How freshmen perceive Environmental Education (EE) and Education for Sustainable Development (ESD)

PLoS One. 2019 Jan 14;14(1):e0208910. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0208910. eCollection 2019.

Abstract

Concepts of 464 university freshmen towards Environmental Education (EE) and Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) were analyzed. Responses were classified into seven main categories: 'ecological aspects', 'ecological problems', 'economical aspects', 'social aspects', 'environmental attitudes', 'environmental behavior' and 'education'. Analyses of sustainability concepts show a large discrepancy between EE and ESD, whereby the latter includes an additional sub-group: 'the next generation aspect'. Labeling individual sources of EE in a retrospective assessment identified the family as the most important source of knowledge, followed by media, school and outreach. Further differences were detected between students' self-perception and their ideal conception of environmental behavior, by using the scale Inclusion of Nature in Self (INS). Only some EE statements produced higher (unfulfilled) expectations 'economic aspects', 'environmental behavior' and 'ecological problems'. In contrast fewer (unfulfilled) expectations were observed in the categories of 'education' and 'ecological aspects'.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Humans
  • Self Concept
  • Students / psychology*
  • Surveys and Questionnaires
  • Sustainable Development / economics*
  • Universities / statistics & numerical data

Grants and funding

This project is a part of the “Qualitätsoffensive Lehrerbildung”, a joint initiative of the Federal Government and the Länder which aims to improve the quality of teacher training. The programme is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Grant: 01JA160, https://www.qualitaetsoffensive-lehrerbildung.de/ to MM). This project is furthermore a part of the ‘OSOS - Open School For Open Society’ project, funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 (grant agreement No. 741572, https://www.openschools.eu/ to MM). This publication was funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the University of Bayreuth in the funding programme Open Access Publishing. The authors are responsible for the content of this publication.