Active Learning Affects Children’s Intention to Act and Awareness of the Importance of Nature and Understanding Environmental Change

Carmella Granato, Marco Campera () and Matthew Bulbert
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Carmella Granato: School of Biological and Medical Sciences, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford OX3 0BP, UK
Marco Campera: School of Biological and Medical Sciences, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford OX3 0BP, UK
Matthew Bulbert: School of Biological and Medical Sciences, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford OX3 0BP, UK

World, 2025, vol. 6, issue 2, 1-17

Abstract: Guiding future awareness of and attitudes on the importance of nature and understanding environmental change is crucial for its future mitigation. A barrier to acting on issues such as climate change, however, is the time scale at which they occur and the lack of tangibility around key concepts such as the impact they have on phenotypic shifts in fauna and flora. Here, we assessed an environmental education intervention integrated into a mainstream curriculum that included cooperative learning and a practical environmental biology experiment. We aimed to understand if this intervention increased both the awareness of environmental change and intention to act in primary-school-aged children. We selected 150 students (5–11 years) from Oakhurst Community Primary School, UK, and assessed the intervention via the Draw-Our-Environment (DOE) test and an Environmental Perception Survey (EPS). We showed how a curriculum inclusive of more than tokenistic environmental education, developed through considering a combination of different active learning activities, favoured a clear increase in environmental awareness and intention to act. Via path analysis, we showed that an increase in environmental awareness (assessed via the DOE test) determined an increase in individual orientation on pro-environmental behaviours (assessed via the EPS). Experiential learning helps students to understand the physical processes of environmental change and increase awareness of environmental problems. This has the potential to alter perceptions of young people’s attitudes on the importance of and willingness to act against environmental change.

Keywords: SDG 4; quality education; cooperative learning; pro-environmental behaviour; environmental awareness; environmental perception; environmental orientation; environmental attitudes; biophilia; climate change (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G15 G17 G18 L21 L22 L25 L26 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 R51 R52 R58 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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