Environmental education program evaluation in the new millennium: what do we measure and what have we learned?

Abstract

We conducted a systematic literature review of peer-reviewed research studies published between 1999 and 2010 that empirically evaluated the outcomes of environmental education (EE) programs for youth (ages 18 and younger) in an attempt to address the following objectives: (1) to seek reported empirical evidence for what works (or does not) in EE programming and (2) to uncover lessons regarding promising approaches for future EE initiatives and their evaluation. While the review generally supports consensus-based best practices, such as those published in the North American Association for Environmental Education's Guidelines for Excellence, we also identified additional themes that may drive positive outcomes, including the provision of holistic experiences and the characteristics and delivery styles of environmental educators. Overall, the evidence in support of these themes contained in the 66 articles reviewed is mostly circumstantial. Few studies attempted to empirically isolate the characteristics of programs responsible for measured outcomes. We discuss general trends in research design and the associated implications for future research and EE programming.

Bridging the Benefits of Online and Community Supported Citizen Science: A Case Study on Motivation and Retention with Conservation-Oriented Volunteers

“…Research from the broader informal learning field, in particular environmental education and interpretation, suggests that project-based, experiential work that is relevant to participants can lead to high levels of engagement and generally more positive outcomes (Ardoin et al 2013;Athman and Monroe 2002;Ballantyne and Packer 2009;Beck and Cable 2002;Brochu and Merriman 2002;Ham 1992;Heimlich and Norland 1994;Stern and Powell 2013;Stern et al 2014). Research in the field of citizen science reveals much the same (Garibay 2004;Garibay 2009;Rotman et al 2012), and co-created citizen projects commonly arise in response to a relevant environmental or health crisis at the community level (Bonney et al 2009a).…”

Conservation Messages in Speech Bubbles–Evaluation of an Environmental Education Comic Distributed in Elementary Schools in Madagascar

“…Given the amount of effort invested in environmental education in developing countries, with few exceptions, there is a general lack of quality empirical studies on the outcomes and effectiveness of environmental education in general [62][63][64], the more so for Africa [65][66][67][68][69][70][71] and especially, Madagascar [6,23,58,72,73]. This may be a side effect of the current situation that almost all environmental education is provided by NGOs and undertaken by practitioners not trained in evaluation techniques, their donors normally financing only practical educational work and not time-consuming and costly scientific evaluation [74].…”

Influence of an Intensive, Field-Based Life Science Course on Preservice Teachers’ Self-Efficacy for Environmental Science Teaching

“…Teacher educators should not assume that PSTs have positive perceptions of their abilities to teach EE simply because they can lead outdoor activities or model EE practices. Explicit teaching and reflection on EE instruction and pedagogy are necessary to engender research-based practices among PSTs (Bleicher & Lindgren, 2005;Stern, Powell, & Hill, 2014;Weiland & Morrison, 2013). Based on the findings, it seems warranted that ongoing discourse about the roles of teacher and students in EE is necessary for supporting positive self-efficacy among PSTs.…”