The effectiveness of environmental education

distinguish four objects

• The environment itself: the whole, the elements, the relationship between people and the environment

•Environmental issues

• Environmental Protection: Behaviour and Action

• Environmental exploration: visits and research

•Learn and think

1 Environmental learning

1.1 Environmental awareness

• Awareness refers to making people aware of, and increasing sensitivity to, the environment and environmental issues.

• Awareness is simply "awareness", with a shallow and vague concept of the environment; or "more sensitive", no longer numb and blind to the surrounding environment and problems.

• Knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviours are all deeper than awareness and are based on awareness. When these deeper effects are revealed, awareness is overlaid;

• On the contrary, when the learner is not affected by the project in terms of environmental knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviors, he may only be affected in awareness, and only have a preliminary awareness of the environment and environmental problems.

1.2 Environmental knowledge

• Knowledge refers to some facts, concepts and connections between concepts (declarative knowledge).

• Environmental education may involve a wide variety of knowledge, involving different disciplines. But since it is environmental education, not mathematics, Chinese or English education, the primary concern should be environmental knowledge .

• Can be divided into: (1) knowledge about the environment , that is, knowledge about the environment as a whole, elements, and the relationship between people and the environment; (2) knowledge about environmental issues ; (3) knowledge about environmental protection behaviors and actions ; (4) knowledge about environmental issues ) knowledge of environmental exploration and environmental studies .

• Learners may also learn other things , such as understanding what is critical thinking, about learning and thinking .

1.3 Environmental skills

• Skills are the knowledge of how to do something (procedural knowledge), and the knowledge of when and why to use declarative and procedural knowledge (self-regulating knowledge).

• Environmental education may involve a wide variety of skills across different disciplines. However, the greatest focus remains on environmental skills .

• Can be divided into: (1) skills related to environmental protection behavior and action, (2) skills related to environmental exploration and environmental research .

• Learners may also acquire other skills , such as mastering how to think critically about learning and thinking .

1.4 Environmental attitude

• Attitude is a psychological disposition that is an individual's evaluative reaction to an object (eg, good or bad).

• This response is based on personal perceptions (eg, valuable/unworthy, beneficial/harmful) and emotions (eg, pleasant/unpleasant, like/dislike).

• Can be divided into: (1) Attitudes towards the environment , namely towards the whole environment, elements, and the relationship between people and the environment; (2) Attitudes towards environmental issues ; (3) Attitudes towards environmental protection behaviors and actions ; (4) Attitudes towards environmental issues ) attitudes towards environmental exploration and environmental studies .

• Other attitudes are also attitudes towards learning and thinking and the way it is done.

1.5 Environmental behavior

• The conduct referred to here includes the will to conduct.

•Personal environmental protection behavior refers to the personal practices that individuals consciously avoid destroying the environment or consciously improve the environment in their private behavior field.

• Environmental protection actions are conscious civic actions that focus on the systemic root causes of environmental problems, are closely linked to democratic participation, and are more collective and systemic. These include persuading others or environmental education, participating in or forming environmental organizations, organizing or signing petitions, donating money to environmental causes, improving the physical environment or community development, and many more.

• Some environmental education programs also emphasize friendly exploration of the environment, which I call environmental exploration .

•Environmental exploration can be compared to environmental protection behaviors, while environmental research can be compared to environmental protection actions, including conducting scientific inquiry and analyzing environmental issues.

• Other behaviors refer to the fact that the program induces participants to want or do more learning behaviors .

2 Social interaction

2.1 Social skills

• Connect with others/extend social relationships

• Learn to cooperate and lead

• Exercise communication skills

2.2 Recall experiences with participants

• Participants in the same environmental education project talked about their shared experiences with the project at the time after the project.

• Through reminiscence, an environmental education project can continue to have an impact on participants over and over again after it ends.

2.3 Sharing experiences with others

• Participants share their experiences of participating in environmental education programs with non-participants such as parents, friends, classmates, colleagues.

• Sharing can make a project's impact wider, encourage others to participate in the project, and sometimes educate others, and even engage others in environmental behavior.

•'Sharing with nonparticipants' may partially overlap with 'environmental behaviors' as it sometimes can be seen as a persuading behavior belonging to environmental actions. However, the difference is that 'sharing with nonparticipants' emphasizes 'talking about the experience', while ' environmental behaviors' may and may not use participants' program experience as materials for educating others. Moreover, environmental-action behaviors emphasize 'doings' that contain more than persuading behaviors, such as participating in or establishing environmental groups, organizing or signing petitions, donating money or materials, and improving physical environment or community development (Alisat and Riemer 2015; Larson et al. 2015; Schusler and Krasny 2010).

3 Self-development

3.1 Self-efficacy

• Judgment of an ability

• Self-confidence (self-efficacy) is an individual's belief in one's ability to organize or execute a set of actions required to manage an expected situation (Bandura, 1997). Or the degree of confidence with which a situation is dealt with to obtain the desired effect (Pajares, 1997). The environmental skills learned in environmental education projects are skills, and the confidence that learners have in their ability to use these environmental skills in some suitable future situation is self-confidence. Self-confidence will directly affect people's behavioral willingness (Ajzen, 2002). In addition to environmental aspects, students may also develop confidence in other aspects of their abilities.

3.2 Self-esteem

• Overall evaluation of yourself

• Self-esteem refers to an individual's overall evaluation of oneself and their perception of one's own worth (Campbell & Lavallee, 1993; Spencer & Markstrom-Adams, 1990; Wigfield, Byrnes & Eccles, 2006). Similar concepts are "self-concept", "identity", "self-worth" (Roeser, Peck & Nasir, 2006). Environmental education projects allow participants to discover like-minded people and recognize their self-image; in addition, after completing specific tasks, participants can feel moved, proud or fulfilled.

3.3 Character traits

• Acting style

• Qualities (personality traits) are tendencies to behave, think, or feel relatively consistent in a wide variety of appropriate situations over an extended period of time and vary among individuals (Ashton, 2013) ), is a style of behavior. Qualities can be described by adjectives in the HEXACO model of personality structure (Ashton & Lee, 2007). Environmental education can make students become more rigorous, careful, conscientious, patient, persistent, cheerful, brave, caring and so on.

3.4 Hobby interests

• Persistent and steady interest

•Interests are divided into two categories: one is personal interest, which is more lasting and stable, and is expressed as hobbies; the other is situational interest, which is stimulated by the situation and expressed as interest, which is an attitude (interested and interesting; classified as an attitude). ; Hidi, 1990; Hidi & Baird, 1986; Krapp & Fink, 1992; Renninger & Wozniak, 1985). Hobbies here refer to personal interests. Environmental education can cultivate students' interest in protecting and exploring the environment.

3.5 Ideal visions

• future possible selves

• Environmental educational experiences as autobiographical memories enable students to reflect on their past and present selves and to envision their futures (Kihlstrom, 2009; Williams & Conway, 2009). After participating in an environmental education program, students may change their future selves (probable selves; Markus & Nurius, 1986), forming career choices or personal goals that benefit the environment.