The Cognitive and Attitudinal Effects of a Conservation Educational Module on Elementary School Students

Abstract

The ability of the National Marine Park of Zakynthos (NMPZ) in Greece to protect an important sea turtle rookery will ultimately depend on the level of local support and involvement that it receives. Therefore, it is essential for environmental educators to generate among local inhabitants, starting at early ages, positive attitudes concerning the NMPZ. The authors designed a conservation educational module, with 15 activities, to affect knowledge and attitudes of elementary school students. The authors used a quasi-experimental design for summative evaluation with a pretest-posttest control and experimental group to measure the effects on 4 dependent variables: (a) knowledge, (b) understanding and concern, (c) locus of control, and (d) verbal commitment. The survey instrument comprised 32 items that the authors divided into 4 subscales that measured the dependent variables. In total, 332 elementary school students-162 girls and 170 boys, 11-13 years of age-from 21 classes and 15 schools participated. The results indicated a significant effect on knowledge (low pretest scores), but not on attitudes (high pretest scores). However, posttest correlations in the experimental group indicated that as knowledge level increased, students' (a) locus of control and (b) understanding and concern for the sea turtle issue became more defensible. The study thus provides a model for environmental educators to design conservation education modules to foster positive attitudes in managing endangered species in protected areas.

Role of an environmental studies course on the formation of environmental worldviews: a case study of a core curriculum requirement using the NEP Scale

“…Participation in an introductory university-level environmental studies class led to "deepening" of environmental values (McMillan 2004), and an environmental management course increased students' environmental concern among business students (Benton 1993). In contrast, a module for elementary students did not yield a significant change in the scores of the attitude variables (Dimopoulos et al 2008). These studies employed different survey methods than those of our study.…”

“…The trend of change towards the stronger endorsement of the NEP is more remarkable given the relatively high level of endorsement shown by students at the course beginning. Other investigators have found that significant changes in attitude scores are "typically observable only in cases in which the level of positive attitude in pretest is generally low" (Dimopoulos et al 2008). This condition might particularly apply to Likert scale instruments, which have a "ceiling" effect, such that students who begin the course with strong pro-environmental viewpoints ("strongly disagree" on even-numbered questions, or "strongly agree" on odd-numbered questions) cannot demonstrate an increase in environmental concern.…”

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

“…Other outcomes were occasionally observed, but not included in our analysis; the most common involved elements of empowerment, which we observed in eight studies. In three studies, this involved measuring of locus of control (Culen and Volk 2000;Dimopoulos, Paraskevopoulos, and Pantis 2008;Zint et al 2002); in three other studies, self-efficacy was measured (Johnson-Pynn and Johnson 2005;Stern, Powell, and Ardoin 2010;Volk and Cheak 2003); and in two cases, more general forms of self-confidence were measured (Kusmawan et al 2009;Russell 2000). We excluded 'empowerment' as an outcome in our analysis for three reasons: (1) its uncommon appearance and inconsistent conceptualization in the sample and (2) it was more commonly referenced in the reviewed articles as a probable reason for achieving another outcome than as an outcome itself.…”

Contact with nature: effects of field trips on pro-environmental knowledge, intentions and attitudes

“…Our experimental design, similar to the one used in Dimopoulos, Paraskevopoulos and Pantis (2008), included pre-and post-trip measures of knowledge, intentions and attitudes, so that effects of exposure to natural context could be assessed, in a repeated measures design, with the same participants. It also included control groups which were not exposed to the field trips from the same school and level of education, what allowed the scores were compared with those who had the exposure to the field trips.…”