Background: This study deals with the application of concept mapping to the teaching and learning of a science topic with secondary school students in Germany. Purpose: The main research questions were: (1) Do different teaching approaches affect concept map structure or students' learning success? (2) Is the structure of concept maps influenced…

One aim of environmental education is fostering sustainable environmental action. Some environmental behaviour models suggest that this can be accomplished in part by improving people's knowledge. Recent studies have identified a distinct, psychometrically supported environmental knowledge structure consisting of system, action-related and…

This paper describes, by focusing on factor analytic structures, pupils' reactions towards the utilisation and preservation of nature. A previously hypothesised model based on these two domains (comprised of 5 primary factors) was shown to be valid for four different Western European pupil samples: CH, D, DK, IRL. The empirical basis of this…

This empirical study finds support for the hypothesis that participation in a special residential education programme enhances facets of pupils' environmental perception. A 4-day extra-curricular educational unit with a cognitive outdoors focus (established in a nature centre in France) was surveyed by using a two stage sampling design in a…

The perceptions of students toward conservation and nature utilization and their behavior toward the environment were studied with 725 Danish adolescents and a previously studied group of Bavarian adolescents. Following construct validation, comparison of mean within-region factor values reveals substantial differences between countries. (SLD)