Conservation education in zoos: A literature review

Nygren, Nina V.; Ojalammi, Sanna

doi:10.23984/fjhas.66540

Cited by 14 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…While 41% of the pupils showed a positive effect when learning about nature conservation on a guided tour, the effect on an unguided tour was slightly lower, and approximately only one-third showed a positive effect. For a detailed literature review of conservation education in zoos, we recommend Nygren and Ojalammi (2018).…”

Section: Evaluating the Educational Impact In Zoosmentioning

confidence: 99%

Connecting High School Students With Nature – How Different Guided Tours in the Zoo Influence the Success of Extracurricular Educational Programs

et al. 2020

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Zoos attract millions of visitors every year, many of whom are schoolchildren. For this reason, zoos are important institutions for the environmental education of future generations. Empirical studies on the educational impact of environmental education programs in zoos are still rare. To address this issue, we conducted two studies: In study 1, we investigated students' interests in different biological topics, including zoos (n = 1,587). Data analysis of individual topics revealed large differences of interest, with advanced students showing less interest in zoos. In study 2, we invited school classes of this age group to visit different guided tours at the zoo and tested connection to nature before and after each educational intervention (n = 608). The results showed that the guided tours are an effective tool to raise students' connection to nature. Add-on components have the potential to further promote connection to nature. The education programs are most effective with students with a low initial nature connection.

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Section: Evaluating the Educational Impact In Zoosmentioning

confidence: 99%

Connecting High School Students With Nature – How Different Guided Tours in the Zoo Influence the Success of Extracurricular Educational Programs

et al. 2020

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“…One way to re-make the land was to order and control the 'natural' environment in various ways. Colonial practices included the collection of exotic animals for study and/or for entertainment value (Anderson 1995;Nygren and Ojalammi 2018). As animals were collected, they were displayed in terms of their hierarchy and importance to humans.…”

Section: Zoo-logicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lively Emu dialogues: activating feminist common worlding pedagogies

Blaise

Hamm

2020

Pedagogy, Culture & Society

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This paper draws from a series of Place-thought walks that the authors took at an open-range zoo. It practices a feminist common worlds multispecies ethics to challenge the systems that maintain natureculture divisions in early childhood education. Postdevelopmental perspectives (i.e., feminist environmental humanities, multispecies studies, Indigenous studies) are brought into conversation with early childhood education to consider how zoo-logics maintain binaries and hierarchical thinking. Zoo-logics are related to developmental, colonial, and Western ways of reasoning and being in the world. Two feminist approaches to ethics, (re)situating and dialoguing, are discussed and show how they are necessary for undermining binaries and hierarchies that enable human exceptionalism, white privilege, and phallogocentrism. (Re)situating practices are presented through a lively dialogue based on Emu-human encounters at an open-range zoo. This paper argues that (re)situating and dialoguing pedagogies activate feminist common worldings. Worlding well requires a collective and relational multispecies ethics which are needed in these troubling times.

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“…Major criticisms of conservation education evaluations that examine changes in knowledge, attitudes, and behavioural intentions warn that: knowledge is a minor factor in predicting whether visitors undertake conservation actions ; changes in intentions do not always translate into actual conservation actions (Ballantyne & Packer, 2005;Smith, Broad, & Weiler, 2008); and that measures of changes in conservation actions are seldom informative about the benefits to wild species or habitats, which are the truer measures of conservation success (Ferraro & Pattanayak, 2006;Hughes, 2013;Smith et al, 2010). While research does repeatedly detect small positive changes in visitor knowledge and attitudes (Khalil & Ardoin, 2011), persistent behaviour changes due to this education, or direct benefits to conservation, are rarely evaluated or confirmed (Nygren & Ojalammi, 2017). For example, recent research has persuasively demonstrated that zoo and aquarium visitors leave with an increased understanding of biodiversity and knowledge of actions to help protect it (Moss, Jensen, & Gusset, 2015), but over a longer time frame it is difficult to attribute persistent changes to the visit (Smith et al, 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Conservation impact scores identify shortfalls in demonstrating the benefits of threatened wildlife displays in zoos and aquaria

Buckley

Smith

Crook

et al. 2020

Journal of Sustainable Tourism

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Zoos and public aquaria globally display numerous wild harvested, threatened species. To validate conservation credentials, displays are often associated with research projects, educational interpretation, or conservation-related activities. However, accompanying conservation benefits are rarely assessed. In this study, an approach to evaluate conservation benefits of captive wildlife experiences is modelled by assessing four Australian aquarium displays of the Critically Endangered largetooth sawfish Pristis pristis. Conservation impact scores were calculated for research, education, and conservation-related activities. In a novel approach, sawfish-related education (gaining knowledge, changing attitudes, and intentions to change behaviours) was evaluated using a before and after study design (n ¼ 2 229), and conservation impact scores were calculated using effect sizes. Although visitors to all aquariums demonstrated significant positive attitudinal changes, and at one site gained knowledge, no significant change in behavioural intentions were detected. Educational messages addressing attitudes and behaviours were mostly generalised and untargeted. Formative and ongoing evaluations are needed to develop and maintain targeted and relevant messages. With one exception, research projects and conservation activities were unlikely to contribute substantially to sawfish conservation due to limited support from the aquaria. We recommend that increased support is directed to projects that are targeted towards impactful conservation goals. ARTICLE HISTORY

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Conservation education in zoos: A literature review

Cited by 14 publications

References 15 publications

Connecting High School Students With Nature – How Different Guided Tours in the Zoo Influence the Success of Extracurricular Educational Programs

Connecting High School Students With Nature – How Different Guided Tours in the Zoo Influence the Success of Extracurricular Educational Programs

Lively Emu dialogues: activating feminist common worlding pedagogies

Conservation impact scores identify shortfalls in demonstrating the benefits of threatened wildlife displays in zoos and aquaria

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