Bruce Johnson

Assessing Children's Environmental Worldviews: Modifying and Validating the New Ecological Paradigm Scale for Use With Children

The authors revised and validated the New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) Scale for use with upper elementary students. Researchers use the NEP Scale extensively with adults, but it was not designed for children. Interviews with 5th grade students helped the authors revise the NEP Scale for use with children. The authors spent 2 years validating the modified instrument with larger numbers of students. After analyzing their results, the authors suggest that a 3-dimensional modified NEP Scale for Children, with 10 instead of 15 items and revised wording, is appropriate for use with children aged 10-12 years.

Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor Analysis of the School Level Environment Questionnaire (SLEQ)

The purpose of the present study was to validate an existing school environment instrument, the School Level Environment Questionnaire (SLEQ). The SLEQ consists of 56 items, with seven items in each of eight scales. One thousand, one hundred and six (1106) teachers in 59 elementary schools in a southwestern USA public school district completed the instrument. An exploratory factor analysis was undertaken for a random sample of half of the completed surveys. Using principal axis factoring with oblique rotation, this analysis suggested that 13 items should be dropped and that the remaining 43 items could best be represented by seven rather than eight factors. A confirmatory factor analysis was run with the other half of the original sample using structural equation modeling. Examination of the fit indices indicated that the model came close to fitting the data, with goodness-of-fit (GOF) coefficients just below recommended levels. A second model was then run with two of the seven factors, with their associated items removed. That left five factors with 35 items. Model fit was improved. A third model was tried, using the same five factors with 35 items but with correlated residuals between some of the items within a factor. This model seemed to fit the data well, with GOF coefficients in recommended ranges. These results led to a refined, more parsimonious version of the SLEQ that was then used in a larger study. Future research is needed to see if this model would fit other samples in different elementary schools and in secondary schools both in the USA and in other countries.

Teachers' Perceptions of School Climate: A Validity Study of Scores From the Revised School Level Environment Questionnaire

Scores from a revised version of the School Level Environment Questionnaire (SLEQ) were validated using a sample of teachers from a large school district. An exploratory factor analysis was used with a randomly selected half of the sample. Five school environment factors emerged. A confirmatory factor analysis was run with the remaining half of the sample. Goodness-of-fit indices indicated that the factor structure fit the data reasonably well. Further analyses using structural equation modeling techniques revealed that the Revised SLEQ worked equally well for all samples. Invariance testing showed that the fitted model and the estimated parameter values were statistically equivalent across all samples. Internal consistency estimates provided further evidence of the reliability of factor scores. In addition, an analysis of variance indicated that the instrument discriminated climate differences between schools. Results suggest that the Revised SLEQ provides a good tool for studying teachers perceptions of school climate.

The 2-MEV Scale in the United States: A Measure of Children's Environmental Attitudes Based on the Theory of Ecological Attitude

The Environmental (2-MEV) Scale questionnaire was developed in Europe to measure adolescents’ attitudes and gauge the effectiveness of educational programs. It also formed the basis for the Theory of Ecological Attitudes. In the present four-year study, the 2-MEV Scale was modified for use with 9–12-year-old children in the United States. Initial results led to wording revisions and elimination of some items. Confirmatory Factor Analyses indicated that the remaining items fit the Theory of Ecological Attitude well. The Revised 2-MEV Scale was able to measure statistically significant changes in the environmental attitudes of participants in earth education programs but not in a control group. The Revised ENV Scale can be used to evaluate programs and to investigate the relationship between environmental attitudes and other variables.

Using Bogner and Wiseman's Model of Ecological Values to Measure the Impact of an Earth Education Programme on Children's Environmental Perceptions.

Investigating the effects of educational programmes on children’s environmental perceptions has been hampered by the lack of good theoretical models and valid instruments. In the present study, Bogner and Wiseman’s Model of Ecological Values provided a well‐developed theoretical model. A validated instrument based on Bogner’s Environmental Perception (ENV) scale was used to examine the effects of the Sunship Earth programme on the environmental perceptions of fifth and sixth grade students in the US. Paired sample t‐tests showed a statistically significant change toward more pro‐environmental perceptions for all factors described in the model for children who participated in Sunship Earth but not for a control group. Additionally, perceptions were shown to be stable over time for a smaller sample of students.

Development and Validation of the Star Properties Concept Inventory

Concept inventories (CIs)—typically multiple-choice instruments that focus on a single or small subset of closely related topics—have been used in science education for more than a decade. This paper describes the development and validation of a new CI for astronomy, the Star Properties Concept Inventory (SPCI). Questions cover the areas of stellar properties (focussing primarily on mass, temperature, luminosity, and lifetime), nuclear fusion, and star formation. Distracters were developed from known alternative conceptions and reasoning difficulties commonly held by students. The SPCI was tested through an iterative process where different testing formats (open-ended, multiple-choiceu2009+u2009explain, and multiple-choice) were compared to ensure that the distracters were in fact the most common among the testing population. Content validity was established through expert reviews by 26 astronomy instructors. The SPCI Version 3 was then tested in multiple introductory undergraduate astronomy courses for non-science majors. Post-test scores (out of 23 possible) were significantly greater (Mu2009=u200911.8, SDu2009=u20093.87) than the pre-test scores (Mu2009=u20097.09, SDu2009=u20092.73). The low post-test score—only 51.3%—could indicate a need for changing instructional strategies on the topics of stars and star formation.

College Students' Preinstructional Ideas About Stars and Star Formation

Abstract This study Note 1 investigated the beliefs about stars that students hold when they enter an undergraduateintroductory astronomy course for nonscience majors. Students’ preinstructional ideas were investigated throughthe use of several student-supplied-response SSR surveys, which asked students to describe their ideasabout topics such as what is a star, how is starlight created, how are stars formed, are all stars the same, andmore. The results from more than 2,200 responses suggest that although students often have some initialknowledge about stars, their knowledge is often incomplete or incorrect in important ways that could negativelyimpact instructional objectives. 1. INTRODUCTION As we look into the sky during the daytime, what we see is dominated by the incredibly bright Sun. In theSun’s absence, we see points of light—virtually all of which are stars. The Sun, our closest star, plays atremendous role in the physical processes on Earth, which allow life to exist. Furthermore, the presenceand patterns of stars have played important roles in human beliefs, primarily through religions, calendars, andmythologies. A tremendous number of stars populate the universe, and the study of their nature and evolutionis a primary subdiscipline of astronomy. Given the importance of stars in our cultural and scientific history, itshould come as no surprise that stars are considered a central topic in astronomy.From a survey of U.S. college syllabi available on the Internet at that time, Slater

Measuring children’s environmental attitudes and values in northwest Mexico: validating a modified version of measures to test the Model of Ecological Values (2-MEV)

This paper describes the validation process of measuring children’s attitudes and values toward the environment within a Mexican sample. We applied the Model of Ecological Values (2-MEV), which has been shown to be valid and reliable in 20 countries, including one Spanish speaking culture. Items were initially modified to fit the regional dialect, culture, and bioregional context of our Mexican population. In Stage 1, we applied the scale to quantify the environmental attitudinal and value impacts of an environmental service learning program with 22 children in Baja California Sur, Mexico. Program effects were evaluated using a pre-test/post-test design quantifying preservation and utilization views of the environment. Based upon further cultural insights and the results from Stage 1, in Stage 2, we modified two more items to reflect the culture of philanthropy and associational life in Mexico. To test the structure of this finalized instrument, we applied the model in Stage 2 with a group of 335 children. We successfully extracted the already known factor structure covering the two higher order values of preservation and utilization. In general, the underlying primary attitudes were also confirmed, with the exception of two neighboring ones: Care with Resources and Intent of Support, which merged into one.

The 2-MEV model: Constancy of adolescent environmental values within an 8-year time frame

The 2-MEV model is a widely used tool to monitor childrens environmental perception by scoring individual values. Although the scales validity has been confirmed repeatedly and independently as well as the scale is in usage within more than two dozen language units all over the world, longitudinal properties still need clarification. The purpose of the present study therefore was to validate the 2-MEV scale based on a large data basis of 10,676 children collected over an eight-year period. Cohorts of three different US states contributed to the sample by responding to a paper-and-pencil questionnaire within their pre-test initiatives in the context of field center programs. Since we used only the pre-program 2-MEV scale results (which is before participation in education programs), the data were clearly unspoiled by any follow-up interventions. The purpose of analysis was fourfold: First, to test and confirm the hypothesized factorized structure for the large data set and for the subsample of each of the three states. Second, to analyze the scoring pattern across the eight years’ time range for both preservation and utilitarian preferences. Third, to investigate any age effects in the extracted factors. Finally, to extract suitable recommendations for educational implementation efforts.

Back in the Classroom: Teacher Follow-Through after an Earth Education Program

Little research exists describing what teachers do with new experiences and knowledge after participating in environmental learning programs and the students return back to the classroom This qualitative study aimed to fill this gap by examining and describing the follow-through implemented by teachers after their classes participated in the Earthkeepers earth education program. Individual semistructured interviews were conducted with seven teachers—four who did a great deal in the classroom to follow through on the program and three who did little. Analysis produced informative descriptions of the follow-through as well as comparisons of the characteristics of the teachers and reasons that account for the differences. Student surveys before and after the program showed that students with a teacher who did a great deal of follow through had a higher rate of program completion. This study provides an informative and revealing description of what teachers do following an environmental learning program and why they do it. Based on this research, it is recommended that environmental learning programs that use follow-through provide more comprehensive support structures to both pre- and in-service teachers to better achieve their goals.