Environmental Education in the Public Sphere: Comparing Practice with Psychosocial Determinants of Behavior and Societal Change

Environmental education of the general public is widely practiced by a variety of types of organizations. Dedicated environmental groups, nature centers, zoos, parks, and other entities work on issues ranging from local threats to air, water, and habitat to global problems such as climate change and deforestation. A great deal of those efforts focus largely on providing information and raising awareness. Behavioral research and change models, however, suggest other factors are important in order to effect change on an individual, regional, or societal level. An analysis of environmental education in practice, examining methods and materials in use, showed the degree to which there were alignments between the content and psychosocial determinants of change, as well as how actions related to change theories. This mixed-methods study of groups doing environmental education in the public sphere compared their practices with the factors shown to help predict pro-environmental behavior, why people change their actions and habits. Through this survey research and multiple case study, increased knowledge and understanding can help inform future efforts at change on critical local, national, and world environmental problems. It can also lead to further research into environmental education, using behavior and change theories

An Undergraduate Collaborative Team Model to Engage Nursing Students in Research

Purpose: Student-faculty collaboration on research is an effective model to engage undergraduate students in the research process outside of the traditional curriculum. Using this model, a student-faculty team developed a longitudinal study about college students’ alcohol use behaviors and implemented an intervention to influence the culture of drinking on campus. Methods: A longitudinal design was used to assess drinking behaviors and evaluate the effect of a mass media campaign with social norm messages and alcohol education. Undergraduate students on a faith-based, Midwestern campus completed baseline (N = 1,095) and post-intervention (N = 1,011) electronic surveys. Results: In addition to helping students learn about and develop enthusiasm for research, this project had an impact on the drinking culture on campus. Findings showed 88% of students observed media campaign messages with 82% viewing the printed posters, 47% viewing the outdoor displays, and 25% viewing messages on social media. There was a significant change in binge drinking from the pre- (72%) to post-intervention (40%) surveys. Conclusions: Collaborative undergraduate research teams are an effective model to help students learn how to carry out research and develop interest and enthusiasm for the process. The outcomes of the project demonstrated interventions were effective at influencing the drinking culture on campus. The development of a research program outside the required curriculum can be a successful strategy to engage students in all phases of the research process, increase enthusiasm for research, and enhance health care outcomes in various settings

Nature-Based Tourism Businesses in Colorado: Interpreting Environmental Ethics and Responsible Behavior

Tourism businesses operate from a primarily economic-centric point of view, but nature-based tourism businesses are also acutely aware of the need to sustain the natural resource that attracts the client to their outdoor recreation service. A preliminary qualitative inquiry reveals how nature-based tourism organizations in Colorado view themselves as operating from environmentally ethical positions, what specific actions they take to minimize negative environmental impacts, and how they educate their clients about resource conservation. Findings indicate that too often companies fail to realize opportunities in which they can encourage meaningful bonds between people and nature through the use of education and environmental interpretation. Education is seen more as a means to equip tourists with skills pertaining to a certain sport/activity, rather than as a way to enrich the total experience. Due to the industry’s reliance upon natural resources, a higher level of resource interpretation should be encouraged, promoting natural resource conservation

LESSONS IN EVALUATING COMMUNICATIONS CAMPAIGNS

Builds on the findings of the first and second papers. It examines specifically how campaigns with different purposes (individual behavior change and policy change) have been evaluated, and how evaluators have tackled some of the associated evaluation challenges that the first three papers raised as important to address. It features fi ve brief case studies in which the main unit of analysis is not the campaign, but the campaign's evaluation. The case studies provide a brief snapshot of the real experiences of campaign evaluations. The paper also features cross-case lessons that highlight important findings and themes

Sustainable consumption: towards action and impact. : International scientific conference November 6th-8th 2011, Hamburg - European Green Capital 2011, Germany: abstract volume

This volume contains the abstracts of all oral and poster presentations of the international scientific conference „Sustainable Consumption – Towards Action and Impact“ held in Hamburg (Germany) on November 6th-8th 2011. This unique conference aims to promote a comprehensive academic discourse on issues concerning sustainable consumption and brings together scholars from a wide range of academic disciplines. In modern societies, private consumption is a multifaceted and ambivalent phenomenon: it is a ubiquitous social practice and an economic driving force, yet at the same time, its consequences are in conflict with important social and environmental sustainability goals. Finding paths towards “sustainable consumption” has therefore become a major political issue. In order to properly understand the challenge of “sustainable consumption”, identify unsustainable patterns of consumption and bring forward the necessary innovations, a collaborative effort of researchers from different disciplines is needed

Review: Factors Relating to Nurses\u27 Caring Behaviors for Dying Patients

Background: Nowadays, caring for patients at the end of life becomes an indicator of the quality of care in a hospital. Nurses are the key people to provide care for dying patients, therefore caring behaviors of nurses could affect the quality of care. To attain and maintain the quality of care at the end of life, factors that contribute to nurses\u27 caring behaviors for dying patients needs to be addressed.Purpose: The purpose of this article is to review factors relating to nurses\u27 caring behaviors for dying patients from existing literature.Method: Relevant literature from electronic databases, including CINAHL, PubMed, Science direct, OVID, Proquest, and The Cochrane Library during the year 1990-2010, was examined, synthesized, and categorized systematically.Result: The results showed that factors related to a nurse\u27s caring behavior for a dying patient can be classified into three groups. These include; Nurse\u27s personal factors, Technological influencing factors and Environmental factors.Conclusion: The three factors related to nurses\u27 caring behaviors for dying patients in the current review could serve as a valuable database to implement in nursing practice, education and research, in order to achieve quality of end-of-life care

Creating Low-carbon Communities: Evaluating the Role of Individual Agency and Systemic Inequality in San Jose, CA

Following a scholarly need to test compelling community level sociodemographic representations of environmental behaviors and outcomes, a sequential mixed method approach was used to evaluate the connections of human agency and systemic inequalities with carbon footprints. Statistical analyses of the 2016 SDG San Jose Dashboard data of city blocks and 2009 - 2013 ACS survey data were supplemented with interviews with eight climate action-oriented community engagement professionals in the South Bay. Boundary limiting socioeconomic conditions for systemic inequalities and human agency, dimensions of Gidden’s Structuration model, were specified. Partially supporting structural inequality theories, socioeconomic resources, primarily, and to a lesser extent dominant race concentration, were associated with larger carbon footprints, particularly when wealth was concentrated. Both human (time driven alone) and demographic (senior and mid-aged blocks) agencies were also in part at play in shrinking or even enlarging carbon footprints, in wealthier communities. These findings not only contributed to the literature on climate action, but also highlighted the need for targeted interventions in communities of different socioeconomic standing

The Contributing Role of Prevalent Belief Systems to Intergroup Attitudes and Behaviors

Abundant research shows that prevalent belief systems across cultures contribute to people’s levels of stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination. Such popular belief systems are often communicated by everyday sayings (e.g., the belief that hard work leads to success, as captured by “Madruga y verás, trabaja y tendrás” [Colombia], “Kung may tiyaga, may nilaga” [Philippines], The early bird catches the worm [U.S.A.]). We review the relations between intergroup processes and the following belief systems: entity theory, incremental theory, multiculturalism, colorblindness, polyculturalism, and the Protestant work ethic. We discuss factors that affect the development, maintenance, and potential change in these belief systems, and ways that this knowledge may be used to reduce prejudice are discussed