• Repetition – Offer multiple opportunities for individuals to learn skills related to the same or similar behaviors to help them remember how to do it in the future.5


While


this is often a challenge for many ʻFranksʼ it is important and can be accomplished through coordination with other institutions and initiatives in the area. Repetition can also be achieved by making sure programs given in non-formal education settings align with school curricula. For exam- ple, one might develop a program on water conservation to link with their cityʼs new public campaign on the same topic. This could also align with relevant state education standards, for which lesson plans can be developed and distributed to teachers who further reinforce the concepts in their classrooms.


• Positive environment – Positive emotions help broaden the scope of information individuals are able to consider and make it easier for them to build on their existing knowledge.6


important to create a supportive learning environment and use the two types of knowledge described earlier. At the same time, however, it will also be important to incorporate additional strategies that can contribute to changing behav- iors in the long term. These strategies are described below.


• Self-efficacy – This refers to the extent to which indi- viduals feel that they can affect change or contribute to solutions through their actions.11, 12


Providing students


hands-on experience with authentic environmental issues or challenges can affect their sense of self-efficacy. A class can analyze their school’s air quality and make rec- ommendations for improvement, or identify and evaluate options for the cleanup of a nearby stream. Whatever the project, students should feel a sense of success upon its completion.


Presenting solutions, in addition to informa-


tion about the problem, helps to foster a more positive learning environment by making individuals feel com- fortable and competent. For example, when discussing climate change, help students learn about local efforts to curb emissions.


• Feedback – Information about one’s performance provides them with the knowledge needed to make improvements in the future.7


Individuals may not continue with a behavior


if they are unsure if they are performing it correctly, or if they are unaware of how their ability or effort measures up to others. Allowing participants to practice a behavior through a game or mock scenario, such as proper separation of recyclables and non-recyclables, and providing imme- diate feedback on their performance can be instrumental to their learning to perform that behavior correctly and comfortably.


• Knowledge – The two different types of knowledge below are typically needed to support changes in indi- viduals’ environmental behaviors:


• Issues/Consequence knowledge (What is the prob- lem?) – This includes information about environmental problems and how an individual’s actions influences or impacts those problems.8, 9


teach students why recycling is important (i.e. landfill problems, energy conservation, etc.)


• Procedural knowledge (What can we do about it?) – This knowledge is based on information describing which behaviors may help to address an environmental problem, how to carry out a desired behavior, and what resources are required.10


In the same unit, teach student


how and what to recycle. Explain where recycling bins are and practice with different types of materials.


The Fionas:


If you are a “Fiona”, you probably work in an educational setting where you have long-term interactions with consis- tent groups of students. You may be a classroom teacher, a scout troop leader, or a mentor. Like Fiona, you can create change over the long term by working on a deeper level with students. Even when targeting this deep level, it is still


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• Social & personal norms – People are naturally attuned to the behavior of others and are influenced by what they see other people doing, as this is how we identify the type of behaviors that are expected in a specific context [social norm].13, 14


People may also attribute their behavior to an


internal expectation they have for themselves [personal norm]. Because people are very sensitive to what others around them do – especially friends and loved ones – the altering of social norms can also influence personal norms. One example of a campaign to influence social norms comes from the Greenhills School in Ann Arbor, MI. In trying to encourage students to stop using bottled water, an environmental club made an effort to estab- lish reusable bottles as ‘cool’. This involved the sale of specially designed Greenhills School reusable bottles, a school-wide communication campaign about the negative impacts of plastic bottles, and having students demon- strate their use.


• Meaningfulness – Feeling personal ownership and a sense of empowerment as a result of engaging in a behavior helps to align that behavior with one’s sense of identity and values.15


In a unit about recycling,


Actions that allow students to


behave in ways that are consistent with their values can foster behavior change. Environmental educators can help by providing students with ownership over what they do – let them choose which behaviors to participate in, make environmental lessons locally relevant, or connect new information to something they already care about. Maybe a student is not particularly motivated to clean up a riverbed, but after learning that the water in the river is the same water they drink, a meaningful connection can be established.


• Attitudes – An individual’s personal feelings toward a behavior can influence their willingness to try it.16 Changing attitudes can also be challenging and may rely upon influencing other characteristics first. Similar to meaningfulness, a supportive environment where a stu- dent can learn about a new behavior, become comfortable practicing the behavior, and observe others engaging in this behavior can help influence their attitude toward the behavior. We can influence our students’ attitudes toward conservation through providing them with relevant infor- mation, stressing its importance with social norms and modeling environmental behaviors.


GREEN TEACHER 89


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