The role of post-visit action resources in facilitating meaningful free-choice learning after a zoo visit

Abstract

Places like zoos, where free-choice learning is encouraged, are important for conveying climate change and sustainability issues to the public. Free-choice learning that targets environmentally focused sustainable behavior changes must be meaningful in order to encourage actual behavior change post-visit. However, visitors often fail to translate their learning into behavior change after a visit. This research explores the role of post-visit action resources (PVARs) in facilitating long-term learning for individual environmental sustainability after a visit to the Leatherdale International Polar Bear Conservation Centre in Winnipeg’s Assiniboine Park Zoo in Manitoba, Canada. An embedded mixed-methods research design used personal meaning maps and follow-up interviews to measure free-choice learning; data were analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. Findings revealed that the PVARs positively affected free-choice learning after an on-site visit to the zoo. Recommendations and implications are discussed in relation to practical applications and implications for future research in environmental education.

Keywords:

• Free-choice learning
• post-visit action resources
• learning for environmental sustainability
• personal meaning mapping
• environmental education

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Assiniboine Park Zoo, especially Dr. Stephen Petersen and Lucy Johnson at the Leatherdale International Polar Bear Conservation Centre, and the research assistant Melissa Heinrichs, for their assistance with this research.