Characterizing effective environmental education and its impact on preservice students’ environmental attitudes

Abstract

This last year has seen an increase in the debate over mandating environmental education (EE) in the public school curriculum. While some states, such as Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, continue to have strong EE requirements, others have withdrawn their EE mandates citing inaccurate content and biases of the mandates towards liberal values. Central to the debate is the perception that EE attempts to influence decisionmaking processes and attitudes about the environment. In light of these discussions and actions, the need for accurate information about the effects EE curriculum has on students' attitudes, values, and beliefs is essential for future decisionmaking processes.Previous studies involving the effects of environmental education on students' environmental attitudes has produced mixed findings (Tilbury, 1992). One set of studies focused on preservice teachers who had taken EE or environmental science courses. Koballa and Chen (1993) found there to be some short-and long-term changes in elementary education students' intentions and attitudinal beliefs about the environment using anecdotal messages; however, they found no short-or longterm changes in students' intentions or attitudes using data-summary messages. McClure and Bell (1990) used concept maps as an assessment tool and reported some change in preservice students' proposition characteristics after completing an EE course. Another set of studies involved the Environmental Issues Attitudes Defensibility Inventory (EIADI) which measures students' assimilation and utilization of knowledge, values, and decisionmaking processes (Kinsey & Wheatley, 1980). One study using the EIADI in the early 1980s (Kinsey & Wheatley, 1984) found that students did not change their attitudes as a result of environmental studies courses, but did show significant increases in the amount of supporting evidence utilized in attitude decisions (defensibility).Yount and Horton (1992) reported no significant changes in nonscience majors' environmental attitudes, but did show that students with higher cognitive reasoning scores were more prone to increase defensibility. Recommendations from Yount and Horton's studies included changing the environmental studies course from being a memorization course to one that offer students the opportunities to synthesize and apply knowledge to new situations. Brown (1996) completed a study which assessed a course modeling these recommendations along with adding three essential pieces to an EE learning experience: (1) conceptual understanding through the use of the learning cycle, (2) values clarification, and (3) action or service learning. Findings showed changes in students' attitudes about science in the category of