Teacher Perspectives on Environmental Education Programs Provided By Eastern Kentucky University Division of Natural Areas

<p>A goal of environmental education (EE) is to help instill environmental stewardship in students for the future. Hungerford and Volk (1990) believe environmental stewardship is changing behaviors, values, or beliefs related to human-environment interaction. It is important for people to learn about environmental concepts at a young age, so they will care about them in the future. Eastern Kentucky University’s (EKU) Division of Natural Areas has been conducting EE programming for students K-12 for the past 13 years. The areas utilized for EE programming include Maywoods Environmental and Educational Laboratory in Garrard County, KY or Lilley Cornett Woods Appalachian Ecological Research Station in Letcher County, KY. Over the years, the curriculum has been updated to improve student engagement and meet the Next Generation Science Standards. The current facilitation of EE programs does not include an assessment of teachers’ perceptions. The purpose of this project is to assess the perceptions of teachers whose classes participate in the EE programs at EKU’s Natural Areas. After students visited and participated in EE programs, their teachers were emailed a survey to assess their perceptions of the EE programs. For instance, if the teachers believe the programs fit into school curriculum, if the teachers feel as if the station leaders were prepared and knowledgeable of the material taught, and if the teachers have any suggestions on changes or improvements to the programs. The results from the survey were positive, but some results suggest EE programming could be improved in some areas. For instance, providing interdisciplinary EE lessons or having more dates for teachers to choose from could be improvements made. The next steps in this research project could be to continue surveying teachers over several semesters and years, and to evaluate the effect of programming on the students. </p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science (MS)

Level thesis:degree_level

Master's

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Recreation and Park Administration

Grantor dc:publisher

Eastern Kentucky University

Year

2019

Author dc:creator

• Watts, Mahala Amber

• Environmental Education
• Next Generation Science Standards
• Teacher Evaluation

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2019 Mahala Amber Watts

Repository record dc:identifier

https://encompass.eku.edu/etd/653

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:encompass.eku.edu:etd-1651