Mick Strack

Longitudinal Analysis of the Environmental Attitudes of University Students.

This article addresses the important questions that higher education institutions ask concerning their impact on their students’ sustainability-related attributes ‘How do our students’ worldviews change as they experience higher education with us?’ The process of monitoring such a dynamic entity is fraught with statistical complexity but may not be impossible for an institution willing to ask whether or not its educational efforts in ‘education for sustainability’, ‘education for sustainable development’ or ‘environmental education’, and campus sustainability developments, are paralleled by changes in the attitudes of its students. We describe here a longitudinal survey process based on the revised New Ecological Paradigm scale, with two cohorts of students, in three programmes of study, operating over four years, with multiple survey inputs by each student. We implemented the longitudinal analysis using a linear mixed-effects model and describe here the development and testing of this model. We conclude that higher education institutions can benchmark the sustainability attributes of their students and monitor changes, if they are minded to. We invite higher education practitioners worldwide to join us in further developing suitable research instruments, processes and statistical models, and in further analysing the assumptions that link higher education to sustainability and to global citizenship.

Multinomial-Regression Modeling of the Environmental Attitudes of Higher Education Students Based on the Revised New Ecological Paradigm Scale.

Higher education is increasingly interested in its impact on the sustainability attributes of its students, so we wanted to explore how our students’ environmental concern changed during their higher education experiences. We used the Revised New Ecological Paradigm Scale (NEP) with 505 students and developed and tested a multinomial regression model to help us to understand what can be measured and how to interpret changes. Our results demonstrate that even small differences, not apparent when only mean NEP scores are reported for cohorts of students, can be modeled to reveal statistically significant trends. We advise further exploration of this instrument and its applicability to higher educations quest for sustainability-credibility.

Is the environmental literacy of university students measurable

We report the development and piloting of an evaluative instrument and process for monitoring the environmental literacy (EL) of undergraduate students in one large research-led university in New Zealand. The instrument addresses knowledge, affect and competencies in the general area of EL in line with this institution’s adoption of EL as a graduate attribute (or in a US context, a general-education learning outcome, and something to be fostered throughout a student’s education). The instrument and associated processes were designed to fit within conventional institutional mechanisms that manage student feedback on the quality of teaching. The instrument was tested with more than 600 students from more than eight programmes over the course of a year and its use stressed that students were anonymous within the survey. We conclude that evaluating (or in a US context, assessing) the extent to which students acquire EL is an achievable objective and is a reasonable expectation for any higher education institution that claims to foster this attribute.

Seeking Learning Outcomes Appropriate for "Education for Sustainable Development" and for Higher Education.

This article shares and extends research-based developments at the University of Otago, New Zealand, that seek to explore how students’ worldviews change as they experience higher education with us. We emphasise that sustainability attributes may be described in terms of knowledge, skills and competencies but that these are underpinned by affective attributes such as values, attitudes and dispositions; so that ‘education for sustainable development’ is substantially a quest for affective change. We describe approaches to categorise affective outcomes and conclude that ‘education for sustainable development’ objectives comprise higher order affective outcomes (leading to behavioural change) that are challenging for higher education to address. Our own work emphasises the need for student anonymity as these higher order outcomes are assessed, evaluated, monitored, researched or otherwise measured using research instruments that focus on worldview. A longitudinal mixed-effects repeat-measures statistical model is described that enables higher education institutions to answer the question of whether or not ‘education for sustainable development’ objectives are being achieved. Discussion links affect to critical reasoning and addresses the possibility of documenting and assessing the development of lower and mid-order affective outcomes. We conclude that ‘education for sustainable development’ objectives need to be clearly articulated if higher education is to be able to assess, or evaluate, their achievement.

Greening the Curriculum to Foster Environmental Literacy in Tertiary Students Studying Human Nutrition

ABSTRACT Though sustainability is increasingly being incorporated into dietetic internships, there is a lack of literature documenting the teaching of environmental literacy in undergraduate nutrition. We report on how the implementation of a 2-week food sustainability module as part of an undergraduate second-year course in human nutrition affected students’ environmental literacy. We modified a previously published environmental literacy evaluation instrument to be nutrition specific, and this was adminstered to students before and after the module. Our research showed that, in a module as little as 2 weeks’ duration, it was possible to improve knowledge about food sustainability and shift attitudes in a “greener” direction.

Surveying education at the New Zealand National School of Surveying

Abstract The School of Surveying, University of Otago, continues to successfully offer a top quality professional degree programme for the New Zealand survey profession. It is actively looking to add other more specialised degrees, to allow for the recruitment of more students, to promote more obvious postgraduate opportunities and to follow a trend to more diverse professional engagement. At the same time, there is a renewed focus on enhancing research output to complement the quality teaching programme. This paper briefly outlines the origins of the New Zealand educational system for surveyors and discusses in more detail the suite of programmes and courses that the School of Surveying at the University of Otago offers to those interested in a career in the collection, manipulation, organisation, storage and interpretation of data related to land, land based resources, the sea bed and their use in the development of the built environment. The options open for professional recognition for these graduates are then discussed. New Zealand surveyors continue to gain employment in a variety of subdisciplines in all corners of the world. They carry with them the considerable reputation of surveying graduates from the University of Otago and land surveyors from New Zealand.

Land and rivers can own themselves

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to describe and critically review the new tenure arrangements that have been established to recognise Māori relationship with land (Te Urewera) and river (Whanganui River), to ascribe them their own legal personality. Design/methodology/approach The paper describes the development of the legal arrangements in Aotearoa, New Zealand, for Treaty settlements with Māori, and documents the various forms of rights and divisions of space that are changing the face of property institutions. Findings The paper finds that the acknowledgement of land and nature as having their own legal status and, therefore, owned by themselves is bold and innovative, but is still not a full recognition of customary tenure. The recognition of rivers as indivisible entities is stated but not clearly implemented. Practical implications Māori interests and authority are now more clearly articulated, and Māori may expect to be able to engage in customary practices and restore their traditional relationships with their land more explicitly. Social implications The avoidance of an ownership regime has tempered public concerns about issues such as ownership of flowing water. The formalities are still being completed in the case of the Whanganui River, so the full implications are yet to be felt. Originality/value This is an innovative development in tenure arrangements seen by some as providing for the rights of nature, but actually responding to the rights of the Indigenous people. This article may inform others about possible models for more diverse tenure arrangements elsewhere.

Monitoring surveying students’ environmental attitudes as they experience higher education in New Zealand

We investigate the environmental attitudes (EA) of New Zealand’s land surveying students and how they change during a four-year programme. We implemented a multi-cohort survey and developed a longitudinal statistical model of change. Findings suggest that although the EA scores of groups of students vary at different times within and between cohorts, there are no significant general trends when genders are combined. But females tend to start their studies with higher mean EA scores than males and this difference declines overtime. This occurs consistently across the four cohorts studied. This is discussed in relation to women’s role within the profession.

Is there still a (land) surveying profession

Land surveying has grown from a technical occupation into a profession. The criteria for what constitutes a profession, as distinct from a trade, is explored. Surveying meets criteria. It is maintained that the history of surveying can be seen as having two distinct paradigms. The question is raised as to whether it is entering a third paradigm based on technological developments of the last half-century but answered the in the negative. The introduction of the term ‘geomatics’ is considered and is found to have failed to meet the advances expected of it. It is maintained that the descriptor ‘land’ has out lived its usefulness. It is proposed that the adoption of the term ‘geospatial’ surveyor, by stealth rather than statute, is likely to achieve what geomatics did not. It is noted that this is already happening in the United Kingdom and in Australia similarly.