The effect of a nature-based environmental education program on children’s environmental attitudes and behaviors: a randomized experiment with primary schools
The evidence about the effects of nature-based instruction on pro-environmentalism is uncompelling, mainly due to a lack of controlled experiments. This hinders causal claims and the provision of intervention guidelines. We present an experiment examining the impact of a nature-based environmental e...
| Autores: | , , |
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| Formato: | artículo |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2020 |
| País: | España |
| Recursos: | Universidad Autónoma de Madrid |
| Repositorio: | Biblos-e Archivo. Repositorio Institucional de la UAM |
| Idioma: | inglés |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:repositorio.uam.es:10486/710679 |
| Acesso em linha: | http://hdl.handle.net/10486/710679 https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su12176817 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palavra-chave: | pro-environmentalism contact with nature experiences in nature new ecological paradigm pro-environmental behavior Psicología |
| Resumo: | The evidence about the effects of nature-based instruction on pro-environmentalism is uncompelling, mainly due to a lack of controlled experiments. This hinders causal claims and the provision of intervention guidelines. We present an experiment examining the impact of a nature-based environmental education (NBEE) program included in the school curriculum on children’s environmental attitudes (EA) and behaviors (EB). Children who followed the program through traditional instruction were used as a control group. Seven Spanish primary schools participated in the program and school classes were randomly assigned to the NBEE program (experimental group, N = 516) or the environmental education (EE) through traditional instruction (control group, N = 218). Our results indicate that children’s EA increased more in the NBEE group than in the control group. On average, EB remained virtually the same in both groups of children across time. In light of our fndings, we encourage the promotion of a nature-based pedagogy in formal education to enhance children’s environmental attitudes |
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