Challenges and opportunities for evaluating environmental education programs

Carleton-Hug, Annelise; Hug, J. William

doi:10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2009.07.005

Cited by 181 publications

(92 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…Hollweg et al 2011). Summative evaluations commonly forego opportunities to examine the influence of particular program elements upon measured outcomes (Carleton-Hug and Hug 2010). This may also be one explanation for the common lack of clear program description we observed in our review.…”

Section: Insights On Ee Evaluationmentioning

confidence: 63%

“…Seven authors attributed null findings to a mismatch between program content and measured outcomes. This is a well-known concern of EE and interpretation research, particularly with regard to influencing behavioral outcomes (Carleton-Hug and Hug 2010;Ham 2013;Monroe 2010). Decades of research on human behavior broadly recognize that knowledge gain is not typically a direct cause of behavior change (Ajzen 2001;Hines, Hungerford, and Tomera 1987;Hungerford and Volk 1990).…”

Section: Insights On Ee Evaluationmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

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

Stern

Powell

Hill

2013

Environmental Education Research

277

177

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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.

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Section: Insights On Ee Evaluationmentioning

confidence: 63%

Section: Insights On Ee Evaluationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Stern

Powell

Hill

2013

Environmental Education Research

277

177

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…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].…”

Section: Education and Environmental Education In Madagascarmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Richter

Rendigs

Maminirina³

2015

Sustainability

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Abstract:In this paper, we present the results of a survey of an environmental education program applied to a cohort of 542 students in six primary schools at Lake Alaotra, Madagascar. The educational materials used were a comic book and additional materials designed specifically for local conditions in rural Madagascar. The comic book conveyed mostly system knowledge and, to a lesser extent, action-related knowledge. The additional materials posed practical tasks to students and were meant to stimulate teamwork and group discussion of students. There was a control and two treatment groups. A questionnaire was applied to test students' environmental knowledge at three different points in time. The survey showed a significant increase in environmental knowledge of students receiving environmental education compared to controls. This effect significantly increased with additional education materials fostering peer-to-peer learning by students instead of when teacher-centred learning was provided. Students that used those materials also had the highest scores in tests one year after environmental education ended, thus indicating the usefulness of innovative and locally meaningful materials in environmental education. OPEN ACCESSSustainability 2015, 7 8856

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“…The NEEAC (2005) argued for the development of a cumulative body of information in the field, while Carleton-Hug and Hug (2010) suggested the use of free online publications from NAAEE to aid the evaluative process (e.g., Using a Logic Model to Review and Analyze an Environmental Education Program, Marcinkowski, 2004). EEDOP could provide a tool for recording and analyzing assessment data from multiple organizations so that regional trends in effectiveness can be identified.…”

Section: Rq#4 Are Texas Ee Programs Being Assessed? How? (N=72)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Assessment is an essential tool for organizational performance, effectiveness, and program growth (Niedermeyer, 1992;NEEAC, 2005;Carleton-Hug & Hug, 2010). The NEEAC (2005) argued for the development of a cumulative body of information in the field, while Carleton-Hug and Hug (2010) suggested the use of free online publications from NAAEE to aid the evaluative process (e.g., Using a Logic Model to Review and Analyze an Environmental Education Program, Marcinkowski, 2004).…”

Section: Rq#4 Are Texas Ee Programs Being Assessed? How? (N=72)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental Education Organizations and Programs in Texas: Identifying Patterns through a Database and Survey Approach for Establishing Frameworks for Assessment and Progress

Lloyd-Strovas

Arsuffi

2016

WJE

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We examined the diversity of environmental education (EE) in Texas, USA, by developing a framework to assess EE organizations and programs at a large scale: the Environmental Education Database of Organizations and Programs (EEDOP). This framework consisted of the following characteristics: organization/visitor demographics, pedagogy/curriculum, operations, and assessment. A database of organizations was built by surveying EE program directors state-wide. Of 237 possible organizations, 82 responded to the survey. Results showed that 6-20% of Texans are exposed to EE yearly. In 2009, each of these organizations conducted 19 programs to serve 6,000 people using only $7,500 USD (based on medians). Environmental educators most frequently used hands-on, outdoor experiments and group discussions to teach students, suggesting constructivism as the underlying learning theory in Texas EE. The field needs a comprehensive analysis of the large diversity of organizations and programs to better understand the structure and function of EE. Databases are highly effective tools in education research because they provide: 1) a source of quality research; 2) information across multiple scales; 3) networking and collaboration; and 4) comprehensive and longitudinal data for testing theories. This study provides a framework for creating large-scale databases of EE organizations and identifies patterns among and between characteristics.

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Challenges and opportunities for evaluating environmental education programs

Cited by 181 publications

References 32 publications

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

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

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

Environmental Education Organizations and Programs in Texas: Identifying Patterns through a Database and Survey Approach for Establishing Frameworks for Assessment and Progress

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