Environmental Literacy Assessment: Exploring the Potential for the Assessment of Environmental Education/Programs in Ontario Schools

Abstract

Environmental education (EE) initiatives and programs are continually being introduced to schools and school boards in Ontario. For example, the EcoSchools program was initiated in 2002 and has seen a great increase in school participation since its inception. Several schools and school boards have adopted these initiatives with claims and praises on their effectiveness for improving students' learning, environmental literacy and the school's physical environment. However, the aggregate and quantifiable effect of these programs on students' environmental knowledge and literacy is usually not emphasized. This paper is the report of a work in progress and proposes an environmental literacy assessment for elementary and secondary schools in south western Ontario as a tool for assessing the effectiveness of EE initiatives.

Analisis literasi lingkungan pada mahasiswa pendidikan geografi

“…Menurut Igbokwe (2012) Literasi lingkungan memiliki beberapa indikator yang menyusun dan membentuk diri seseorang. Literasi itu terdiri dari pengetahuan lingkungan, keterampilan kognitif, sikap, dan perilaku yang bertangung jawab atau perilaku pro-lingkungan (Igbokwe, 2012;Maulidya, Mudzakir, & Sanjaya, 2014) hingga memiliki kemampuan untuk mempertimbangkan secara rinci dalam rangka menganalisis, mengevaluasi, menilai hingga pada akhirnya menyuarakan keputusan dalam memecahkan suatu permasalahan lingkungan.…”

Environmental Culture and Education: A New Conceptual Framework

“…The concept of environmental literacy includes a wide range of aspects, namely knowledge and understanding of environmental concepts, problems and issues, a set of cognitive and affective dispositions, and a series of cognitive skills and competences, together with the appropriate behavioral strategies for implement this knowledge and understanding in order to make effective and relevant decisions in different environmental contexts (Simmons, 1995;Hollweg et al, 2011;Hungerford & Volk, 1990;Cook & Berrenberg, 1981;Stern, 2000). In a (Hallfreðsdóttir, 2011;Krnel & Naglič, 2009;Igbokwe, 2012;McBeth & Volk, 2010;Kuhlemeier et al, 1999;Pe'er et al, 2007;Spínola, 2015), but in order to better reveal the complexity and interdisciplinarity of this concept, and the difficulties that face its promotion, it will be worth deepening it. Among others, knowledge must include physical, ecological, social, cultural and political systems, disposition must involve sensitivity, attitude, personal responsibility and motivation, skills must imply the ability to identify, analyze, investigate, evaluate and resolve environmental issues, and environmentally responsible behavior must include eco-management practices, persuasion, consumer action on the economy, political action and legal action (Hollweg et al, 2011).…”

Urban and place-based environmental education in the Ontario Secondary School curriculum

“…(UNESCO, 1978) Of these categories, some are more easily assessed than others, lending themselves to data collection on participation in various programs, or knowledge/skill based surveys, and tests. Methods that have been used by researchers include monitoring participation in voluntary programs (Igbokwe , 2012) as an indicator of progress and analyzing the frequency of use of outdoor education centers (Kopar, 2013). Although attractive, concrete forms of assessment can be limiting, providing a narrow or incomplete picture of environmental literacy.…”

“…Although attractive, concrete forms of assessment can be limiting, providing a narrow or incomplete picture of environmental literacy. Furthermore, it is difficult to interpret even simple forms of assessment without a baseline for environmental literacy, which Ontario does not yet have (Igbokwe, 2012). Recent national assessments in EE involving K-12 students have been performed in other parts of the world: South Korea (2002Korea ( -2003, Israel (2004Israel ( -2006, the United States (2006( -2008( ), and Turkey (2007( -2009 (Stevenson, Brody, & Dillon, 2012).…”