Facilitating place-based environmental education through bird studies: an action research investigation

Abstract

This study involved a workshop designed to support biology teachers in conducting birdwatching activities with their students and to promote place-based environmental education in Turkey. The instruments for collecting data were a workshop questionnaire and interviews. The findings revealed that initial response to the workshop was positive; participating teachers reported that the resources and strategies motivated them to conduct bird studies with students. They identified barriers and noted that the place-based education approach might help overcome many of these barriers. After the workshop, it became clear that participants' initial intentions to integrate birdwatching into their lessons were challenged by lack of confidence and time. To gain deeper insights into the outcomes of the project, the project coordinator used action research strategies to reflect on her practice and reveal implications for her continued efforts to promote bird and environmental education. She kept a journal, used reiterative reflection, and content analysis to analyse workshop evaluations and interviews. The coordinator recognized potentials and challenges for facilitating birdwatching and environmental education as part of her teaching career. This study shares some of her efforts to provide ongoing support and emphasizes that facilitation of environmental education needs time, commitment, and passion.

The potential of bird diversity in the urban landscape for birdwatching in Java, Indonesia

“…The location area factor that influences the richness of bird species in the study location is the same as that found by Lazarina et al (2020), Callaghan et al (2018), Fadrikal et al (2015, and Reis et al (2012). Locations with broader areas tended to have a higher bird species richness as well.…”

“…Exposure to noise was the most limiting factor for this bird community in the urban landscape (Pena et al 2017). Open space is the remaining habitat in the urban landscape; thus, the presence of green open space in urban areas can reduce the loss of bird diversity in urban landscapes (Callaghan et al 2018) and have a positive effect on bird diversity (Rodrigues et al 2018).…”

“…Birds used by White et al (2018) in England as an object of study related to the awareness of school students. Birdwatching has also become an integrated part of school lessons in Turkey (Can et al 2017). Research by Gunnarsson et al (2017) showed that people with nature orientation would have better perceptual values regarding the relationship between trees and plants and birds in green urban spaces compare to people who are not oriented towards nature.…”

“…The presence of birds in urban landscapes can be influenced by various factors (e.g., green open space, vegetation and human activity). The existence of green open spaces as a main habitat also affects the presence of birds (Callaghan et al 2018;Rodrigues et al 2018). High vegetation diversity in urban landscape results in high bird diversity (Blinkova and Shupova 2017;Pena et al 2017).…”

Can Elementary School Students Understand the Complexity of the Lesser Kestrel’s Ecological system?

“…The study presented here focuses on the implementation of an EE program which used the topic of ornithology (Can et al, 2017) to introduce children from a rural community to the world of the scientific observation of birds, and through this to the importance of maintaining the biodiversity of birds in nature. Therefore, the aim of the study was to investigate the influence of an EE program (named the Lesser Kestrel program) on the development of elementary school students' system thinking skills in the context of bird ecology.…”