ERIC Number: EJ1157612
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2016
Pages: 17
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1925-0746
EISSN: N/A
Environmental Education Organizations and Programs in Texas: Identifying Patterns through a Database and Survey Approach for Establishing Frameworks for Assessment and Progress
Lloyd-Strovas, Jenny D.; Arsuffi, Thomas L.
World Journal of Education, v6 n6 p1-17 2016
We examined the diversity of environmental education (EE) in Texas, USA, by developing a framework to assess EE organizations and programs at a large scale: the Environmental Education Database of Organizations and Programs (EEDOP). This framework consisted of the following characteristics: organization/visitor demographics, pedagogy/curriculum, operations, and assessment. A database of organizations was built by surveying EE program directors state-wide. Of 237 possible organizations, 82 responded to the survey. Results showed that 6-20% of Texans are exposed to EE yearly. In 2009, each of these organizations conducted 19 programs to serve 6,000 people using only $7,500 USD (based on medians). Environmental educators most frequently used hands-on, outdoor experiments and group discussions to teach students, suggesting constructivism as the underlying learning theory in Texas EE. The field needs a comprehensive analysis of the large diversity of organizations and programs to better understand the structure and function of EE. Databases are highly effective tools in education research because they provide: 1) a source of quality research; 2) information across multiple scales; 3) networking and collaboration; and 4) comprehensive and longitudinal data for testing theories. This study provides a framework for creating large-scale databases of EE organizations and identifies patterns among and between characteristics.
Descriptors: Environmental Education, Databases, Administrator Surveys, Organizations (Groups), Program Evaluation, Curriculum, Instruction, Financial Support, Age Groups, Sex, Race, Ethnicity, Socioeconomic Status, Outdoor Education, Informal Education, Active Learning, Recreational Programs, Guidelines
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research; Information Analyses
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Texas
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A