Experiential Environmental Education: Impact of Citizen Science

Context

Knowledge does not necessarily lead to action. This is a concern as environmental educators are tasked with equipping youth to apply their learning to address the environmental issues of our time. For education to be transformative and develop one's knowledge as well as values, attitudes and behaviours, studies have pointed to how more experiential pedagogies can influence action. Citizen science (where the public engage in research with experts to address a community issue) is a nascent tool in educational settings, and its impact on youth pro-environmental values, attitudes, knowledge and behaviour needs to be better understood.

This project will examine the impact of citizen science, which environmental behaviour psychology factors most influence pro-environmental behaviour, and how competencies and activist identities play a role in the actions that youth take. This study will involve U.K. and Hong Kong secondary school youth and their teachers, allowing for a comparison of the socio-cultural contexts in experiential environmental education.

Aims and Objectives

This project aims to find out if and how citizen science experiences impact how youth feel, think and act towards the natural environment. Research findings will inform good practice guides for educators to incorporate citizen science in their environmental education programmes to empower youth to act on the issues they hold dear.