Promoting connectedness with nature through environmental education

This study examined the relationship between students’ feeling of connectedness to nature (CN) and their exposure to environmental education (EE) experiences at formal or nonformal environmental education organizations. CN, often developed through EE programs, is a good predictor of environmentally responsible behavior (ERB) and is also an indicator of self-nature overlap. The Connectedness to Nature Scale Revised (CNS-R), and the Inclusion of Nature in Self (INS) surveys were administered at formal (N=3) and nonformal (N=3) environmental education organizations (EEOs), surveying students (N= 5,994) aged 7-14. Students participated in a range of program types including homeschool, summer camps, extended day, and overnight programs. Aggregated pretest and posttest survey data were analyzed to determine how students’ feelings of CN were affected by their EE experience and how these scores were influenced by age, duration, and frequency.

Fourth graders’ connectedness to nature - Does cultural background matter?

As a multifunctional space, national park (NP) offers visitors a range of experiences, including environmental education (EE) programs, which help visitors learn about the park’s ecosystems, biodiversity, and cultural heritage. These programs can take various forms, such as guided hikes, interpretive displays, educational workshops, and citizen science projects. This paper presents theoretical research and practice in EE in NPs, drawing on research conducted in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and other countries. The study aims to identify effective ways of implementing EE function in NPs, including planning the legislative system and educational activity content. Successful EE programs often involve collaboration between park staff, educators, and local communities, tailored to the specific needs and interests of different visitor groups. Challenges faced by Congolese NPs in implementing EE programs include limited funding, inadequate staffing, and a lack of public awareness and support. The study provides examples of successful EE programs in other national parks that could serve as models for Congolese NPs. To achieve EE function in NPs, the study proposes solutions such as developing partnerships with local schools and universities, using social media to raise awareness about EE programs, and integrating EE into park management plans and policies. By implementing these solutions, Congolese NPs can contribute to global efforts to conserve biodiversity and protect the planet’s natural resources.

INTRODUCTION In response to concerns about global warming and climate change (Letcher, 2009), the perceived estrangement of humanity from the natural world (Louv, 2008), and fears that the carrying capacity (1) of the earth will soon reach its limits (Orr, 1992), a growing number of educational scholars have proposed a re-orientation of schooling around the concept of sustainability and its themes (Orr, 1992; Bowers, 1995; Gruenewald & Smith, 2007; Jickling & Wals, 2008; Smith, 2002, 2010; Smith & Williams, 1998; Sobel, 2004; Sterling, 2004). Termed sustainability education, (2) this approach to schooling works to help students acquire the knowledge, values, skills, attitudes, behaviors, and beliefs they will need to work toward a more just and ecologically sustainable world (Smith, 2010). More than environmental education, which focuses on the study of natural systems (how they function and how to manage them) (Palmer, 1998), sustainability education incorporates topics and themes related to social, political, cultural, and economic systems, in an effort to help students recognize the complex relationship between humanity and the natural world. Sustainability education also works to examine many of the ideological principles and values found in Western society (e.g., the concepts of dualism and anthropocentrism; the equation of progress with unlimited economic growth), so that students may develop new ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving (e.g., thinking systematically, and recognizing that economic growth is bounded by ecological limitations) (Coates, 2008). Although numerous efforts to enact sustainability education have been made around the world, a single, replicable model of sustainability education fails to exist. Sterling (2004) attributes this actuality to the emphasis environmental and sustainability education places on diversity. McKeown-Ice (2000) acknowledges that diversity is a key component of environmental and sustainability education and explains that a single, replicable model of sustainability education would be entirely inappropriate [given its highly localized nature] (p. 12). Without a model to follow or adapt, educators looking to enact sustainability education are left to decide for themselves what this orientation towards education and the school curriculum should look like. Such a process is challenging. It calls for--among other things--an examination of the core knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, skills and behaviors that individuals are expected to possess as inhabitants of a sustainable world. It also calls for an assessment of how one's conceptualizations fit within the traditional and contemporary aims of the field. The purpose of this case study was to examine how the founding members of a secondary charter school designed a comprehensive model for schooling around the concept of sustainability. By focusing on how the founding members created their school, I intended to document both the processes and complexities involved. REVIEW OF LITERATURE A majority of the research conducted on environmental and sustainability education has focused on the effectiveness of this approach to schooling (Lieberman & Hoody, 1998; National Environmental Education Training Foundation, 2000; Volk & Cheak, 2003; Athman & Monroe, 2004; American Institutes of Research, 2005; Chawla, 2007; Power, 2004). This makes sense given that the field is working hard to justify itself and its intentions (Gruenewald & Mantaew, 2007, as cited in Stevenson, 2007; Smith, 2010; Sterling, 2004). Another area of inquiry for the field has been on challenges to program implementation. In particular, several studies have documented the challenges involved with implementing environmental education and sustainability-based programming in the public school setting (Cotton, 2006; Paul & Volk, 2002; Plevyak, Bedixen-Noe, Roth, & Wilke, 2001; Stevenson, 2007; Summers & Kruger, 2003). …

This paper results from an assessment of the Environmental Education (EE) programmes run at Monarto Zoological Park (MZP) in South Australia. MZP has a number of programmes attracting a variety of schools, both primary and secondary. Some of the programmes have been negotiated specifically for special needs and 'at risk' students. These courses are designed to encourage social inclusion through developing pro-social skills and seeking to reconnect students with learning through what is labelled as alternative education. The programmes are curriculum linked and in some cases, course credits. Despite the increasing demand for alternatives to classroom-based schooling, there has been little research into the effectiveness of EE as a tool for inclusive education. The Masters from which this paper derives, identifies, examines and situates the range of factors that generate, define and develop MZP's EE programmes. This paper looks specifically at how the ideals of social inclusion fit within a specific set of EE programmes.

Role models may be essential in helping students develop environmental literacy and characteristics associated with positive youth development (PYD). We examine the identities of middle school students’ self-reported role models before, immediately after, and three months following an immersive 5-day residential environmental education (EE) experience that targets environmental responsibility, character development and leadership, and attitudes toward school as programmatic outcomes. We explore whether students who identified different types of role models score differently on these factors. Students who identified parents, teachers, and pastors as role models scored higher on each of these outcomes. Moreover, who students identified as role models changed significantly after the EE program. We discuss the potential influence of the program on role model development and implications for EE and PYD programs.

The present research explores whether environmental education practices and methods can serve as a professional development tool and help science teachers to transform theory into educational practice. To answer this question, the perceptions of 40 experienced science teachers implementing environmental education programs were explored. Activity theory was used as an analytical tool to illuminate how teachers relate science teaching to environmental education and to highlight the contradictions and tensions that develop due to the conflict between the dominant positivist model of science teaching and the child-centered model of constructivism adopted by environmental education. The analysis showed that environmental education has the potential to lead to the desired transformation if implemented in a way that is consistent with its principles and objectives. It can also support horizontal professional development efforts as it utilizes the very strong intrinsic and personal motivations of teachers that drive them to engage in environmental education programs.

Environmental education programs are critically important for raising awareness about global and local environmental concerns, by providing the knowledge, tools, and means for young and old generations to cope with current challenges. Of the greatest importance is the implementation of environmental education programs in biodiversity hotspots where environmental crises are high and resources to fund mitigation programs are low. Madagascar is one such priority hotspot, featuring intensive wildlife-human conflicts due to shrinking natural environments. The Duke Lemur Center-SAVA Conservation Initiative has been conducting environmental education activities in the SAVA region, northeastern Madagascar, since 2011. These activities have been aimed at increasing awareness of local and global environmental issues and at stimulating the involvement of local school students. Our initiatives have predominantly supported teacher trainings to provide teachers with environmental education content, examples, and recommendations on how to integrate activities into their regular curricula, commonly referred to as a “cascade approach”. Due to logistical hurdles, including high teacher turnover rates, however, these interventions have not been monitored to assess their efficacy. Thus, to better inform current and future interventions, we designed and implemented classroom-based surveys to gather baseline data on the basic knowledge of SAVA students and their perceptions of the environment. We identify informational gaps in surveyed schools, including those located in large towns vs. villages, and those with trained vs. untrained teachers. Based on these results, we make recommendations for future environmental education efforts in the region, including activities that could address real-life environmental problems and decision-making solutions.

Undoubtedly, environmental education plays a fundamental role in building and putting into practice human development strategies that allow raising the quality of life of our towns and cities. Environmental education must be an integrating factor of intellectual and collective development, related to the needs of communities and to the quality of life of all people. In this sense, environmental education is considered as education for the organization, for political action, for social and cultural progress. It is a permanent process that requires profound changes in the ways of educating a strategy and an environmental education program that challenge a human society alienated by a social system. The aim should be to act on the origins of the environmental problems, not only their consequences, combining strategies that articulate economic, political, and cultural issues. In this sense, the aim of this chapter is to reflect on the evolution of environmental education as a concept and a field of action and to share some reflections on its role and implications as a tool to foster environmental protection, social inclusion, and sustainable development. In our opinion, environmental education is crucial for the transformational change of the current development model.

An environmental education (EE) consortium located in the pacific northwest United States coalesced an external evaluation team to research its K-5 EE programming. The purpose of this article is to describe one phase of this program evaluation process including the exploration of adult stakeholder perceptions of EE programming accessed by 4th grade children. The author highlights the goals of the consortium and the context for the program evaluation, and the relevant literature addressing adult perspectives on EE is reviewed. The study framing, method, and qualitative results are reported. Findings suggest that adult stakeholders perceived positive impacts from 4th grade participation in EE, though the programming was viewed as being most beneficial to children coming from economically disadvantaged families. Implications for EE practice and research are discussed.

In an attempt to meet the information and education needs of millennial visitors – the new tourism frontiers – in industrial revolution 4.0 era, environmental education program in Indonesian Botanic Gardens (IBGs) has applied a new paradigm. As the world become more digital, the IBGs has also developed more digital programs in terms of environment, biology and conservation education. There are mobile apps for self-guided tours, digital class for various topics related with horticulture practices, virtual adventurous games, online reservation, are to name some. Annual numbers of IBGs visitors showed increasing trends in period of study, which was probably caused by increasing quality of information, education program, digital facilities, and displays, including photo spots. This paper will describe how IBGs play important role in supporting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in quality education, as well as Target 14 of Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC) by making more engagement with millennial visitors.

This research has been motivated by the necessity of understanding the essential concept of education and of having critical attitudes related to the common sense about the aims of education. Researches related to the concepts of education and environmental education can help us to understand the fundamental principles that are being chosen to justify and to carry out environmental education programs. So, trying to understand tendencies in environmental education researcher's conceptions in Brazil we carried out an analysis of the articles presented in The First Environmental Education Research Meeting (I EPEA). The main questions proposed are: 1 - what conceptions of education and environmental education can be identified in the articles presented in I EPEA? 2 - What evidences can be raised from these articles to help us to identify such conceptions? Through content analysis we tried to identify meaningful excerpts to the research purposes and to categorize them in a thematical process. The political dimension of education, linked to the process of social transformation and citizenship, was one of the main aspects find out in the articles. Participation, interdisciplinarity, values, the relationship between local and global aspects of environmental issues and controversial issues were objectives or methodological principles presented in I EPEA articles. Nevertheless, it is relevant to point out that we could find some elements that permit us to link them to a traditional view of education or a view that goes in the direction of technicality in education. Risks of a pragmatic view or of an instrumentalism conception of environmental education present in these articles are mentioned.

The environment and humans are two inseparable things, both are interconnected and influence each other. The environment as a unitary space with all objects, power, circumstances, and living things, has organized life for humans and provided all the necessities of life. Meanwhile, humans as leaders on earth (khalifah fil ardh) have a role to maintain and preserve the surrounding environment. However, human attitudes and behavior often cause environmental damage and natural disasters. Human greed to exploit nature has caused various environmental problems on earth. The presence of Islam through the Qur'an helps humans to carry out their duties in maintaining environmental sustainability and harmony and also solving any existing problems. Through the Qur'an, Allah SWT. has provided spiritual information to humans to be friendly and care for the environment. The content of values ​​​​in the Qur'an about the environment can be a guide for realizing Islamic education with an environmental perspective. Environmental education is an effort towards a balanced life between humans and their environment, which is characterized by cultivating a livable and sustainable ecosystem. This research focuses on the study of the efforts to realize environmentally Islamic education based on the values ​​​​in the Qur'an. The method used in this research is library research. From the results of this study, it was obtained a study of environmental Islamic education and its values, the environment in the view of the Qur'an, as well as steps to realize environmental Islamic education.

In the Childhood Brain Tumor Consortium database, the proportions of older children (> or = 11 yr) with pilocytic astrocytomas, fibrillary astrocytomas, and ependymomas significantly increased (P < 0.05) over the 50 years (1930-1979) of the study. The increased proportions of pilocytic astrocytomas occurred whether the tumors were located in the supratentorial or infratentorial compartments. The increases in fibrillary astrocytomas and ependymomas were found only within the supratentorial tumor location. Some histological features found in pilocytic astrocytomas (e.g., Rosenthal fibers, granular bodies, and very low cell density) were more likely to be found in older children. Other histological features were also more likely to be found in older children (e.g., parenchymal calcification, intertwined fascicles, intermediate and large-size nuclei, pleomorphic, elongated, or irregular nuclei, prominent nucleoli, multinucleated cells, thick hyaline blood vessels, hemosiderin, and parenchymal and perivascular lymphocytes). The probability of 5-year survival for young children with supratentorial ependymomas remained at approximately 0.4 in contrast to that for young children with infratentorial ependymomas, for whom it improved, but without significant linear trend. The probability of 5-year survival for both younger and older children with primitive neuroectodermal tumors (medulloblastomas) improved, but without significant linear trend. The changes in the proportions of childhood brain tumors and histological features occurred without similar changes in the proportions of older and younger children in the cities involved between 1930 and 1979. These changes were so distinctive as to raise the possibility of significant shifts in environmental exposures in younger and older children over the 50 years of this study.

It is of great importance to the role of private companies in environmental responsibility actions, particularly those related to environmental education -EA. These corporations invest capital contributions every year and hold significant potential to influence hundreds or even thousands of people for a change of attitude, behavior, ethics and cause the perception of their importance within a production process environmentally friendly, socially equitable and economically viable. This study aims to identify the main challenges that exist in Environmental Education Programs -EAP, developed by private companies. More precisely, we intend to contribute significantly to the debate on the implications of the actions of environmental organizations. After analysis of AEP's held for ten private companies concludes that this should not have a strictly punctual, ie without having your business as a whole analyzed. Must encompass any activity that promotes private enterprise, so as not to be a single program, disconnect, which tends to be lost over time if there is no incorporation of the values of EA for the organization. To enhance understanding of this research, the suggestions were classified into two parts: generic actions for improvement of the business process (such as completion of permanent engagement with stakeholders; constant search for certifications, preparation and publication of sustainability reports and the use of reports by part of the community when it feels aggrieved) and; proposals aimed at improving specific environmental education program (as a proxy between the university and private enterprise, use of indicators, assessment of improvements in addition to specialized training programs for environmental educators operationalize projects).