Trends in Environmental Education Images of Textbooks from Western and Eastern European Countries and Non-European Countries     

Graça S. Carvalho  Rosa Branca Tracana  Grita Skujiene  Jurga Turcinaviciene 《International Journal of Science Education》2013,35(18):2587-2610

Textbook analysis is seen as a major element for studying environmental education addressing pupils, image analysis being rather relevant when studying textbooks written in 11 languages. We analysed 25 textbooks from 14 countries addressed to 14–16-year-old pupils, focusing on: (1) local and foreign/global images; (2) urban/rural and nature images; (3) negative impact, human management, and the beauty of nature; and (4) men and women in images with negative and positive impact. We distinguished some trends between Western (WEc) and Eastern (EEc) European countries and non-European countries (NEc). In contrast to textbooks from EEc and NEc, which tend to show the beauty of nature with little human influence, WEc textbooks tend to exhibit more images of urban/rural landscape, of human negative impact and of human management, expressing an anthropocentric view of the environment. Men are usually more present in textbook images than women. However, some images exhibiting more women than men could be found in textbooks from WEc and EEc, but never in NEc. In negative impact pictures, men are more often present than women but NEc women are never present in such images. Women are more frequent than men in positive impact images. Results suggest that textbooks from EEc and NEc should give more emphasis to human management and urban/rural images, whereas those from WEc should give more attention to the beauty of nature. A balance in the presence of men and women in images should be a matter of greater concern by all textbooks’ authors and publishers.  相似文献   

Social Desirability,Environmental Attitudes,and General Ecological Behaviour in Children     

Britta Oerke  Franz X. Bogner 《International Journal of Science Education》2013,35(5):713-730

Socially desirable responses have been widely discussed as potentially biasing self-reported measures of environmental attitude and behaviour assessment. The direct and moderating effect of social desirability on children has not been analysed before. By applying a Lie scale together with a two-factor environmental attitude set measure and a scale of self-reported General Ecological Behaviour (GEB) to 198 pupils, we found a moderate impact of Lie scores on only one of both attitude measures and a small impact on GEB. In a multiple regression analysis general behaviour was predicted by attitude, social desirability, and the interaction of both. Social desirability had no moderating effect on the relationship between environmental attitudes and behaviour. Implications of these outcomes for research on environmental issues with children are discussed.  相似文献   

A Cross-cultural Exploration of Children's Everyday Ideas: Implications for science teaching and learning     

Bryan Wee 《International Journal of Science Education》2013,35(4):609-627

Children's everyday ideas form critical foundations for science learning yet little research has been conducted to understand and legitimize these ideas, particularly from an international perspective. This paper explores children's everyday ideas about the environment across the US, Singapore and China to understand what they reveal about children's relationship to the environment and discuss its implications for science teaching and learning. A social constructivist lens guides research, and a visual methodology is used to frame children's realities. Participants' ages range from elementary to middle school, and a total of 210 children comprized mainly of Asians and Asian Americans were sampled from urban settings. Drawings are used to elicit children's everyday ideas and analyzed inductively using open coding and categorizing of data. Several categories support existing literature about how children view the environment; however, novel categories such as affect also emerged and lend new insight into the role that language, socio-cultural norms and perhaps ethnicity play in shaping children's everyday ideas. The findings imply the need for (a) a change in the role of science teachers from knowledge providers to social developers, (b) a science curriculum that is specific to learners' experiences in different socio-cultural settings, and (c) a shift away from inter-country comparisons using international science test scores.  相似文献   

What Do You Know about Alternative Energy? Development and Use of a Diagnostic Instrument for Upper Secondary School Science     

Irene Poh-Ai Cheong  Marliza Johari  Hardimah Said  David F. Treagust 《International Journal of Science Education》2013,35(2):210-236

The need for renewable and non-fossil fuels is now recognised by nations throughout the world. Consequently, an understanding of alternative energy is needed both in schools and in everyday life-long learning situations. This study developed a two-tier instrument to diagnose students' understanding and alternative conceptions about alternative energy in terms of: sources of alternative energy, greenhouse gas emission, as well as advantages, and disadvantages. Results obtained with Years 10 and 11 students (n?=?491) using the 12-item two-tier instrument (α?=?0.61) showed that students' understanding of alternative energy was low (M?=?7.03; SD?=?3.90). The 23 alternative conceptions about alternative energy sources that could be identified from the instrument are reported. The implications for teaching and learning about alternative energy and suggestions for further development and improvement of the instrument are presented.  相似文献   

Factors Influencing Schoolchildren's Responses to a Questionnaire in Wildlife Conservation Education     

Jean-Marie Ballouard  Stephen J. Mullin  Rastko Ajtic  José Carlos Brito  El Hassan ElMouden  Mehmet Erdogan 《International Journal of Science Education》2013,35(3):469-483

Questionnaires are important tools for assessing attitudes regarding conservation issues. However, they are not easily comparable and their reliability has been insufficiently assessed. We examined factors influencing responses to open- and closed-ended questions about animal conservation to more than 600 schoolchildren (9 years old on average). We analysed the level of understanding, controllable (e.g. sample size) and less controllable factors (e.g. affectivity). Most children responded appropriately to the questions, but subtle changes in the phrasing influenced the answers. Affectivity towards endearing species and spontaneity also influenced the responses whereas small sample sizes (～50 children) provided relatively stable patterns. Overall, we suggest that standardization of questionnaires administered over large spatial and time scales is needed to accurately assess children's attitudes towards conservation issues.  相似文献   

Climate Change and Morality: Students' perspectives on the individual and society     

Li Sternäng  Cecilia Lundholm 《International Journal of Science Education》2013,35(8):1131-1148

There is a growing interest in addressing moral aspects in the research and education of socio‐scientific issues. This paper investigates students' interpretations of climate change from a moral perspective. The students were 14 years old, studying at Green Schools in the Beijing area, China. The study was based on semi‐structured group interviews and the data were analysed from an intentional perspective, which means that both cognitive and situational aspects were taken into consideration in the analysis. Previous research has revealed a close relation between morality and socio‐scientific issues and also advocated the need for addressing ethical aspects in science education. However, empirical studies exploring the question of what students' moral reasoning might look like at the individual level have not yet generated enough attention. In this study this is the core focus of interest. The findings show that the students conceptualise the solutions to mitigating climate change in relation to two different stances. That is, they contextualise the problems and solutions by addressing the individual, where the individual is either ‘myself’ or ‘someone else’. The different notions of the individual become crucial as the students' views and considerations for the environment, as well as society, change according to the different contexts. From a moral point of view, the students seem quite unaware of their varying consideration for others, the environment and society. The paper ends with a discussion of implications for practice and research.  相似文献   

The Use of Criteria in Argumentation and the Construction of Environmental Concepts: A university case study     

Araitz Uskola  Gurutze Maguregi  María‐Pilar Jiménez‐Aleixandre 《International Journal of Science Education》2013,35(17):2311-2333

We have analysed the processes of argumentation of three university student groups (A: six students, C: five students, and J: seven students) while making a decision about an environmental problem (selection of a heating system). The discussions took place in three 1½‐hour sessions that were audio‐taped and transcribed. For the analysis of the oral discussions, on the one hand, we have taken into account some of the dimensions characterising the quality of this decision‐making process, including the number and variety of criteria utilised, whether criteria, which did not favour the selected option, were considered and whether priorities were established among criteria, and, on the other hand, the use of environmental concepts such as renewable and sustainability as well as the meanings that were constructed for both concepts. We have determined that the students in this study proposed and utilised, both explicitly and implicitly, a high number and great variety of criteria to support their choices, although they were rarely able to consider contradictory evidence; that is, those that demonstrated disadvantages of the option selected. In terms of the construction of knowledge, we observed that in some groups the proposed task favoured the construction of a concept of sustainability that took the future into consideration and which was utilised as the most important justification in their selection. In terms of the concept of renewable, we found that they did not relate depletion of resources to economic consequences. We discuss the implications for the educational competence development.  相似文献   

Teaching controversial environmental issues: neutrality and balance in the reality of the classroom     

Deborah R. E. Cotton 《Educational research; a review for teachers and all concerned with progress in education》2013,55(2):223-241

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燃油税制下发展我国柴油车的对策建议     

徐英华 《未来与发展》2009,30(9):29-32

目前,我国机动车消耗了全国石油总产量的85％,预计到2010年达到2．7～3．1亿吨。而国内石油年产量仅能达到1．65～2亿吨。在我国未来10年内．要解决的突出问题就是能源和环境问题。就汽车而言要迫切解决的就是节能和环保。随着国内汽车消费税上调、燃油税开征以及全球经济低迷等一连串事件接踵而至,中国车市即将步入行业转折点。一直在国内市场上“不温不火”的柴油车．将迎来一次难得的发展机遇。  相似文献   

运用VFP9.0实现环境监测信息系统     

邱玉成 《黑龙江科技信息》2008,(8):79-79

数据库技术的成熟发展,为环境管理信息化提供了强有力的工具。建立一个科学合理、维护使用方便的基层环境监测信息系统也就成了可能。通过介绍Microsoft公司数据库Visual Foxpm9.0的特点,结合县级环境监测部门的工作实际,探讨了基层环境监测信息系统的开发。  相似文献