<p> As traditional educational efforts expand into the online environment, academic research is needed to determine if effective environmental education could be replicated in the virtual classroom in higher education. Although previous research showed that the online course delivery could be an effective means of teaching environmental facts, what had yet to be determined is if there was a significance difference in the development of an environmental literacy, represented by attitudes and behaviors between online and traditional campus students, at a university within the Western United States. To determine if there was a measured statistical difference in environmental literacy following course completion this causal comparative quantitative study built on the theoretical foundations of environmental literacy development and used the Measures of Ecological Attitudes and Knowledge Scale and New Ecological Paradigm. From a sample of 205 undergraduate environmental science students it was determined, through the use of two tailed t tests at the 0.05 significance level, that no statistical difference in environmental knowledge, actual commitment, and global environmental awareness were evident. However, statistical differences existed in verbal commitment and emotional connection to the environment. Both the online and the traditional campus classroom are shown to be effective in the development of environmental literacy. As technology continues to be incorporated in higher education, environmental educators should see technology as an additional tool in environmental literacy development. However, the identified differences in emotional and verbal commitment should be further investigated.</p>

<p> Stagnant science achievement by students, greater demands and stresses on natural resources and environmental systems, and societal disengagement from nature highlight the need for education programs to ameliorate subsequent consequences. One attempt to address science performance and environmental apathy is Youth Environmental Science (YES), an environmental education program initiated in 2011 in a rural, minority-dominated, upper elementary school in Mississippi. The program provides five consecutive days (30 hours) of experiential learning in natural sciences. During 2011-2013, I studied cognitive and affective responses of fourth and fifth grade students to YES participation using a pretest-posttest-delayed posttest design. The influence of demographic factors (race/ethnicity, gender, and economic status) on student responses was also examined. </p><p> Compared to pretest scores, posttest knowledge and attitude scores were higher for YES participants, indicating the pedagogy was effective at promoting knowledge gains and positive environmental attitudes. Higher values were associated with female, non-Black, or higher income students; however, gains in both knowledge and attitude were similar across all demographic groupings, suggesting students from diverse backgrounds benefitted equally. Year-end proficiency exams indicated natural science knowledge gained by fourth and fifth grade students during their participation in YES did not decline with time, demonstrating retention and application of content knowledge. Moreover, although Black and low income fifth grade students had lower proficiency scores, these groups showed generally increasing trends in exam performance with elapsed time. This pattern suggests experiential and intensive environmental education interventions scheduled early in the academic year may be effective for sensitizing students for classroom learning that follows later in the year. This may be particularly impactful to those students who may experience fewer science enrichment and outdoor opportunities and thereby provide a mechanism for reducing achievement gaps among demographic groups.</p>

This study explores the qualitatively different ways in which the phenomenon of environmental education is understood or experienced by a purposeful sample of year seven students in Queensland and Saskatchewan. In 'directing the activities of the young', environmental education has, since its genesis, existed in an epistemological quagmire surrounding the development of 'responsible' environmental behaviours. Yet, after some thirty years of research and pedagogical initiative, this is one of only a few studies that have looked at the reality of environmental education through the eyes of young people. Contested and debated, environmental education has received much attention in many countries from educators interested in merging the complexities of the terms environment and education. In the context of this study it is significant to note that environmental education's history bears witness to scholarly discourse and educational initiatives in Australia and Canada. However, while environmental education has continued to expand its presence in pedagogical and didactic endeavour, its history also demonstrates contested ideological foundations regarding its implementation in schools. Queensland and Saskatchewan offer pertinent examples of this contestation. From a global perspective, the goals and objectives of environmental education have been driven, developed and established around international agendas developed at a number of conferences designed and delivered through UNESCO. These global initiatives were then left to local interpretation that often resulted in very different didactic and pedagogic frameworks. Such is the case with Queensland and Saskatchewan where environmental education is situated within a social science framework in Queensland and a science framework in Saskatchewan. However, the pedagogical structure of environmental education was not the focus of this study per se. Instead, this phenomenographic research project looks at how the phenomenon of environmental education is experienced by a group of Year 7 children in each region. These children's experiences of environmental education can be encapsulated in a limited number of qualitatively different conceptualisations. The study finds that, regardless of their country of origin, the children conceptualise environmental education in five ways; Environmental Education as: 'Human Being'. 'Human Escaping'. 'Human Doing'. 'Human Complying'. 'Human Distancing'. Specific components of these conceptions are detailed through 'categories of description' which lend themselves to a structural framework referred to as an 'outcome space'. Through this 'outcome space' it becomes apparent that for the year seven students who participated in this research project, environmental education is, at is best irrelevant, and at its worst depressing. For the goals of environmental education and those who aspire and work towards meeting those goals, this 'cumulative movement of action (environmental education) toward a later result' as noted by Dewey and quoted above, appears to be growing in the wrong direction.

Thesis (MEd) -- University of South Australia, 1993

If current environmental problems are to be addressed and future environmental problems are to be prevented, significant changes are needed in the way people live. Environmental education has been identified as an important tool for encouraging people to make the changes needed for sustainability. However, environmental education has been largely ineffective in doing this. Education about the environment is being achieved, but education that creates the skills and motivation for action is not. The purpose of this research was to investigate the potential of goal setting to be used in environmental education programs to develop the skills and motivation required to change environmental behaviour and create positive environmental outcomes. Goal setting is one of the most replicable and reliable of psychology theories, with extensive evidence of its benefits for increasing performance and changing behaviour. The premise of this research was to take an already proven and well-established behaviour change theory and apply it within environmental education programs. The first step was to develop a framework, which enabled goal setting to be incorporated into a program. To do this the environmental behaviour change literature was reviewed and the components of successful environmental education were identified and incorporated into the framework. The goal setting literature was also reviewed to determine the characteristics of an effective goal and how goal setting could be facilitated to create greater goal achievement. As there has been little research on the community’s attitudes towards goal setting a questionnaire was developed to determine if the Perth community uses goals, the characteristics of those goals and how those goals may be linked to behaviour. The survey indicated that most people were already using goals in their daily lives and the majority of people would respond positively to the use of goal setting in an environmental education program. Thus, a new environmental education framework was developed which included providing action knowledge, teaching goal setting skills, setting goals and providing continued feedback and support. The proposed environmental education framework was then implemented and evaluated through two environmental education programs, Green Houses and Living Smart. The Green Houses program assessed the effectiveness of the framework for reducing household energy consumption and the effectiveness of different communication methods for delivering the framework. Personal communication through the workshop was the most effective method for changing behaviour, with workshop participants reducing their energy consumption by 17%. The website and booklet approach also had reductions in energy consumption (7% & 8%, respectively). The schools group was the only group not to achieve a reduction, suggesting that what the students learnt about energy saving was not being transferred to the home environment or impacting on their parent’s behaviour. The groups that set goals reduced their energy consumption by an additional 5% compared to the corresponding control groups and maintained those savings for a significantly longer period of time. The Living Smart program then assessed the effectiveness of the framework for creating behaviour change across a range of sustainability topics. As a result of the program, participants significantly increased both their environmental knowledge and sustainable behaviours. A control group that received the same environmental information as the Living Smart group, but no goal setting skills, only increased their environmental knowledge. This demonstrated that environmental information alone is not sufficient for changing behaviour. The qualitative evaluation identified that goal setting facilitated behaviour change in participants because it gave them direction and strategy and increased their motivation and commitment to changing their behaviour. Importantly, the goal setting process worked equally well across all the sustainability topics, suggesting that the tool works for a variety of behaviours, not just energy conservation. In conclusion, the goal setting process and framework created effective behaviour change that was maintained longer than when goal setting is not used. The goal setting process and framework can be delivered effectively through a range of communication strategies and can be applied effectively to a range of environmental behaviours. Therefore, goal setting is an effective and valuable behaviour change tool that has great potential across a range of environmental education programs to create positive environmental outcomes in, for and about the environment.

Thesis (MEd)--University of Stellenbosch, 2007. / Bibliography. Also available via the Internet.

Thesis (M. Env. St.)--University of Adelaide, Mawson Graduate Centre for Environmental Studies, 1991. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 146-151).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Melbourne, Faculty of Education, 2001. / System requirements: IBM PC or compatible, or Macintosh computer. Data in Appendix 3, on disk: Web site maps and Web pages of the 6 versions of the subject site. Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 209-217).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Technology, Sydney, 2006.

Thesis (Ph. D., Education)--University of Idaho, December 2006. / Major professor: Jerry R. McMurtry. Includes bibliographical references. Also available online (PDF file) by subscription or by purchasing the individual file.