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Section IV. All Providers (Formal and Informal Educators)

by CAEE — last modified 12-26-2007 17:13

Section IV.  All Providers (Formal and Informal Educators)

 

In the latter part of the survey, teachers and informal educators (combined as ‘all providers’) were asked a series of questions about where, how, and for whom they taught environmental education.  In addition, they were asked about other desirable or potential audiences for environmental education.  These results are summarized in Tables AP1 and AP2 below.  

 

Table AP1.  Location, Approaches, and Audience for EE Providers

Locations (n=216)

Responses*

Approaches (n=217)

 Responses*

Audiences (n=218)

Responses*

Public school

 

118

Field trips

170

School students

160

Non-profit organization

77

Outdoor activities and games

162

Elementary School

127

Government agency

64

In-class activities and games

146

Adults and Parents

95

Interpretive center or park

61

Experiments

 

111

Middle School

94

Private school

37

In-class lecture and discussion

110

Teachers and educators

94

Museum, zoo, aquarium

25

Guest speakers

 

101

Families

92

Higher education, extension

23

Service projects

88

High School

88

Business or corporation

10

Independent reading and writing

57

Community groups or organizations

75

Student at college or university

10

Storytelling

 

52

Early Childhood

62

Other = public utility, parks and rec, in-home, parks, camps, community, consultant

15

Online or web activities

43

Pre-School

60

Team teach with other teachers

40

Mixed or civic youth groups

56

Other = tours, workshops, clubs, media , exhibits, field projects, kids & camp programs,  public events

32

Higher Education or University

45

Business or corporate professionals

22

Other = seniors, churches, utility and industry, tourists, special needs groups, researchers, government, river guides.

16

* Total of all responses will not equal total n (number of respondents) as respondents could select more than one item for each category.  On average, respondents selected 2 items each for locations, 5 items each for approaches, and 5 items each for audiences.

 

Discussion Points:

·        For the providers who responded to these questions, the largest number of respondents said that EE is taught in the public schools (118); about approaches, the largest number of respondents indicated that EE is taught using field trips (170) and both indoor and outdoor games and activities (146 and 162 respectively); about audiences, the largest number of respondents indicated that the audience most served with EE is school students (160), especially elementary school students (127). 

 


Table AP2.  Other Potential and Desirable Audiences (n=91)

Audience

Number of Mentions

No, none

18

The Hispanic community; diverse cultural and linguistic groups, people of color; Latinos; non-English speakers, immigrant populations, minorities

18

More high school and/or university students

10

More middle school students

8

Adults, parents

6

Corporations, the business sector, private sector, local small businesses

6

Decision makers at local and state levels; Congress, the President, politicians, government

6

People beyond the EE choir; urban/suburban audiences who are not already interested in nature; the underserved

5

Seniors

4

At risk youth

4

Home school students

3

Younger audiences, pre-schoolers, toddlers

3

 

Discussion Points:

·        When asked about other potential or desirable audiences, untapped audience segments seem to include Hispanic or other diverse cultural groups as well as high school and university students.

 

Table AP3 summarizes responses by EE providers about the specific content taught in environmental education lessons, regardless of setting, approach, or audience. 

Table AP3.  EE Content Taught by EE Providers (n=219)

Content Areas

(mentions)

# of providers who teach this content area

·         Water (198)

·         Wildlife (163)

·         Conservation (153)

·         Ecology (142)

·         Trees and Plants (137)

·         Nature Awareness (136)

·         Biodiversity (121)

Over 120

·         Biology (113)

·         Earth Science (96)

·         Parks, Trails, Natural Areas and Open Space (93)

·         Recycling (93)

·         Waste/Pollution (85)

81 – 120

 

 

Content Areas

(mentions)

# of providers who teach this content area

·         Environmental Science (80)

·         Environmental Values / Ethics (77)

·         Sustainability (76)

·         Climate (74)

·         Recreation and Outdoor Skills (71)

·         Invertebrates (70)

·         Forest Fires (65)

·         Energy (60)

·         Forestry (57)

·         Gardening, Landscaping, Xeriscaping, and Permaculture (56)

51-80

·         Consumerism (37)

·         Nutrition (32)

·         Sustainable Development (31)

·         Leadership and Character Development (29)

·         Agriculture (28)

·         Chemistry (28)

·         Population and Demographics (27)

·         Animal Rights and Welfare (24)

·         Diversity, Cultural Awareness, Ethnic Studies (22)

·         Green Building (22)

·         Archeology (21)

21-50

·         Economics (18)

·         Transportation (18)

·         Public Health  (17)

·         Policy and Law (16)

·         Environmental Justice (15)

·         Industry and Business (14)

·         Planning and Urban Design (13)

·         Poverty and Hunger (13)

Less than 20

 

Discussion Points:

·        Wildlife and water were the top two more frequently mentioned content areas taught by environmental education providers followed by numerous other biological/ecological content areas that are popular environmental education topics for these providers.

·        Issues such as animal rights and welfare, diversity and cultural awareness, environmental justice, poverty and hunger were taught by fewer providers..  This may be due to the audience ages for these programs, availability of or access to relevant materials, and/or the salience of issues to individuals due to media coverage or local relevancy.

 

Two evaluation questions were asked of providers:  (a) “Does your organization conduct any evaluation or assessment of your programs or services?”, and if yes, (b) “Which of the following evaluation strategies do you use most often?”  and if no, “Why not?”   Table AP4 summarizes responses to these questions. 

Table AP4.  Evaluation Conducted by Providers

Providers who conduct evaluation

72% (n= 246)

Providers who do not conduct evaluation 28% (n=96)

Evaluation Strategies

responses*

Reason

responses*

Surveys

174

No time

29

Observations

159

Don’t know how

26

Counts or tallies

80

No funding

25

Interviews

78

Not interested in eval.

14

Tests

71

Other

41

Focus groups

46

Other

39

* Total of responses will not total to total number of respondents (n) since respondents could indicate more than one item.

 

Discussion Points: 

·     A majority of providers who responded to this question (72%) conduct some sort of evaluation using mostly surveys or observations. 

·     Of the providers who don’t conduct evaluation (28%) primary reasons include no time, no training, or no funding.