Earthkeepers: The Relationship between Instructional Strategies on the Program Outcomes

Abstract

The study focuses on the relationship between selected characteristics of the outdoor environmental (earth) education program Earthkeepers and its impacts on students' environmental values and knowledge. It is rooted in the authors' previous research that is being both applied and reflected here. For providing empirical evidence, it uses data collected by the environmental center Lipka that implemented the program in the Czech Republic in 2020-2021 (N=80). The program successfully influenced students' environmental values and understanding based on the analyses. Students described the programs' instructional strategies as highly encouraging, experiential, empowering, and straightforward. At the same time, student descriptions of the program correlated with the environmental values they held before the program; students who viewed the program more positively also tended to be more positively influenced by the program. Implications for the practice of outdoor environmental education are also discussed.

How Should We Teach Nature Protection? Self-Determination and Environmental Attitudes

“…Autonomy is supported if students feel they have a choice, and that their choice matters [33]. In a more recent study, Činčera et al [6] called it power distribution, indicating that giving students power in decision-making about classroom learning supported overall learning outcomes. In practice, this can be met by: ( 1) rather open teaching formats (1a) that provide several resources to teach the same matter (e.g., students can choose whether to read a text, search the internet, or work with a model to elaborate on the same topic), (1b) that allows for choosing the social setting (e.g., students can choose whether they want to work on their own, with a partner, or in small groups for some activities), or (1c) allowing one to devote individual time slots to certain activities which could be met by organizing workstations or completing worksheets; when no such choice is possible, a rationale can suffice [15]; (2) acknowledging student responses (e.g., when completing worksheets in plenary, students may feel more acknowledged if teachers use student contributions instead of pre-defined responses); (3) integrating student suggestions in lessons (e.g., if topics allow one to dive into examples such as life cycle assessments, students can vote for topics); (4) role-playing games in which students have to find a consensus (e.g., discussing scenarios such as whether to build solar panels, how many, and where exactly); and (5) using several grading systems (e.g., portfolios which document the learning progress).…”

“…As such, we focus on school students, because they seem to go through a sensitive age period during which the formation of environmental attitudes might primarily occur, and because schools are platforms for distributing such knowledge and competencies as are necessary in daily life. Another aspect relevant to strengthening environmental attitudes might be to give students power in the classroom [6], an argument that is related to Deci and Ryan's [7] well-established self-determination theory. The theory talks about the basic needs that comprise personal autonomy (i.e., giving people choices), competence (i.e., helping people to feel competent and successful in what they do), and relatedness (i.e., feeling accepted and acknowledged).…”