Research in Environmental Education
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Brief History of Environmental Education
Roots of Environmental Education in the US
Environmental Education in the Mainstream
The goal of environmental education is to develop a world population that is aware of, and concerned about, the environment and its associated problems, and which has the knowledge, skills, attitudes, motivations, and commitment to work individually and collectively toward solutions of current problems and the prevention of new ones.
UNESCO-UNEP. (1976). The Belgrade Charter: A global framework for environmental education. Connect: UNESCO-UNEP Environmental Education Newsletter, 1(1), 1-2. This document is available online at: http://portal.unesco.org/education/en/file_download.php/47f146a292d047189d9b3ea7651a2b98The+Belgrade+Charter.pdf
Environmental education is defined as a learning process that increases people’s knowledge and awareness about the environment and associated challenges, develops the necessary skills and expertise to address these challenges, and fosters attitudes, motivations, and commitments to make informed decisions and take responsible action.
UNESCO-UNEP. (1978). The Tbilisi Declaration: Final report intergovernmental conference on environmental education. Organized by UNESCO in cooperation with UNEP, Tbilisi, USSR, 14-26 October 1977, Paris, France: UNESCO ED/MD/49. This document is available online at: http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0003/000327/032763eo.pdf.
The three broad objectives for environmental education are:
To foster a clear awareness of, and concern about, economic, social, political and ecological interdependence in urban and rural areas.
To provide every person with opportunities to acquire the knowledge, values, attitudes, commitment, and skills needed to protect and improve the environment.
To create new patterns of behavior of individuals, groups, and society as a whole towards the environment.
Environmental education began in the 1960s as a response to our growing awareness of environmental problems. It grew from three important education movements:
Nature study
o In the early 1900s, focused on studying natural history of plants and animals
o Today, focuses on increasing student’s awareness and appreciation for nature and emphasizes the use of discovery learning.
Conservation education
o Begun in the 1930s as a response to soil erosion and flooding disasters. Congress passed laws requiring teachers to address conservation education in their curricula.
o Today, reflects concerns about natural resource management.
Outdoor Education
o Responds to concerns that urban youth are not experiencing direct contact with nature or the environment
o Outdoor education encourages educators to teach many different subjects in the outdoors.
North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE)
NAAEE is the leader in establishing
guidelines for the development of balanced, scientifically accurate, and
comprehensive environmental education programs. Quality environmental
education programs facilitate the teaching of science, civics, social studies,
mathematics, geography, language arts, etc. These guidelines help educators to
develop meaningful environmental education programs that integrate across and
build upon the high standards set by the core disciplines.
NAAEE’s National Project for
Excellence in Environmental Education identifies and provide examples of
high quality environmental education practice. NPEEE materials are available
on their website (http://naaee.org/pages/npeee/materials.html).
The Project has completed the following interrelated efforts:
·
Environmental Education
Materials: Guidelines for Excellence
and its companion publication: Environmental Education Materials:
Guidelines for Excellence - The Workbook.
·
Environmental Education Collection - A Review of Resources for Educators,
Volumes 1, 2 and 3
and The Biodiversity Collection produced by the World Wildlife Fund.
·
Excellence in Environmental
Education - Guidelines for Learning (Pre K-12),
and its companion piece, the Guidelines for Learning (Pre K-12) Executive
Summary & Self Assessment Tool.
·
Guidelines for the
Preparation and Professional Development of Environmental Educators
and training materials for individuals who have completed a Guidelines
workshop.
·
Nonformal Environmental Education
Programs: Guidelines for Excellence.
·
Consideration of a state certification
programs for environmental educators addressing three key issues: professional
standards, continuing education, and evaluation.
More information about NAAEE is available online at http://www.naaee.org.
Through the process of professional accreditation of schools, colleges, and departments of education, NCATE has tremendous impact on the way pre-service teachers are prepared to work in the nation's schools. NCATE is a coalition of 33 professional associations of teachers, teacher educators, content specialists, and local and state policy makers that construct the criteria used to assess teacher education programs for accreditation.
NAAEE recently joined as an organizational member of NCATE to integrate environmental education into the initial preparation of incoming teachers and is drafting environmental education program standards for the initial preparation of environmental educators for NCATE.
The draft standards are available online at http://naaee.org/pages/projects/inv_to_participate.html.
More information about NCATE is available online at http://www.ncate.org.
ASCD represents 170,000 educators, who span the entire profession of educators—superintendents, supervisors, principals, teachers, professors of education, and school board members. ASCD addresses all aspects of effective teaching and learning—such as professional development, educational leadership, and capacity building. It offers broad, multiple perspectives—across all education professions—in reporting key policies and practices.
Position Statement on Environmental Education: Because people in developed nations are rapidly consuming Earth's natural resources and because the world population is increasing rapidly, human beings must take individual and social responsibility for the environment. Schools should provide environmental education.
ASCD acts on this position by publishing infobriefs, hosting forums, and organizing one of its networks around environmental education. ASCD networks are member-initiated groups designed to unite people around a common area of interest in the field of education. Networks allow participants to exchange ideas, share information, identify and solve problems, grow professionally, and establish collegial relationships.
The Environmental Education Network promotes awareness and understanding of environmental education, plays an advocacy role in support of environmental education, and provides a forum for members to network and discuss issues related to environmental education. The network website is http://eelink.net/environmentaleducationnetwork.html.
Copies of the following documents and proceedings are available from the network website.
· EE Evolves, Education Update, January 2000
· Infobrief: EE Moving into the Mainstream, August 2001
· Forum on EE and School Reform, November 2002
· Advancing Education through Environmental Literacy, 2003
· Education Topics, September 2003
More information about ASCD is available online at http://www.ascd.org.
Recent research suggests that environmental education offers significant promise for both effective professional practice and improved academic achievement. The State Education and Environment Roundtable sponsored an evaluation of students engaged in learning opportunities that used the “Environment as an Integrating Context” (EIC). The evaluation looked at students using EIC methods against embedded data. The study, by Gerald Lieberman and Linda Hoody, showed improved student engagement, enthusiasm, ownership and learning outcomes as shown on standardized tests.
The National Science Foundation's Ten Year Agenda for Environmental Research and Education (2002) indicates that,
"…many believe that environmental themes could be used as an heuristic tool to help attract students not only to careers in environmental sciences and engineering, but to other scientific and technical areas. Early research results support the claim that the environment, when used as an integrating concept, improves student interest, attitude, achievement, and attendance in school.
Many successful programs offer students hands-on experiences through field trips or "backyard science" in urban areas. These place-based activities help students make connections to local neighborhoods or traditions, thus enhancing their motivation and increasing the likelihood that environmental science will be a lifelong interest."
A program evaluation conducted by the Harvard Graduate School of Education for the Rural Trust (1999) provides case studies of schools and communities throughout rural America that have been transformed by grounding students’ education in the local community and intentionally moving away from didactic approaches to standardized schooling. The evaluation concludes that, as schools and communities work together to design curricular goals and strategies, students’ academic achievement improves, their interest in their community increases, teachers are more satisfied with their profession, and community members are more connected to the schools and to students.
Regional Studies Consistent with National Findings
The Place-based Education Evaluation Collaborative (PEEC) brings together education programs working in northern New England, including non-governmental agencies, government agencies, a graduate school, and a granting foundation. PEEC members sponsor four different place-based education programs that work with K-12 schools. Using a single evaluation team, PEEC members fund annual evaluations for their individual programs and pool their efforts for cross-program evaluations. This collaborative approach improves the quality and utility of the evaluation of individual programs and makes a larger contribution to the field of place-based education research.
Key findings from the 2003-04 cross-program evaluation document the significant and positive contributions of place-based education to students, teachers, and schools in general. The report shows gains in the following:
· Teacher practice (especially teacher engagement/growth),
· Use of local places for teaching,
· Student engagement in learning,
· Student civic engagement,
· Student time spent outdoors,
· Student stewardship behavior,
· Community civic engagement, and
· Community planning/decision making processes.
Survey data also suggested that the impacts of place-based education programs
that work with an entire school for multiple years may reach a kind of “tipping
point.” After this point is reached, the effects of a program begin to become
part of the school culture, norms, and practices, and thus become more powerful
for the long term. This research is available online at
www.peecworks.org.
PLT Study Consistent with National and Regional Findings
In January 2003, NH Project Learning Tree (NHPLT) launched Connecting Schools to People and Places (CS2P) as a pilot project with Woodsville Elementary School (WES). The program was designed as a model school improvement program, based on the environment and focused on sustained and intensive professional development. The goal of CS2P was to provide today’s youth with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to become stewards of their local forests and other natural resources.
NHPLT supported WES staff through the following strategies: funding teacher release time and field trips, purchasing natural science supplies, facilitating monthly meetings and summer planning meetings, modeling natural science activities in and out of the classroom, and sharing natural science and curriculum-planning expertise.
There is substantial evidence that CS2P impacted the teachers, students, and the community in diverse and positive ways. From the data, a picture emerged of a school with:
· teachers who are deepening their knowledge and skills in place-based education,
· students who are enthusiastic, engaged, and service-oriented, and
· a school with an evolving and improving relationship with the surrounding community.
Teacher Outcomes
One of CS2P’s primary strategies was to help teachers plan and implement natural science based activities throughout the curriculum. Overall, the qualitative and quantitative data demonstrated that teachers made great strides in their development of new skills and strategies for teaching. The evaluation found that WES teachers are:
Collaborating more, primarily as a result of monthly grade-level meetings, and reaping diverse benefits including:
Improved curriculum, and more grade-wide and school-wide activities,
Better communication and sharing of ideas and resources,
Increased camaraderie amongst teachers and a collaborative school culture, and
Networking beyond the school.
Making greater use of the schoolyard and adjacent natural areas for more dynamic, engaging, and hands-on teaching.
Using natural science to teach other subjects, particularly reading and writing.
Increasing their use of PLT curriculum materials.
Inviting increasing numbers of community members with varied specialties into the school and classrooms.
Using new supplies to facilitate more frequent and varied natural science teaching.
Student Outcomes
As direct beneficiaries of the changes caused by their teachers’ participation in CS2P, the students at WES exhibited many positive responses to the new teaching styles, activities, and content. The evaluation focused on teacher, staff, and parent reported changes to student enthusiasm for natural science and student stewardship behavior.
· Anticipation of and greater engagement during natural science activities,
· Increased personal initiative toward learning natural science, and
· More productive participation in literacy activities when they related to natural science.
· Greater involvement in litter collection in the schoolyard and beyond,
· Enthusiastic participation in and ownership of the recycling project,
· Self-motivated acts of energy conservation, and
· Development of an overall conservation ethic towards natural resources.
Community Outcomes
Some of the intended outcomes of CS2P relate to students’ understanding of and participation in the community where they live, as well as community involvement in the school. Evidence suggests an evolving and deepening school/community relationship, including the following:
· More community members involved in the school,
· Greater community awareness of the school,
· Students visiting more places in the community,
· More parent involvement in the school.
NHPLT’s interim and final evaluation reports for CS2P are available at www.peecworks.org/PEEC/PEEC_Research/S006EE542.
Research and Reports
Setting the Standard, Measuring Results, Celebrating Successes: A Report to Congress on the Status of Environmental Education in the United States. 2005. National Environmental Education Advisory Council. Available online at http://www.epa.gov/enviroed/pdf/reporttocongress2005.pdf.
Place-Based Education Evaluation Collaborative: http://www.peecworks.org/ (compilation of research)
Organizations
National Project for Excellence in Environmental Education: http://naaee.org/pages/npeee/materials.html
National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE): http://www.ncate.org
Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD):
National Science Foundation - Advisory Committee for Environmental Research and Education: http://www.nsf.gov/geo/ere/ereweb/advisory.cfm
North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE): http://www.naaee.org
UNESCO: http://portal.unesco.org