An Evaluation Study of the Wenlau River Education Program to the Learning Effectiveness Environmental Education of the Higher Graders of an Elementary School

• Main Authors: CHEN CHAO TANG, 陳朝堂
• Other Authors: 林明瑞
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2004
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/00793692912881164537

碩士 === 臺中師範學院 === 環境教育研究所 === 93 === Abstract The originality of human civilization usually started near the rivers, so a river is the best place to learn how to conserve the water resources for students. This research hope to evaluate the effect of “The Wenlau River Education Program” (WREP) to the knowledge, attitude and behavior skills of the higher graders of an elementary school and to cultivate the elementary school students’ knowledge, feeling, responsibility, and action intention of protecting and conserving the river through this environmental education. The “non-equal pre and post-test control group” quasi-experimental design was used in the research. The subjects were two classes of the fifth graders in Sun-Tan Elementary School in Taichung County. One class was the experimental group who received WREP for twelve weeks, and the other class was the control group who didn’t receive WREP. Both experimental group and control group accepted pre-test and post-test questionnaire a week ahead and later the instruction separately. Beside quantity information of a questionnaire, the teachers’ observation records and students’ portfolios were also collected as qualitative information. Through the data analysis, major results were shown as below: 1. After WREP, the experimental group’s knowledge, feeling, responsibility, and action skills were significantly better than those of the control group. 2. WREP could significantly increase participants’ awareness and concern of river conservation. 3. WREP could significantly increase participants’ knowledge and understanding of river conservation, river environment, river water quality, ecological environment, the impact of foreign creatures and destruction to river environment. 4. WREP could significantly increase participants’ sense of responsibility toward the river, and they were more willing to participate improving the river environment. They also agreed the task of river conservation should start from themselves. 5. WREP could significantly positively change participants’ attitudes of the river conservation. They agreed the river conservation is “necessary, emergent, related with me, my business, my responsibility and worth of supporting.” 6. WREP could significantly increase participants’ intentions to take action. They had higher action intentions than before to ask themselves, classmates and families to avoid polluting rivers, to call police or environmental institutes when the river was polluted, to be volunteers of environmental protection, to make posters about declaring river conservation. 7. WREP could significantly increase participants’ skills to use strategies of environmental action. They felt after this course they had more abilities to prevent themselves and others from polluting rivers, to call police or environmental institutes when the river was polluted and to use action strategies to solve river problems. 8. WREP could significantly lower participants’ perceptions of two barriers of action taking those are “lack of the knowledge and skills of river conservation and fearing conserving rivers only by themselves.” Key words: river conservation, water resource, environmental education, quasi-experimental design, river pollution