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The Institute for Earth Education’s Earthkeepers program was translated into Greek and piloted for two years on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus. The translation and pilot team was led by Andreas Hadjichambis and Demetras Hadjichambis, plus the staff of their Cyprus Centre for Environmental Research & Education, along with Costas Manoli, who was at the University of Cyprus at the time. Earthkeepers was offered as a non-residential day program at the centre. In year 1, 196 students from 6 schools took part, with 295 students from 5 different schools taking part in year 2.
The evaluation methods included 4 different written instruments as well as interviews with partici- pating teachers and students. Ecological understandings were measured by the Ecological Concept Questionnaire (ECQ), while environmental values and attitudes were measured by the Model of Environmental Values (2-MEV) scale. Both were completed by participating students before and after the Earthkeepers program. They also completed the Program Satisfaction Survey (PSS) immediately after the program. Finally, at the end of the school year, the Program Follow-Through Survey (PFFS) was completed. In addition, individual semi-structured interviews were conducted after the program with all of the participating teachers from year 1 and a sample of students from all participating classes.
Results showed that participants had statistically significant gains in their ecological understand- ings and environmentally-positive values and attitudes. They also made changes in their personal environmental behaviors, lessening their impact by reducing energy and materials use, deepen- ing their feelings, and sharing their experiences with others.
This is one example of the kinds of evaluations that we think are important if we are to better understand how earth education programs impact participants. The results can help those offering these programs to make improvements and to have data to present to current and potential program participants and funders. They can also contribute to our shared work of improving these programs. Please read the article. Here is an internet link for where it is posted: https://www.coe.arizona.edu/johnson_resources. And let me know if you would like to talk about how you might work on evaluating your programs.
Bruce Johnson
International Program & Research Coordinator brucejohnson@ieetree.org
* Manoli, C. C., Johnson, B., Hadjichambis, A. C., Paraskeva-Hadjichambi, D., Georgiou, Y., & Ioannou, H. (2014). Evaluating the impact of the Earthkeepers earth education program on children’s ecological understandings, values and attitudes, and behaviour in Cyprus. Studies in Educational Evaluation, 41, 29-37.
Research papers published in 2015
Johnson, B., & Cincera, J. (2015). Examining the relationship between environmental attitudes and behaviour in education programmes. Socialni Studia, 12 (3), 97-111.
Research papers presented at conferences in 2015
Johnson, B., Hadjichambis, A. C., Mappouras, D. G., & Felix, L. (2015, September). Using the Model of Ecological Values to investigate the environmental attitudes of young adolescents in Cyprus. Paper presented at the 11th Conference of the European Science Education Research Association, Helsinki, Finland.
Manoli, C. C., & Johnson, B. (2015, September). Investigating the relationship between children’s environmental perceptions and ecological behavior through environmental learning experiences. Paper presented at the 11th Conference of the European Science Education Research Association, Helsinki, Finland.
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