Growing Behavior Change
Whether your interactions with young people occur over a long or short-term basis, you need to use different strategies if you hope to change their behavior.
By Catherine Game, Andrea Liberatore, Ericka Popovich and Michaela Zint
a refillable water bottle or eat more vegetables? Encouraging individuals of any age to change their behavior is not an easy task. Yet fostering changes in individuals’ behaviors is often an important goal for environmental educators.1 Intuitively, many environmental educators believe that
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by increasing students’ knowledge of environmental issues or by raising their concern about the environment, they will be more likely to act in environmentally sustainable ways. It has been about 20 years since this intuitive model was questioned by Hines et al (1987) and subsequently, Hunger- ford & Volk (1990). Consider the following example: Many
AVE YOU TRIED TO GET young people to switch off the lights when they leave a room or spend less time on the computer and more time outside, or use
individuals struggle to drive less. These individuals know that fossil fuel use and automobile emissions contribute to global climate change, drive wars and tensions in the Middle East, and contribute to health problems like asthma. But does this knowledge translate into driving less or using alternate modes of transportation? Often the answer is no. Something else is needed to propel these individuals into action. But what? We believe that “growing behavior change” is very
similar to growing plants in a garden. In both instances you need the right tools, a supportive environment, and some know-how to get your seeds to grow. Take Frank and Fiona, for example. Both love to garden, but they have different goals for their gardens, different yards with varying types of soil and sunlight as well as different lifestyles. Because of these variations, they have very different approaches to their gardening.
GREEN TEACHER 89 Page 7
Illustrations: Catherine Game
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