Assessing Environmental Attitudes and Cognitive Achievement within 9 Years of Informal Earth Education

Abstract

Given the multitude of attitude scales, we examined the relationship between the 2-Major Environmental Values model (2-MEV) and the New Environmental Paradigm scale (NEP) based on a 6585 child sample over a 9-year period. The students participated in a three-day outdoor earth education program at field centers in three different US states (Arizona, Pennsylvania, and Louisiana). We further investigated the scales’ sensitivity to program effects, relating cognitive achievement and attitude with respect to a pro-environmental indicator of behavior (Y key). NEP and Preservation correlated highly, while the subscales Utilization and Preservation showed a strong inverse relationship. Based on further reliability and validity scores, and in line with the literature, this pointed to a unidimensional Preservation of Nature scale as a concise attitude measurement. In structural equation modelling, Preservation related to knowledge gains and the Y key, and effects from Preservation on knowledge held true for all three states. This suggests Preservation as one factor influencing cognitive achievement and environmentally conscious performance. Regarding program effects, the Earthkeepers program seemed to induce pro-environmental shifts based on knowledge gains and attitude changes (Preservation increasing and Utilization decreasing). Pro-environmental shifts were most prominent for those who received the Y key.

Earthkeepers: The Relationship between Instructional Strategies on the Program Outcomes

“…The relatively strong negative correlation between students' values of utilization and ecological knowledge resonates with other research (Baierl, Johnson & Bogner, 2021;Schneiderhan-Opel & Bogner, 2021). Students who support a more anthropocentric perspective (values of utilization) may be less interested in learning ecological concepts.…”

Spatio-temporal patterns and changes in environmental attitudes and place attachment in Gauteng, South Africa

“…Cheung and Hui 2018 on attitudes toward heritage forest conservation in China,; Heidari et al (2019), on leisure activities in Iran) or treated environmental attitudes and place attachment in isolation (e.g. Baierl, Johnson, and Bogne 2021;Daryanto and Song 2021), and not holistically, as in the present study.…”

Informal Earth Education: Significant Shifts for Environmental Attitude and Knowledge

“…School curricula have been slow to embrace environmental issues, and short-term interventions in the traditional classroom setting seem to have little impact on long-term pro-environmental shifts, so more intense outdoor programs, such as the Earthkeepers earth education program, become increasingly attractive. Earthkeepers is a 3-day residential earth education program with 1-month or more follow-up activities; it is an informal teaching approach that has shown to result in environmental knowledge and attitude shifts (e.g., Manoli et al, 2007 ; Johnson and Manoli, 2008 ; Činčera and Johnson, 2013 ; Baierl et al, 2021 ). This study goes a step further than those studies on Earthkeepers to not only test knowledge and attitude shifts but whether they converged over the course of the program, with measurements framed by the Campbell paradigm (e.g., Henn et al, 2019 ; Baierl et al, 2022 ), which would support attitude’s critical role for knowledge acquisition.…”

“…Earthkeepers is an earth education program framed as a “magical learning adventure” developed for upper elementary school students ( Van Matre and Johnson, 1988 ) that originated in the United States and is implemented in different states and around the world (e.g., Činčera and Johnson, 2013 ; Baierl et al, 2021 ). It aims to affect environmental attitude and three types of knowledge (i.e., system, action, and effectiveness knowledge; Frick et al, 2004 ; Roczen et al, 2014 ) through a 3-day holistic outdoor experience and 1-month or more follow-up activities, with the goal of participants becoming more inclined to pro-environmental engagement.…”

“…The program thus resonates with a long tradition of sustainability education, which aims at balancing knowledge, attitudes, and practices to guide students toward sustainability ( Salas-Zapata et al, 2018 ). Several studies of the Earthkeepers program report knowledge gains (e.g., Činčera and Johnson, 2013 ; Manoli et al, 2014 ) and positive attitude changes in 4–6 weeks after the residential program (e.g., Manoli et al, 2007 , 2014 ; Baierl et al, 2021 ). Earthkeepers thus show promising potential to foster long-term pro-environmental shifts.…”