Download Free The Effects Of A Residential Outdoor Educational Program On The Environmental Attitudes Of Upper Elementary Age Students Book in PDF and EPUB Free Download. You can read online The Effects Of A Residential Outdoor Educational Program On The Environmental Attitudes Of Upper Elementary Age Students and write the review.

Youth environmental education (EE) is at least 40 years old and outdoor education is even older (Carter & Simmons, 2010). While few studies have documented the lasting impacts of these programs on youth participants as they have grown into adulthood, the broad goals of environmental education to inspire and enable life-long environmental stewardship necessitate such long-term research. Retrospective studies with environmentalists and environmental educators, as well as with the general public, suggest that childhood experiences in nature are linked to adult environmental attitudes and behaviors (Wells, & Lekies, 2012). These studies provide conceptual support for outdoor and environmental education, but do not document the lasting impacts of specific programs. This dissertation expands on prior research in interpretation (i.e., Knapp, 2007), investigating what past participants remember from a residential outdoor environmental education (ROEE) program, and draws on a new body of literature to explore how participants use these memories in subsequent years. The first article (chapter) is a literature review that summarizes and critiques (1) studies broadly focused on life experiences that have influenced adult environmental attitudes and behaviors and (2) long-term evaluations of interpretive, outdoor education, and environmental education programs. The second article reports data from 45 retrospective interviews with adults who participated in a fifth-grade ROEE program between 1958 and 1992. This paper focuses on what participants remember from the experience, looking specifically at the characteristics of remembered program components. Experiences that were active, offered opportunities for iii achievement, involved social interactions, and were both distinctive and applicable at home were found to be particularly memorable. The third article in this dissertation considers how people use their memories of ROEE, reporting the results of 54 retrospective interviews at two research sites with teens who had attended ROEE programs five years earlier. The psychological literature suggests that autobiographical episodic memories serve directive, social, and self functions (Bluck, 2003), and this dissertation research documents memories of ROEE being used to understand and appreciate wild nature, to direct outdoor recreation and environmental conservation behaviors, and to reminisce with friends. Considered together, the research presented in this dissertation offers insight into how current educators can design memorable programs and then encourage memory use. References Bluck, S. (2003). Autobiographical memory: Exploring its functions in everyday life. Memory, 11(2), 113-123. Carter, R.L., & Simmons, B. (2010). The history and philosophy of environmental education. In A.M. Bodzin, B.S. Klein, & S. Weaver (Eds.) The inclusion of environmental education in science teacher education (p. 3-16). Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer. Knapp, D. (2007). Applied interpretation: Putting research into practice. Fort Collins, CO: InterpPress. Wells, N.M., & Lekies, K.S. (2012). Children and nature: Following the trail to environmental attitudes and behavior. In J.L. Dickinson & R. Bonney (Eds.), Citizen Science: Public participation in environmental research (p. 201-213). Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. iv.
The purpose of this applied project was two-fold. One goal of this research was to further the collective knowledge of environmental attitude formation and change. This study aimed to determine if participation in an outdoor education program at White Pines Ranch had any effect on a student’s attitude toward the environment. To measure attitudes, about 100 sixth graders were asked to complete Malkus’ (1992) Adults’ Attitudes Toward the Environment Scale (AATES) before and after completing a residential outdoor education program at White Pines Ranch. The second goal of this research was to satisfy the expressed need of the program directors at White Pines Ranch to get feedback on certain aspects of the program. The teachers and administrators accompanying the students completed a survey that asked about the overall outdoor education experience as well as students’ responses to the program. Many researchers have studied the environmental attitudes of children but none have studied their specific relationship to outdoor education programs.
This Research Topic is linked to the 3rd International Conference of Environmental Psychology (ICEP 2021), to be held in Siracusa, Italy, 4-9 October 2021. The ICEP is one of the most important scientific events in the global community for experienced scholars, junior researchers and professionals working in the field of Environmental Psychology across the world. Submissions to this Research Topic welcome, but are not limited to, works that have been presented (on site and virtually) at the ICEP 2021. Research Topic articles will be published immediately once accepted in the journal. This Research Topic aims to promote the scientific debate over the most recent empirical findings and theoretical advances in Environmental Psychological science, and to build evidence-based knowledge and innovative approaches to understand the relationship between humans and their socio-physical environments. It aims at hosting empirical and theoretical works that contribute at advancing our scientific knowledge on some of the most urgent challenges of contemporary human society.