Using a Delphi study to clarify the landscape and core outcomes in environmental education

Abstract

When leaders in a field agree upon core outcomes for the field, connection, reinforcement, and a shared vision of change are synergistically strengthened. Even when the field is dynamic, theoretically wide-ranging, and dispersed, consensus around core outcomes can help develop strategic research agendas and priorities. Environmental education (EE) is an inherently interdisciplinary field drawing on diverse theoretical foundations and epistemological orientations, resulting in a broad conceptual and empirical landscape. To better understand and situate this within EE, we pursued a modified Delphi study, with participation from 44 professionals and leaders active in North America. Over three Delphi rounds, the panel came to agreement on five core outcomes that focus the EE field: (1) environmentally related action and behavior change, (2) connecting people to nature, (3) improving environmental outcomes, (4) improving social/cultural outcomes, and (5) learning environmentally relevant skills and competencies. Reflecting those commonalities, we propose the following encapsulating statement to describe the field’s core outcomes: Environmental education works to move people to action for the tangible benefit of the environment and humanity. To realize these benefits, people must connect experientially with the environment, learn needed skills, and understand the complicated social and cultural connections between humanity and the natural environment.     

Peabody bimonthly booklist

THE CONCEPT OF A UNIVERSITY by Kenneth Minogue. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, 1973. 231 pp. $8.00.

THE TRIAL OF MARTIN LUTHER KING by Alan F. Westin and Barry Mahoney. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1975. 342 pp. $7.95.

TEACHING THE MENTALLY RETARDED CHILD, Second Edition by Natalie Perry. New York: Columbia University Press, 1974. xi + 751 pp. $15.00.

MY SISTER LOOKS LIKE A PEAR by Douglas Anderson. New York: Hart Publishing Company, Inc., 1974. 268 pp. $7.50.     

What Undergraduates Misunderstand about Stem Cell Research

As biotechnology‐related scientific advances, such as stem cell research (SCR), are increasingly permeating the popular media, it has become ever more important to understand students’ ideas about this issue. Very few studies have investigated learners’ ideas about biotechnology. Our study was designed to understand the types of alternative conceptions students hold concerning SCR. The qualitative research design allowed us to examine college students’ understandings about stem cells and SCR. More specifically, we addressed the following questions: How can alternative conceptions about stem cell topics be categorized? What types of alternative conceptions are most common? Participants included 132 students enrolled in a biotechnology course that focused on the scientific background of biotechnology applications relevant to citizens. In this study, we used an inductive approach to develop a taxonomy of alternative ideas about SCR by analyzing student responses to multiple open‐ended data sources. We identified five categories of conceptions: alternative conceptions about what, alternative conceptions about how, alternative conceptions about medical potential, terminology confusion, and political and legal alternative conceptions. In order to improve instruction, it is important to understand students’ ideas when entering the classroom. Our findings highlight a need to teach how science can be applied to societal issues and improve science literacy and citizenship.     

Reframing leadership as a participative pedagogy: the working theories of early years professionals

Traditional notions of leadership are at odds with the pedagogy and ethos of Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC), prompting increasing international concern to develop new understandings which are better suited and create greater leadership capacity. The introduction of the Early Years Professional (EYP) in England, as a leader of practice without association with an organisational position, gave impetus to the idea of pedagogic leadership. This paper draws on two qualitative studies to examine the working theories of EYPs in leading practice to discover how they interpret and apply their professional purpose. An interpretive approach was adopted to develop patterns of meaning from practitioner stories which show an emerging notion of leadership founded on ‘passionate care’ to improve the education and well-being of young children. Such leadership can be exercised regardless of positional role as it does not operate through authority but from moral purpose and it seeks to release agency for change with others by building trusting relationships. This provides scope to reconceptualise leadership in ECEC as a participative pedagogy which could generate greater leadership capital if embedded into professional development.     

What Is Motor Development? The Lessons of History

Recently the definition of motor development seems to have engendered a debate among a number of scholars in the field. We suggest that the controversy stems from confusion about whether motor development is a product or a process. When motor development is defined as change over time in motor behavior, the focus is on motor performance (i.e., product), whereas when motor development is defined as a process, the emphasis is on the underlying mechanisms of change. Clearly, the proper definition of motor development includes both the product and process of change. Through an historical overview of the field, we trace the origins of this definitional confusion and its impact on the study of motor development. The paper concludes with our position as to the future directions for motor development research.     

Hypothetico-deduction and educational research

This paper suggests that the classic account of hypothetico-deduction in educational research needs to be replaced by a more adequate model which distinguishes between the logical structure of hypothetico-deduction and its methodological application. A reconceptualization of hypothetico-deduction entails exploration of the logical relationship between three levels of explanation: observation sentences, observation categoricals and theory formulations. Taken together, these provide a framework to accommodate all inquiry. An educational example is considered to demonstrate how this reformulated account of hypothetico-deduction applies to educational research.     

The first cut is the deepest: reflections on the state of animal dissection in biology education

School science discourse is analysed through professional research literature, curriculum materials, professional development materials, and popular and mass culture science materials, including the world-wide-web. The crucial role of fun is used as a node through which to understand how school science practice is intimately connected with theories of motivation so that school science practice can be interpreted as a technology of power. Web pages and television programmes are analysed as extreme cases of the application of this discourse, revealing an overarching representation of science curriculum. Alternative directions for classroom practice are suggested.     

Editor's Statement

A model of text comprehension is outlined and its implications for some educational problems are explored. The model distinguishes between the local, phrase‐by‐phrase processing of a text, and global, gist‐producing macroprocesses. Inferences based upon world knowledge play a crucial role in the model. A preliminary experimental test of the model is discussed that involves recall and readability predictions. Readability is considered not as an immutable property of a text, but as the result of a reader‐text interaction; the same text may be difficult for some but easy for other readers. The model discussed may have some value not only because of the specific predictions that it makes, but also because it may promote a more sophisticated understanding of comprehension processes and problems in reading.     

‘Great chorus of protest’: a case study of conflict over the 1909 Eaton's readers

This article examines the controversy that ensued when the Education Department of the province of Ontario, Canada, granted the tender to publish elementary school readers to the T. Eaton Company, a department store, in 1909. This decision eliminated an important source of income for retail booksellers, who could not compete with the consumer appeal of a department store, or with its option of mail‐order service. Over the next decade, the booksellers fought vociferously, using a variety of strategies, in an effort to mitigate the effects of this decision on their profits. The booksellers' struggle was part of a larger campaign on the part of retailers to oppose mail‐order provision of consumer goods in Canada. This historical case study contributes to our understanding of the effects of political influences and commercial pressures on the provision of textbooks, which are central to instruction in a publicly funded school system.