Fostering place attachment through selecting and presenting favorite places

Abstract

The development of place attachment is an important learning objective in geography education because it plays a significant role in people’s behaviors toward protecting and acting on behalf of places. This study demonstrates the effects of selecting and presenting favorite places (SPFP) strategy in enhancing students’ place attachment. The SPFP activity was expected to establish the participants’ positive stance toward their chosen places and promote the consistent maintenance of their initial attitude. It builds on the preference for consistency, or the desire and tendency to behave predictably by acting similarly across diverse situations. We asked the participants to select their favorite places in a city, to visualize them using Google Earth, and to present their activities. As a result, the participants increased their place attachment, which is composed of place identity and place dependence.

Keywords:

• Place attachment
• place identity
• place dependence
• favorite place
• preference for consistency
• Google Earth