Nina Roczen

A Competence Model for Environmental Education

The goal of environmental education is ultimately to enable a person to strive for and to attain a more ecological way of life. In this article, we begin by distinguishing three forms of environmental knowledge and go on to predict that people’s attitude toward nature represents the force that drives their ecological behavioral engagement. Based on data from 1,907 students, we calibrated previously established instruments to measure ecological behavior, environmental knowledge, and attitude toward nature with Rasch-type models. Using path modeling, we corroborated our theoretically anticipated competence structure. While environmental knowledge revealed a modest behavioral effect, attitude toward nature turned out to be, as expected, the stronger determinant of behavior. Overall, we propose a competence model that has the potential to guide us into more evidence-based ways of promoting the overall ecological engagement of individuals.

The search for potential origins of a favorable attitude toward nature

Abstract The aim of this research was to empirically explore some feasible origins of a favorable attitude toward nature using retrospective and cross-sectional data. In two studies, we specifically examined the role of gratifying experiences in nature. In Study 1, based on interview data of four selected students from a larger sample of previously tested students (N = 217) from a grammar school in Bavaria, Germany, we tested whether two students with previously recognized markedly positive attitudes toward nature recalled more pleasurable and/or restorative experiences in nature than the two students with less favorable attitudes. We found that students with positive attitudes toward nature remembered about twice as many gratifying experiences in nature than did students with comparatively unfavorable attitudes toward nature. In Study 2, based on survey data of 496 students from two other grammar schools in Bavaria, Germany, we further explored the ways by which ease of access to nature and contact with nature could have advanced a positive attitude toward nature. In our theoretically anticipated model, ease of access to nature and contact with nature were effective via gratifying experiences exclusively. Thus, we confirmed that having gratifying experiences is a potential mediator required to convert ones contact with nature into a favorable attitude.

La búsqueda de los posibles orígenes de una actitud favorable hacia la naturaleza

Resumen El objetivo de esta investigación era explorar empíricamente algunos de los posibles orígenes de una actitud favorable hacia la naturaleza, mediante el uso de datos retrospectivos y transversales. En dos estudios, examinamos el papel de las experiencias gratificantes en la naturaleza. En el estudio 1, basado en datos procedentes de entrevistas realizadas a cuatro estudiantes escogidos de una muestra más amplia de estudiantes anteriormente entrevistados (N = 217) de una escuela de Bavaria, Alemania, comprobamos si dos estudiantes cuyas actitudes hacia la naturaleza se habían identificado con anterioridad como marcadamente positivas recordaban más experiencias placenteras y/o reparadoras en la naturaleza que los dos estudiantes con actitudes menos favorables. Encontramos que los estudiantes con actitudes positivas hacia la naturaleza recordaban alrededor del doble de experiencias gratificantes en la naturaleza que los estudiantes con actitudes comparativamente menos favorables hacia la naturaleza. En el estudio 2, basado en los datos de una encuesta a 496 estudiantes de otras dos escuelas de gramática en Bavaria, Alemania, exploramos más a fondo las formas en que la facilidad de acceso a la naturaleza y el contacto con la naturaleza podrían haber contribuido al desarrollo de una actitud positiva hacia ella. Nuestro modelo teórico anticipaba que la facilidad de acceso a la naturaleza y el contacto con la naturaleza serían efectivas exclusivamente por medio de las experiencias gratificantes; en este trabajo confirmamos que tener experiencias gratificantes es un potente mediador, necesario para convertir el contacto con la naturaleza en una actitud favorable.