scholarly journals Values Education in Outdoor Environmental Education Programs from the Perspective of Practitioners

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (11) ◽  
pp. 4700
Author(s):  
Jan Činčera ◽  
Bruce Johnson ◽  
Roman Kroufek ◽  
Petra Šimonová
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Education ◽  
Values Education ◽  
Education Programs ◽  
Program Leaders ◽  
Education Practice ◽  
Outdoor Environmental Education ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
Normative Practice ◽  
Practice Gap ◽  
Theory Practice Gap

Shaping environmental values is considered one of the goals of environmental education. At the same time, this creates questions about the line between indoctrination and education. While values education has been widely discussed from various theoretical perspectives, few studies have analyzed how it is being practiced. This article investigates five outdoor environmental education programs and identifies the values the programs promote as well as the means they use to communicate these values to students. Additionally, the article examines the perspectives of 17 program leaders and center directors regarding the ways in which values should be promoted in environmental education and the approaches they use in their practice. According to the findings, all the observed programs applied a normative, value-laden approach, communicating mainly the values of universalism. The most frequently observed strategy was the inculcation of desirable values by moralizing and modeling. Simultaneously, some of the leaders’ beliefs, while highlighting value-free or pluralistic approaches, contradicted their rather normative practice. This article describes the theory–practice gap identified and discusses the implications of the prevailing use of the normative approach in outdoor environmental education for the field. It calls for opening an in-depth debate on what, why, and how values belong in outdoor environmental education practice.

scholarly journals Real World Learning in Outdoor Environmental Education Programs

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Činčera ◽  
Bruce Johnson ◽  
Roman Kroufek ◽  
Miloslav Kolenatý ◽  
Petra Šimonová ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Education ◽  
Real World ◽  
Quality Criteria ◽  
Environmental Values ◽  
Education Programs ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Program Leaders ◽  
Outdoor Environmental Education ◽  
Real World Learning ◽  
And Behavior

This book analyzes the theoretical frameworks shaping the practice of outdoor environmental education programs. For the analyses, the authors applied the Real World Learning Model that defines the quality criteria for this kind of practice. They also further examined the Model from the perspectives of relevant theory and research, as well as from the perspectives of program leaders, accompanying teachers, and participating students. Specifically, the authors selected five programs, all three to five days long, offered by Czech outdoor environmental education centers for students in the 3rd to 7th grades and focused on shaping students’ environmental values and behavior.

scholarly journals Frames in Outdoor Environmental Education Programs: What We Communicate and Why We Think It Matters

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (11) ◽  
pp. 4451
Author(s):  
Jan Činčera ◽  
Bruce Johnson ◽  
Roman Kroufek ◽  
Miloslav Kolenatý ◽  
Petra Šimonová
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Education ◽  
Elementary School Students ◽  
Frame Analysis ◽  
Qualitative Approach ◽  
Student Interest ◽  
Main Program ◽  
Education Programs ◽  
School Students ◽  
Program Leaders ◽  
Outdoor Environmental Education

This paper discusses the application of frame analysis as a method of designing and evaluating outdoor environmental education programs. In particular, it investigates what frames are communicated in these programs, why and how program leaders focus on communicating particular frames, and how students interact with these frames. Five outdoor environmental education programs for elementary school students were analyzed. We used a qualitative approach that combined field observation, interviews with program leaders (N = 15), qualitative findings based on questionnaires collected from the participants after completing the programs (N = 365), and interviews with some of the students (N = 10). According to the results, while the leaders intensively applied various surface frames to attract student interest and organize the program activities, the deep frames aimed for in the main program messages connected with the program goals often remained implicit and were not recognized by the students.

The Historical, Present and Futurenessof Environmental Education in India

2011 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 122-133 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sylvia Almeida ◽  
Amy Cutter-Mackenzie
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Education ◽  
Education System ◽  
Formal Education ◽  
Indian Education ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Education In India ◽  
Practice Gap ◽  
Theory Practice Gap

AbstractWhat is distinctive or indistinctive about environmental education in schools and other formal education settings in India? In essence, what is thenessof environmental education in the Indian education system? Our responses to these important questions form the focus of this paper, shedding light on the historical, present and future directions (orness) of environmental education in India. In effect, we attempt to capture thenessof environmental education by considering practice, policy and research developments throughout the various contemporary and traditional environmental education movements. In so doing, we identify a theory-practice gap and a dire lack of research as some of the pertinent issues facing environmental education in India. In conclusion we discuss possible future directions that environmental education might take in addressing these issues.

scholarly journals Real World Learning: a critical analysis

Envigogika ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Činčera
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Education ◽  
Real World ◽  
Behavioral Change ◽  
Quality Criteria ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Education Programs ◽  
Hand Model ◽  
Outdoor Environmental Education ◽  
Emancipatory Learning ◽  
Real World Learning

The paper analyses the so called “Hand model”, invented as a part of The Real World learning international project. The aim of the model was to provide guidance for outdoor environmental education programs. In the analysis, it is suggested that the model suffers from inconsistency between its efforts to establish quality criteria consistent with self-directed, emancipatory learning, and its instrumental ambition to promote behavioral change. In the same way, the model provides a new point of view on outdoor environmental education programs, namely on values and frames communicated by the programs.

Childrens' Conceptions of Nature

1998 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 19-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Phillip Payne
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Education ◽  
Learning Strategies ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Sixth Grade ◽  
Teaching And Learning Strategies ◽  
Practice Gap ◽  
Environmental Educators ◽  
Theory Practice Gap ◽  
Children’S Conceptions

ABSTRACTThis paper describes a study of sixth grade children's conceptions of nature and the environment. In so doing, it asks that environmental educators pay more attention to children's preconceived notions of environment and nature. Should this occur the theory-practice gap in environmental education may be diminished. Learners' concepts of ‘nature’ and the ‘environment’ provide a needed perspective for the development of individually and contextually appropriate teaching and learning strategies in environmental education. Without knowledge of them it is not clear whose version of environment it is which the learner is being educated ‘in’, ‘about’, ‘with’ or ‘for’.

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