engagement

This study explored students' orientations towards student–university relationships and how they differ with regard to student characteristics and engagement. We developed an instrument measuring student orientations and utilised it in a survey of Russian undergraduates. Using latent class analysis, we identified the following types of Russian students' orientations: instructivists, consumerists, constructivists, and students with mixed orientations. As the results showed, the majority of our respondents have consumerist or mixed orientations that mostly mismatch with the actual models of student–university relationships at Russian universities. We also found that students with these orientations are less engaged than instructivists and constructivists. These findings demonstrate the importance of seeking an optimal match between diverse undergraduate orientations and the actual educational model, which fits national and institutional contexts.     

农村中学生环境知识教育的现状及解决对策

文章通过对湖南永兴第一中学、衡东欧阳遇中学的环境知识调查问卷统计结果的分析，初步了解当前农村中学生环境知识教育的现状：农村中学生环境知识欠缺；环境意识不强；社会、家庭、学校教育没到位；尤其是环境教育师资数量不足、结构不佳、质量不高是其中比较突出的问题。只有结合实际，本着“环境保护，教育为本”的理念，才能探索切实有效的解决对策。而增加教育资金．营造良好的环境知识教育体系、加强师资培养培训、开展多种形式的环境教育活动等，是其重要措施和途径。     

Environmental literacy components and their promotion by institutions of higher education: an Israeli case study

The recognition of the key role and moral responsibility of higher education institutions (HEIs) in cultivating the environmental literacy (EL) of their students is growing globally. The current research examined the contribution of HEIs to their students’ EL by focusing on an Israeli college as a case-study. A survey was conducted among a representative sample of 1147 students from all departments in four phases of their academic studies. A moderate level of EL was found. The college’s green agenda attracted more pre-environmentally literate students, but its contribution to the development of students’ EL throughout the learning years was minor. Variation in pro-environmental behavior was better explained by students’ environmental values and attitudes than by their environmental knowledge. It seems that a combination of knowledge, values, and attitudes is needed in order to instill EL among students in HEIs. Commitment to environmental education must be translated into effective contents (what) and ways of teaching and learning (how) EL, which should be adapted to the varied populations of HEIs’ students in the various faculties and departments. Some recommendations are detailed.     

基于学习过程的本科教育学情调查报告2009

全面提高质量,大力提升人才培养水平是中国高等教育当前面临的重要任务。本研究聚焦于大学生的学习过程及投入,从大学生作为独立自主的学习者,其学习行为与大学教育实践之间的互动来揭示和分析我国不同类型大学的本科教育状况。本文使用的调查工具是根据全美大学生学习性投入调查(NSSE)问卷,由清华大学教育研究院和美国印第安纳大学共同组成的研究团队完成的汉化版中国大学生学习性投入调查问卷(NSSE-China)。研究数据来自清华大学教育研究院主持的中国大学生学习性投入研究课题组2009年6月在全国23所自愿参加课题研究的本科院校,通过完全随机抽样获得的24252名本科生样本。论文运用五大可比指标、反映教育过程及环节的指标,根据参与院校的不同类型(985院校、211院校、地方本科院校),对大学本科生的学情状况进行实证性描述和分析。     

我国大学生环境意识研究综述

以最近10年高校大学生环境意识的研究为依据,综述了我国高校大学生环境意识的现状研究、存在问题、策略探索等方面,并提出未来研究发展的建议,以期进一步提高我国高校大学生环境意识水平。     

关于中等职业学校加强环境教育的思考

当前，环境教育日益受到世界各国的关注，但在我国的职业学校中，环境教育并未受到应有的重视。本文阐述了中等职业学校加强环境教育的必要性，以及如何从意识、理解、技能、价值观和态度等方面完善环境教育的内容，提出了中等职业学校加强环境教育的基本思路。     

论加强高校环境教育的必要性及有效途径

构建和谐社会,树立可持续发展,是我国国民经济与社会发展中长期规划的一项战略任务。本文阐述了高校环境教育在促进社会和谐与可持续发展中的重要地位和现实意义,并提出了加强高校环境教育的基本构想和有效途径。     

强化环境保护意识的教育探索

本针对大学生对环境保护的认识，论述了我国环境和环境保护状况，并对加强环境保护教育的必要性以及在教育过程中采取的措施和成效进行了探讨。     

建构主义学习理论与现代远程开放教育

建构主义（Ｃｏｎｓｔｒｕｃｔｉｖｉｓｍ）是西方近些年来所提倡的一种学习理论，它说明了人类学习过程的认知规律，其现点对传统教学思想有很大的挑战性，因此吸引了很多教育工作者研究它的理论、探索它的应用性。现代远程开放教育是构筑知识经济时代终身学习体系的主要手段，同时也是终身教育和学习化社会的重要组成部分，用建构主义学习理论研究现代远程开放教育具有一定的实际意义。     

Tallebudgera: A First Experience in Environmental Education

Abstract

The environment as an issue has been prominently before the public for almost two decades. Yet the question of how much the public knows about their environment or about environmental issues has seldom been considered in the research literature. Using data from a statewide survey, this paper examines the general level of public environmental knowledge and analyzes the sociodemographic characteristics correlated with such knowledge. The results indicate that public environmental knowledge remains painfully low, and that the major correlates of environmental knowledge are education, income, and sex. The need for the development of environmental knowledge scales that can be applied across a variety of research is discussed.     

Transforming Environmental Knowledge Into Behavior: The Mediating Role of Environmental Emotions

The present study was based on the premise that environmental knowledge can drive environmental behavior only if it arouses environmental emotions. Using a structural equations modeling approach, we tested the direct, as well as the indirect (mediated) effects of knowledge on behavior and assessed the mediating role of environmental emotions. We found that knowledge is an important but distal variable, whose significant effect is fully mediated by emotions. The high explanatory power and good fit indices of the model supported and validated the important role of emotions in the learning process.     

建构主义学习理论与高校体育教学改革的研究

建构主义是20世纪90年代以来兴起于西方国家的一种社会科学理论,它是学习理论中行为主义发展到认知主义后的进一步发展,被称为"当代教育心理学中的一场革命"。本文力图在建构主义理论的思想指导下,结合当前我国高校体育教学的实际情况,对我国高校体育改革进行研究与探讨,这对推进我国高校体育改革必将产生重大的影响。     

Informed Forces for Environmental Quality

The authors expanded on a previous study of students' perceptions of a residential environmental education program. Immediately prior to the students' departure and again 6 months later, they used the minute-paper and muddiest-point assessment techniques to administer an instrument that explored what students found most meaningful about their experience and most confusing about their experience and what aspect of their experience they would like to repeat. Findings revealed that students' perceptions of their experience changed over time.     

Students embracing change towards more powerful learning environments in vocational education

Students’ educational engagement is both an important predictor of study success and a key preventive factor for dropout. Vocational tracks in secondary education show high dropout rates. There is strong evidence that the solution to educational disengagement lies in student‐centred, powerful learning environments (PLEs). This study investigates characteristics of PLEs from the perspective of students in vocational secondary education. Students’ perspectives on a learning environment are crucial for their satisfaction and learning engagement. Therefore, we investigated whether the perceived learning environment meets the requirements of PLEs, and to what extent it meets students’ preferences. Additionally, it was investigated whether students who perceive their learning environment as more powerful, are also more engaged for school. Survey data of 532 students showed that student perceptions of their current learning environment were largely discrepant from the characteristics of PLEs. Students strongly asked for more challenging learning pathways, in combination with adaptive learning support. Students who perceived the characteristics of PLEs as being present, reported higher satisfaction and stronger engagement than students who perceived their education to be a less powerful environment. There is a need to redesign curricula in vocational education in such a way that these more intensely implement characteristics of PLEs.     

Engagement with online self-tests as a predictor of student success

Online self-testing as part of the online learning environment (OLE) provides practice questions on key concepts with immediate feedback – in a ‘no-risk’ environment. OLE activity was analysed for 471 on-site and distance students enrolled in health science courses to determine total activity on the OLE and usage of online self-tests. The study also aimed to determine whether utilisation of self-tests differed by final grade, particularly between students who just pass (C grades and Restricted pass) and those who fail (D and E grades). Results indicated that on-site students were significantly more active on the OLE compared to distance students. However, these groups engaged similarly with self-tests and achieved a similar distribution of grades. A significant positive relationship was found between final grade achieved and percentage of self-tests attempted. This relationship was significant regardless of study status (on-site or distance), course studied or total activity logged. A more targeted analysis of C?+?R vs. D?+?E students showed that although these two groups were similar on overall usage of the OLE, C?+?R students utilised self-tests to a significantly greater extent. Recommendations from this study are that students (particularly those struggling to achieve academic success) should be directed towards online self-tests.     

学习支持服务与学生参与度关系的调查研究——以浙江奥鹏远程教育为例

远程教育的质量和效益竞争离不开良好的学习支持服务,因此,关注远程教育的学习支持服务问题,提高学习支持服务的力度,是解决远程教育质量问题和持续发展问题的重要途径,其中学生学习参与度又是考量学习支持服务是否具有力度的重要方法。基于这样的认识,本研究在访谈和文献分析基础上设计了“学习支持服务问卷”和“学生学习参与度问卷”,就两者互相影响的问题专门展开了调查,调查数据显示学习支持服务和学习参与度之间存在显著正相关。希望本研究能对学习支持服务方面的决策提供支撑。