Experiential-based climate change education: fostering students' knowledge and motivation towards the environment

ABSTRACT

Climate change is one of the most important environmental issues affecting our society today and we need to educate the citizens about the impact on human lives. An attempt was made to integrate experiential-based climate change education into the teaching and learning of secondary school Biology lessons on the topic of Endangered Ecosystem to improve students’ knowledge on climate change and increase motivation towards caring for the environment. Two classes from a school were randomly assigned to experimental (N = 30) and control groups (N = 32). Following the intervention, a one-way analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) with pre-test data as covariate showed statistically significant differences in knowledge and motivation. Experiential-based climate change activities enabled students to construct the knowledge socially and also satisfied the three basic human needs: competence, autonomy and relatedness, which have subsequently promoted motivation. The findings described in this study are similar with other studies which reported that constructivist-based experiential learning has successfully developed awareness and encouraged learning and critical thinking about climate change.

KEYWORDS:

• Experiential-based climate change education
• self-determined motivation
• knowledge on climate change
• Biology lessons
• secondary level education

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the grant from The Sumitomo Foundation Fiscal 2014 (Grant for Japan-Related Research Projects) [number 1484421].