The Effect of a Brief Environmental Problems Module on Endorsement of the New Ecological Paradigm in College Students

Abstract

The author measured endorsement of the New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) in college students following their involvement in a 2-to 3-week environmental problem module focused on global environmental problems and energy issues. The module included readings, discussion, and a writing exercise, and was presented during 3 sequential semesters within a course on research design. Students from the 3 groups were all tested subsequently in spring 2001. When compared with control data, data from students receiving the educational module showed significant increases in NEP endorsement that declined somewhat with time but remained significantly greater after 3 semesters. In contrast, retention of knowledge from the module showed a predictable decrease over time.KEY WORDS: environmental attitudes, NEP scale, environmental awareness he emerging concerns of both local and global environmental problems over the past several decades have given rise to a broad array of educational programs in primary and secondary schools (e.g., Leeming, Dwyer, Porter, & Cobern, 1993;Rickinson, 2001;Zimmermann, 1996). The implicit goal of such programs has been to create an electorate that is better informed on environmental issues and, thus, better able to make appropriate decisions that have an effect on ecological problems. It has also been suggested that children can have an important role in influencing consumption and other environmentally relevant behaviors of their parents (Uzzell, 1999). Many of these educational programs have served as sources for research data, and this research has typically looked for changes in knowledge, attitude, affect, and, occasionally, environmentally relevant behaviors. Although this behavior change is of ultimate concern, the other measures are all recognized as related to the behavioral decisions in question. Models for the determination of behavior FALL 2005, VOL. 37, NO. 1 3 T Bruce E. Rideout is a professor in the

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