The environmental citizenship opinions questionnaire: a self-assessment tool for secondary students

IntroductionWe present a validated instrument for assessing Environmental Citizenship (EC) of students in lower secondary education. The Environmental Citizenship Opinions (ECO) questionnaire focusses on general citizenship components, key sustainability competences, and Socio-Scientific Reasoning aspects. By combining these domains, our work provides a needed innovation as these different aspects of EC have not previously been covered in one single, balanced and validated measurement instrument.MethodsThe ECO questionnaire was validated through a pilot round and a subsequent large-scale study (781 lower secondary students). Several rounds of Confirmatory Factor Analysis resulted in a final model of 38 items divided in 7 first order and 5 s order constructs.ResultsThe final model fit statistics indicate near excellent quality of our model (RMSEA = 0.036, CFI = 0.93, TLI = 0.93, SRMR = 0.05), which consists of EC knowledge, EC attitudes, EC skills, EC reflection and complexity of EC issues. Calculations on the relative attribution of each of the five main constructs to overall environmental sustainability citizenship, highlight that attitudes and reflection skills are the most important constituents.DiscussionOur result present the ECO questionnaire as a valuable, valid and reliable tool to measure environmental citizenship of students. Applications in practice include monitoring student’s development and supporting teachers during the challenging task of effective teaching for EC in and outside the classroom

Environmental Citizenship of Dutch Lower Secondary Students

To enable students to deal with sustainability issues, science education needs to provide tools to navigate sustainability issues, thus fostering Environmental Citizenship (EC) [...

The Theoretical Nature of Systems Thinking. Perspectives on Systems Thinking in Biology Education

Systems thinking has become synonymous to developing coherent understanding of complex biological processes and phenomena from the molecular level to the level of ecosystems. The importance of systems and systems models in science education has been widely recognized, as illustrated by its definition as crosscutting concept by the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS Lead States, 2013). However, there still seems no consensus on what systems thinking exactly implies or how it can be fostered by adequate learning and teaching strategies. This paper stresses the theoretical or abstract nature of systems thinking. Systems thinking is not just perceived here as “coherent understanding,” but as a learning strategy in which systems theoretical concepts are deliberately used to explain and predict natural phenomena. As such, we argue that systems thinking is not to be defined as a set of skills, that can be learned “one by one,” but instead asks for consideration of systems characteristics and the systems theories they are derived from. After a short elaboration of the conceptual nature of systems thinking, we portray the diversity of educational approaches to foster systems thinking that have been reported in the empirical literature. Our frame of analysis focuses on the extent to which attention has been given to the matching of natural phenomena to one of three systems theories, the integration of different systems thinking skills and the role of modeling. Subsequently, we discuss the epistemological nature of the systems concept and we present some conclusions on embedding systems thinking in the secondary biology curriculum

Environmental Citizenship in Secondary Formal Education: The Importance of Curriculum and Subject Teachers

Environmental Citizenship can take on different meanings in different countries and discourses as outlined in other chapters of this book. When Environmental Citizenship becomes part of the educational system, another level of complexity is added to the construct, the diversity of the educational systems in various countries. In this chapter, we will address this issue with a focus on formal secondary education. In the previous chapter on primary school and informal education, much has been written about how to practice different teaching approaches related to Education for Environmental Citizenship. In this chapter, we will focus on how to overcome the demands in order to be able to enact such teaching approaches in secondary education, with students aged 11–19 years old. In secondary education the subject or discipline comes into focus. As a result, students are taught by several subject specialists from different disciplines. To enact Environmental Citizenship, these different teachers need to collaborate. Moreover, secondary schooling might have different aims compared to other school forms, and it is often regulated with specific subject syllabi. In this chapter we discuss how Environmental Citizenship can be enacted considering these challenges

Educating for Environmental Citizenship in Non-formal Frameworks for Secondary Level Youth

Non-formal education is an integral component to lifelong learning and its aim is for young people and adults to acquire and maintain the skills and competencies necessary to adapt to a continuously changing environment. Non-formal education implements different learning activities and is supplementary to formal education, taking place outside, but supplementary, to the formal educational system. From the conception and throughout the ongoing evolution of environmental education, non-formal education has been identified as an important framework for conducting Environmental Education and Education for Sustainability. Therefore, non-formal settings for secondary education level can contribute to Education for Environmental Citizenship by providing the opportunity and conditions that enable young people to acquire the body of knowledge as well as the skills, values, attitudes and pro-environmental actions necessary to become an Environmental Citizen. In addition, an Environmental Citizen is empowered and motivated to participate in society as an agent-of-change in the direction of solving contemporary environmental problems, preventing the creation of new ones, and achieving sustainability and restoring our (human) relationships with nature. Pedagogies including place-based education, civic ecology education, ecojustice pedagogy, action competence and socio-scientific inquiry-based learning can contribute to building students’ competencies for the deep civic participation necessary to realise environmental and social change. However, due to the novelty of the concept, the lack of a complete pedagogical framework for Education in Environmental Citizenship in non-formal settings presents a major challenge

Educating for Environmental Citizenship in Non-formal Frameworks for Secondary Level Youth

Non-formal education is an integral component to lifelong learning and its aim is for young people and adults to acquire and maintain the skills and competencies necessary to adapt to a continuously changing environment. Non-formal education implements different learning activities and is supplementary to formal education, taking place outside, but supplementary, to the formal educational system. From the conception and throughout the ongoing evolution of environmental education, non-formal education has been identified as an important framework for conducting Environmental Education and Education for Sustainability. Therefore, non-formal settings for secondary education level can contribute to Education for Environmental Citizenship by providing the opportunity and conditions that enable young people to acquire the body of knowledge as well as the skills, values, attitudes and pro-environmental actions necessary to become an Environmental Citizen. In addition, an Environmental Citizen is empowered and motivated to participate in society as an agent-of-change in the direction of solving contemporary environmental problems, preventing the creation of new ones, and achieving sustainability and restoring our (human) relationships with nature. Pedagogies including place-based education, civic ecology education, ecojustice pedagogy, action competence and socio-scientific inquiry-based learning can contribute to building students’ competencies for the deep civic participation necessary to realise environmental and social change. However, due to the novelty of the concept, the lack of a complete pedagogical framework for Education in Environmental Citizenship in non-formal settings presents a major challenge

Values, Beliefs and Environmental Citizenship

In this chapter, we will consider the relationships between values, beliefs and Environmental Citizenship. The role of personal values, value orientations and environmental beliefs in explaining pro-environmental actions and behaviour is widely explored. It is already acknowledged that self-enhancement (egoistic and hedonistic) values are less predictive of pro-environmental actions than self-transcendence (biospheric and altruistic) values. Additionally, beliefs are considered to be at the core of human behaviour in cognitive theories explaining pro-environmental behaviour and are an important part of many theories used to predict pro-environmental actions. We regard Environmental Citizenship as a combination of certain pro-environmental actions and civic engagement, both public and private, that lead to the mitigation of environmental problems. It is important to answer the question of whether general values and beliefs can potentially be relevant antecedents of Environmental Citizenship. Understanding how values and beliefs relate to Environmental Citizenship would allow for evidence-based ways of promoting Environmental Citizenship in schools and communities and would empower educators to make effective decisions in promoting Environmental Citizenship

Values, Beliefs and Environmental Citizenship

In this chapter, we will consider the relationships between values, beliefs and Environmental Citizenship. The role of personal values, value orientations and environmental beliefs in explaining pro-environmental actions and behaviour is widely explored. It is already acknowledged that self-enhancement (egoistic and hedonistic) values are less predictive of pro-environmental actions than self-transcendence (biospheric and altruistic) values. Additionally, beliefs are considered to be at the core of human behaviour in cognitive theories explaining pro-environmental behaviour and are an important part of many theories used to predict pro-environmental actions. We regard Environmental Citizenship as a combination of certain pro-environmental actions and civic engagement, both public and private, that lead to the mitigation of environmental problems. It is important to answer the question of whether general values and beliefs can potentially be relevant antecedents of Environmental Citizenship. Understanding how values and beliefs relate to Environmental Citizenship would allow for evidence-based ways of promoting Environmental Citizenship in schools and communities and would empower educators to make effective decisions in promoting Environmental Citizenship