Abstract:The present article challenges the prevailing perception in the field of environmental education that acquisition of environmental behavior is an ultimate goal of the educational process, in comparison to acquisition of environmental attitudes, which is perceived as a minor goal. The article presents a compilation of results obtained from two studies that shed new light on the relationship between influences on environmental attitudes and influences on environmental behavior. The results suggest that: (a) among adults, the strategies required for influencing attitudes are different from those required for influencing behaviors; (b) the mechanisms for achieving influence among children are different from those among adults; and (c) conventional educational approaches, such as behavior modification, can influence behavior more easily than they can influence attitudes. The results provide grounds for questioning the prevailing belief that individual acquisition of responsible environmental behavior can drive changes on the global political scale. We suggest increasing the focus of environmental education on construction of attitudes.
ABSTRACT:The present article addresses issues regarding implementation of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) within the formal education systems. In particular, it aims at identifying the basic essential components of ESD pedagogy. We present a theoretical pedagogical framework based on accumulating theory and experience in the field. The framework aspires to encompass the majority of prevailing pedagogies within a simple set of four basic principles. It will be argued that the four principle pedagogies are basic and indispensable prerequisites for achieving the goals of ESD. As such, lack of one suffices to undermine the ESD's pedagogical construct.
University-led STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) outreach forms one potential avenue to address the continuing decline of tertiary student enrollments. Yet to-date the impact of these programs is not well understood, due to an historical emphasis on 'delivering the goods' that obscures debate on which outreach programs to deliver, why and to whom. At a time in which the academy faces growing pressures to 'perform,' it is argued that explicit consideration of program purposes and efforts to assess efficacy may facilitate discussions about the possible role of university-led outreach in attracting school students to STEM careers. This article reports on findings from a study of the outreach efforts at nine Australian universities, revealing two key barriers: limited institutional support structures; and limited explicit consideration of disparate, and at times, competing outreach stakeholder needs. These barriers problematize the contribution that universities can currently make toward raising future STEM aspirations.
World wide coral reef decline has now been well nities, species have been understood to interact in a documented, but the actual dynamics of this disturbing phehierarchical web of competitive interactions, In all of nomenon are still far from understood. In t h~s note we the above models, a set of N species colonize and com- Coral reefs, the most complex and diverse of all aquatic ecosystems, are currently facing widespread devastation. Wilkinson (1993) warned that some 70% of the world's reefs will be completely destroyed over the next 40 yr and massive species extinctions are to be expected if the process is not soon reversed. The recent model of Tilman et al. (1994) (henceforth referred to as TMLN) becomes of particular relevance, for it predicts the species extinction debt in ecosystems as habitat destruction (D) increases. Here we modify TMLN and test it with field data from the reef flats in Eilat, Israel. The following note is intended to focus more on the ecological implications of our findings. Complete details concerning the more technical theoretical and mathematical aspects of our work will be presented in a companion paper (Stone 1995).The spatial model described by TMLN and also used here, was originally designed by Hastings (1980) for application to coral reef communities. In such commuthe good colonizers are weak competitors. Because individuals are mortal, species are constantly losing patches by the usual death process. This in turn provides a continuous source of newly opened patches for which species compete. On average, the weaker competitors are able to colonize vacant patches more rapidly. This is how the trade-off between competition and colonization helps prevent the best competitor from eventually taking over all possible space.In the terminology of the present note, we let p, denote the proportion of the total number of patches on which species i resides, which is also loosely referred to here as the species' abundance. The colonization potential of the ith species is taken to be c;, while its mortality rate is m,. Following TMLN, we assume that a proportion D of sites, where 0 6 D 5 1, are permanently destroyed and can never be colonized. Ultimately we seek to determine the effects of habitat destruction on a model coral reef system..The spatial growth of the ith species is modelled by the differential equation (Hastings 1980, TMLN):
The present study revisits a subfield of environmental education: significant life experiences, which studies the influences that shape the development of environmental stewardship. In the present study, we examine the effect of various formative experiences on a group of adults and analyze the role of school, as a formative influence on the parents of the students. By employing factor analysis, we were able to differentiate between groups of variables influencing attitudes and those influencing behavior. Cluster analysis enabled us to differentiate between types of respondents in accordance to their responsiveness to influencing experiences. The results draw attention to (a) the different pathways by which environmental attitudes and behaviors are influenced; (b) the important role of the inner self ("personality") in organizing and giving meaning to all other formative influences; and (c) the effectiveness of environmental schools in urban communities in Israel, in influencing the behavior of students' parents.
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