Bridging the Gap - Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and Environmental Education (EE)

23 November 2022

Symposium

• S15 • 14:30 > 16:30 • Bridging the Gap - Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and Environmental Education (EE) • Room 06
Main organizer (applicant) of the symposium:
Bogner Franz, University of Bayreuth, franz.bogner@uni-bayreuth.de (GfÖ-SiG leader of the EE strand)

Session description

Since generations thousands of teachers of conventional classrooms and educators of informal outreach facilities invested tremendous efforts into educational initiatives to improve environmental attitudes and behaviours of students. When analysing adolescent conceptions in relation to Environmental Education (EE) and Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), responses overlap while statements concerning social and economy contexts contribute to substantial differences in EE and ESD. Under both umbrellas, outreach experience allows kids and adolescents to value nature and environment – and after frequent experience to understand the science behind ecosystems and related dilemmas which we face currently and which we need to cope with in the future. While cognitive issues are likewise conventionally to be monitored, variables such as attitudes and values or even behaviour are not. That is why, from the 1970ies to the 1990ies there were many measurement approaches applied, seemingly with more instruments than researchers were working in the field. Most instruments were developed for adult populations that is why the development of the 2-MEV scale (2 Major Environmental Values) for the age-group of adolescents began and on the basis on a solid theoretical foundation defined to measure on the basis of primary factors two higher order factors labelled as values: Preservation (PRE) and Utilization (UTL). The 2-MEV model received a quite new promotion when further independent research teams also repeatedly confirmed the two factor second order structure. Its increasingly worldwide use allows comparing and fine-tuning programmes of different backgrounds. Up to now several dozen studies were using the scale: Some providers are already satisfied that the measurement basis does not need further defence and numbers are secured. Others present the results on conferences and even invest the effort to publish. The educational efforts must go on to extract essentials out of thousands of programmes applied in the world.

• INT21 • Teachers’ aesthetic appreciation of nature and environment beyond preservation and utilisation values
Content : Based on a multinational sample of more than 11,000 respondents two major research questions are addressed: (i) how does aesthetic appreciation differ when concerning environment or nature?, (ii) how does such aesthetic appreciation relate to attitudes toward preservational or utilitarian values. • INT22 • Behaviour, Attitudes and Knowledge: How Effective Education Fosters Environmental Literacy > F. Franz BOGNER
Content : Quantitative measures and outreach assessment on the basis of the environmental values instrument (2-MEV) is now available in 33 languages and, what is more, has been repeatedly confirmed from different research angles by five independent research teams all over the world. Data of from very different groups out of very different cultural contexts first time became comparable. • INT23 • Assessing environmental attitudes and cognitive achievement within 9 years of informal earth education > T-M. Tessa-Marie BAIERL
Content : As a cooperative study with the US Cooper Center (Prof. Johnson), the Earthkeepers’ program is shown to induce pro-environmental shifts based on knowledge gains and attitude changes (Preservation increasing and Utilization decreasing). • INT24 • The Role of Education Along Our Paths to Survival > B. Bruce JOHNSON
Content : When we are looking at education related to the environment, there are important issues to consider. This presentation will look at two key issues: What knowledge is important? What do we promote as positive environmental (sustainable) action? We will look at why we need to examine and consider making changes to both the knowledge we teach and what we promote as pro-environmental behaviors. • INT25 • Climate Change Attitudes and Pro-Environmental Behavior of Czech Teenagers > J. Jan CINCERA
Content : the representative study of will cover the high level of climate change attitudes, its prediction potential for pro-environmental behavior, the role of preservational or utilitarian preferences and factual knowledge.