New Tools for Environmental Protection Education, Information, and Voluntary Measures (2002) / Chapter Skim
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9. Perspectives on Environmental Education in the United States
9. Perspectives on Environmental Education in the United States
Pages 147-160
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is, explores some of its critical challenges, and describes an effective, long-standing curricular approach to environmental education and its research implications. OVERVIEW OF ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION Let' s begin with the concept of environmental education.
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Regardless of definition, the following characteristics appear to be essential elements in most environmental education perspectives. Environmental education · is based on knowledge of ecology and social systems, drawing on disci plines in the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities; · reaches beyond biological and physical phenomena to consider social, economic, political, technological, cultural, historic, moral, and aesthetic aspects of environmental issues; recognizes that the understanding of feelings, values, attitude, and perceptions at the center of environmental issues is essential to analyzing and resolving these issues; and · emphasizes critical thinking and problem-solving skills needed for informed, reasoned personal decisions and public action (Disinger and Monroe, 1994~.
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A MODEL CURRICULUM One environmental education curriculum program, called Investigating and Evaluating Environmental Issues and Actions (IEEIA) , has been developed over time, accumulating an extensive research and evaluation base (Hungerford et al., 1996; Ramsey, 2000; Winther, 2000~.
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Module II: Getting Started on Issue Investigation: These lessons begin the skills necessary to start an issue investigation. Students identify issues, write research questions, and learn how to obtain information from secondary sources and how to compare and evaluate information sources.
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In this section of the program, students "take over," undertaking an inquiry into an authentic environmental issue approved and facilitated by the teacher. Module VI: Environmental Action Strategies: Students learn the major methods of citizenship action, analyze the effectiveness of individual versus group action, and develop issue resolution action plans.
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RESEARCH ABOUT ENVIRONMENTAL BEHAVIOR The previous discussion noted that problem solving in terms of personal and social environmental decision making is a critical goal of environmental education. Given this, let's look at what is known about responsible environmental behavior.
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, and Culen and yolk (2000~. All these studies reported statistically significant, positive differences in responsible environmental behavior as a result of instruction, and many reported positive increases in the associated variables.
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Thus, it would be surprising if IEEIA, a formal classroom instructional treatment, could influence environmental sensitivity. What is important for environmental educators are the findings that IEEIA can foster responsible environmental behavior as well as gains in many of the allied factors.
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4. Knowledge of and perceived skill in the use of citizenship action strategies: These skills include persuasion, political action, consumerism and the variables show up over and over again in one form or another in a great preponderance of the research discussed here.
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A carefully selected issue topic around which a case study can be developed, such as municipal solid waste disposal, a locally endangered species, land use management in the community/region, air/water/aesthetic pollution, loss of wetlands, forest fire management, preservation of ecologically important plant/animal communities, and population growth; 2. Science content, which serves as prerequisite knowledge to understanding the scientific nature of a chosen issue; 3.
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From page 157... ...
and IEEIA instruction. With this strategy, teachers guide students through an introduction to issues, identifying problems, analyzing issues, using primary and secondary sources to obtain information about issues, recording and interpreting collected data, and demonstrating citizenship strategies used in society for the remediation of issues.
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yolk 2000 Effects of an extended case study on environmental behavior and associated variables in seventh and eighth grade students. Journal of Environmental Education 31:9-15.
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1987 Study of the Effects of Issue Investigation and Action Training on Characteristics Associated with Environmental Behavior in Seventh Grade Students. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.
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1991 Effects of Extended Case Study Instruction on Citizenship Behavior and Associated Variables in Fifth and Sixth Grade Students. Unpublished dissertation, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.
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