Why travel far to learn? A study of environmental behaviour change experience of residential outdoor environmental education participants

ABSTRACT

Residential outdoor environmental education (ROEE) is commonly used to educate people about the environment. This research focuses on the participants’ subjective perceptions of the impact of the drag and drop approach used in ROEE courses on changing their environmental behaviour and the extent to which the changes (if any) are sustained. The study adopted a narrative approach and used the transtheoretical model (TTM) as the theoretical framework for the investigation. Eleven former participants of the ROEE courses were interviewed. The interview data were analysed by using the method of individual narrative and thematic analysis. The study found that the ROEE courses did not change the participants’ environmental attitudes and behaviour in a significant way due to three explanations: i) sociocultural differences between locations; ii) unsuitable contents, and iii) discontinued learning experience and intervention. This study provides extensive suggestions of how the practice of ROEE courses can be improved which is based on the participants’ narrative of unsuccessful learning intervention approaches.

KEYWORDS:

• Outdoor environmental education
• pro-environmental behaviour
• education for sustainable development
• retrospective study
• transtheoretical model

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sharifah Intan Sharina Syed-Abdullah

Sharifah Intan Sharina Syed-Abdullah is a senior lecturer at the Faculty of Education Studies, Universiti Putra Malaysia. Her research areas include environmental education, education for sustainable development, science education, curriculum and instruction and educational technology. Based on her expertise, she becomes a consultant to the Curriculum Development Division, Ministry of Education Malaysia, Department of Environment, Ministry of Natural Resources, Environment and Climate Change, the Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research (MIROS) and the National Integration Research and Training Institute, Ministry of National Unity.