Promoting Sustainable Fish Consumption in Portuguese 4th-Grade Students

Ana Rita Silva, Diana Boaventura and Vera Sequeira ()
Additional contact information
Ana Rita Silva: MARE—Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre/ARNET—Aquatic Research Network, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, Campo Grande, 1749-016 Lisboa, Portugal
Diana Boaventura: MARE—Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre/ARNET—Aquatic Research Network, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, Campo Grande, 1749-016 Lisboa, Portugal
Vera Sequeira: MARE—Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre/ARNET—Aquatic Research Network, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, Campo Grande, 1749-016 Lisboa, Portugal

Sustainability, 2024, vol. 16, issue 2, 1-19

Abstract: Consuming fish sustainably means consuming less and better, considering environmental, social, and economic impacts. This demands more knowledge to make informed decisions. In this study, the main goal was to understand how environmental sustainability education can be used as a tool to increase the knowledge and promote sustainable behaviour and consumption habits of 4th-grade students. The COVID-19 pandemic forced the use of two different learning methods, face-to-face and online learning, leading to two different groups of students, and we attempted to measure if the mode of implementing the activities affected the knowledge of the students. A sequential explanatory mixed methodology was applied with a pre-test/post-test design combined with focus group interviews. Between the pre- and post-tests, three activities modules were performed. The results showed that the students were unaware of many aspects related to sustainable fish consumption, but the developed activities significantly increased their knowledge of the subject and impacted students in terms of changing their consumption behaviours. It was also found that the construction of knowledge by the students after the activities was achieved either via face-to-face or online learning. Interviews from the focus group sessions showed that students got to know new fish species, learned about the concept of minimum landing size and closure season and that fish are labelled like other types of food.

Keywords: sustainable fish consumption; primary school; 4th grade students; face-to-face learning; online learning; ocean literacy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/2/579/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/2/579/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:2:p:579-:d:1315946

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().