A Critical Reading of Ecocentrism and Its Meta-Scientific Use of Ecology: Instrumental Versus Emancipatory Approaches in Environmental Education and Ecology Education

The aim of the paper is to make a critical reading of ecocentrism and its meta-scientific use of ecology. First, basic assumptions of ecocentrism will be examined, which involve nature's intrinsic value, postmodern and modern positions in ecocentrism, and the subject-object dichotomy under the lenses of ecocentrism. Then, we will discuss implications for environmental education and ecology education including a contradistinction between the instrumental and the emancipatory approach and the study of socio-scientific issues. An outline of protected areas as a socio-scientific issue, which is informed by the emancipatory approach, will be presented in the final part of the paper

Primary school teachers and outdoor education: Varying levels of teacher leadership in informal networks of peers

The study concentrated on an area in Greece with a multiplicity of sites for outdoor education. Informal networks of teachers were detected through a snowball technique and data were collected by means of a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. A typology was first enriched to account for teacher interaction. This typology was then operationalized to assess teacher leadership in outdoor education. Participants were classified in three clusters, namely, “strugglers,” “domesticators,” and “succeeders”. Leadership covariated with ability to overcome obstacles, master “affordances” of destinations, and focus on on-site instruction. Peer interaction offered opportunities for reflection. Leadership categories revealed a transient character, which implied that peer interaction might facilitate empowerment. However, there were indications of protecting existing practice against innovation. Implications for leadership development are discussed. © 2016 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

A learning progression should address regression: Insights from developing non-linear reasoning in ecology

Although ecological systems at varying scales involve non-linear interactions, learners insist thinking in a linear fashion when they deal with ecological phenomena. The overall objective of the present contribution was to propose a hypothetical learning progression for developing non-linear reasoning in prey–predator systems and to provide empirical evidence for one part of this progression. Pre-service teachers followed three teaching units that involved a game simulation of the prey–predator system. Participants predicted how wolf and deer populations would evolve in a hypothetical forest, and then they used the simulation to generate data, construct a graph, describe their graph, and compare their predictions with graph description. A new learning context was introduced and new predictions were requested to investigate whether participants would transfer former learning experiences in the new setting. Analysis of learning products revealed the “messy” character of learners' intermediate steps. Some participants succeeded in identifying aspects of metamodeling knowledge, but this was not used in their new predictions. Graph description could either perpetuate or challenge linear heuristics depending on the strategy participants followed. There were a number of participants who misrepresented prey and predator population trends as “inversely proportional,” which indicated that there is a possibility of regression to the lower anchor. Linearity and proportionality might have re-surfaced during the learning activity sequence and linear heuristics could have been so powerful as to distract learners' attention from axes labels. Learning products constructed by learners during learning activities included crucial benchmarks to diagnose learner performance and indicated proper timing for feedback provision. Overall, the implications of the study highlight the importance of using learning products to enact formative assessment. Directions for future research are discussed. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 53: 1447–1470, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc

Towards a Critical Re-Appraisal of Ecology Education: Scheduling an Educational Intervention to Revisit the 'Balance of Nature' Metaphor

The 'Balance of Nature' metaphor is a pervasive idea in ecology. However, the scientific community acknowledged during the last decades that equilibrium conditions are rare, while disturbance events are not uncommon. We suggest that the exclusive teaching of the 'Balance of Nature' metaphor produces cultural, scientific and learning misconceptions about the structure and function of nature. We outline an exemplary educational intervention for high school students to exhibit that the use of computer simulations could serve important educational goals in ecology and environmental education, such as the liberation of the concept of 'balance' of its metaphysic burden, the comprehension of the dynamics and the systemic nature of ecological processes and the appreciation of the mutual relation between society and nature. © 2010 Springer Science+Business Media B.V

Adolescents' Beliefs about the Wolf: Investigating the Potential of Human-Wolf Coexistence in the European South

Previous research revealed a rural-urban divide in the acceptance of the wolf. We investigated adolescents' beliefs about the wolf in rural and urban areas of Greece and Italy. By using a multiple-choice questionnaire, we attempted to reconstruct the conflictual nature of opposing beliefs about the wolf. For each item, there was one choice indicating a "pro-wolf" stance, one corresponding to an "anti-wolf" disposition, and a third, "neutral" choice. Respondents were clustered in a "pro-wolf," an "anti-wolf," and a "neutral" group. Rural or urban residence did not affect the classification of participants. Average responses for each cluster did reveal some degree of dispersal over rival positions. The permeability of "pro-wolf," "anti-wolf," and "neutral" positions might be regarded as a manifestation of the phenomenon of "cognitive polyphasia," which refers to the cohabitation of inconsistent or contradictory beliefs. Implications for environmental education and outreach campaigns are discussed

Environmental education as a crucial component of the environmentalist dimension of ecotourism: Inducing short-term effects on environmental literacy with long-term implications for protected area management

Ecotourism can be conceptualized as a reconciliation of tourism and environmentalism. The environmentalist dimension of ecotourism involves environmental education and financial support of nature conservation. In this regard, environmental education has the potential to enhance visitor environmental knowledge and prompt change of visitor environmental behaviour. For instance, one of the main challenges for ecotourism is to move visitors from a passive state to an active contribution to the sustainability of protected areas. Indeed, previous research showed that there is a significant potential of ecotourists financing environmental conservation and providing voluntary work in the frame of the protected area management. However, a considerable number of studies highlighted a significant inefficiency of educational programs to support nature conservation. Most ecotourism activity seems to foster a frivolous understanding of particular megafauna and does not aspire to transform visitor behaviour. The prevalent circumstances at most ecotourism destinations, including non-captive audiences and a limited time frame, challenge even the goal of effective interpretation. Superficial learning opportunities are usually concentrated on flagship species, which may be easier to provide and guarantee visitor satisfaction. The objective of this paper is to show how environmental education can support a comprehensive approach in ecotourism development, which wishes to foster a deep understanding of natural and social characteristics of ecotourism destinations and endeavors to transform visitors' and locals' behaviour. We recorded baseline information of visitors and local people in the National Marine Park of Zakynthos, Greece, including demographic information, self-reported environmental behaviour, pro-environmental behaviour intention, consensus estimates for pro-environmental behaviour intention, environmental knowledge, and environmental concern. The crucial questions to be addressed are (1) how can baseline information derived by the present study inform the development of aims and specifications of environmental education interventions targeting ecotourists who visit protected areas as well as local people residing in ecotourism destinations (2) how can the potential effects of environmental education programs contribute in protected area management.© 2010 Nova Science Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved