Environmental education in the classroom: pilot study in Cabo Verde suggests differing impacts on local knowledge and environmental attitudes
ROMY RICE,MOMNA HEJMADI,HER VA L S IL VA,ROB ERT N. KELS H JANETE AGUES,NOÉ MI E E NGEL and TAMÁS S ZÉKELY
Abstract To execute environmental education effectively, the success and impacts of educational activities must be as- sessed. In areas of high biodiversity there is generally a lack of evaluation of the impact of environmental education. In this study we investigate the effect of a one-time classroom activity on student knowledge of local environmental issues, environmental attitudes and aspirations. The project was conducted on the island of Maio, Cabo Verde, a small, highly biodiverse island, as part of a classroom visit pro- gramme with the local environmental organization, Maio Biodiversity Foundation. We visited every fourth-grade class (i.e. students with an age range of 9–10 years) on the island (a total of 142 students) and delivered a half-day classroom activity. The results show that this activity did not influence environmental attitudes; however, it did sig- nificantly improve student knowledge and awareness of local environmental issues. This study shows that environ- mental education should not be assumed to improve atti- tudes and knowledge but requires individual evaluation for each type of activity. For environmental education to reach its full potential, activities should be planned in response to evaluation results.
Keywords Africa, attitudes, Cabo Verde, conservation, en- vironmental education, evaluation, knowledge, Maio
The supplementary material for this article is available at
doi.org/10.1017/S0030605323000303
Introduction B
iodiversity is diminishing at an alarming rate. Since 2010, the IUCN has declared that.160 species are ex-
tinct, and .38,500 species are threatened with extinction (IUCN, 2021). Anthropogenic activities such as pollution, overexploitation of natural resources and habitat destruc- tion are threatening the future of plant and animal species (Ramírez & Santana, 2019). The destructive practices that lead to environmental problems are often facilitated by a lack of knowledge and respect for the environment, which is ultimately caused by inadequate environmental educa- tion (Valderrama-Hernandez et al., 2017). As advances in technology continue and global urbaniza-
tion increases, exposure of children to the natural world has decreased. This has been referred to as the extinction of ex- perience (Pyle, 1978). A study in the UK concluded that 12% of children participating in a survey spent 12 months with- out visiting a natural area (Hunt et al., 2016), and another study showed that although schoolchildren could only id- entify 40% of local species presented, they could identify 47% of exotic species, implying a disconnect from local bio- diversity (Ballouard et al., 2011). The need to reconnect society with nature is apparent, and this is particularly im- portant for children. Childhood is the optimal stage to undertake environmental education, with younger children being more receptive to environmental attitude changes than adults or even teenagers, as, once formed, it becomes increasingly difficult to influence environmental opinions (Kellert, 1985; Caro et al., 1994; Damerell et al., 2013; Liefländer & Bogner, 2014). Implementing environmental education in schools is a
ROMY RICE (Corresponding author,
bath.ac.uk), MOMNA HEJMADI ( ENGEL and TAMÁS SZÉKELY*† (
orcid.org/0000-0003-3974-7382, rr433@
orcid.org/0000-0003-2451-2695), NOÉMIE
orcid.org/0000-0003-2093-0056) Milner
Centre for Evolution, University of Bath, Claverton Down, Bath, BA2 7AZ, UK
HERVAL SILVA and JANETE AGUES Maio Biodiversity Foundation, Maio Island, Cabo Verde ROBERT N. KELSH (
orcid.org/0000-0002-9381-0066) Department of Life Sciences, University of Bath, Bath, UK
*Also at: Maio Biodiversity Foundation, Maio Island, Cabo Verde †Also at: Department of Evolutionary Zoology and Human Biology, University of Debrecen, Debrecen, Hungary
Received 24 August 2022. Revision requested 14 December 2022. Accepted 28 February 2023. First published online 31 July 2023.
way to increase pro-environmental behaviour in society. It is often assumed that parent–child teaching is unidirection- al, with parents teaching their children the attitudes and knowledge they themselves possess; however, children can also influence the values and knowledge of their parents (Vaughan et al., 2003; Damerell et al., 2013). This bidi- rectional influence between adults and children gives en- vironmental education the potential to be a powerful tool to increase knowledge and positive attitudes towards the environment across age groups. Environmental education does not have one simple def-
inition. It comprises a plethora of activities aimed at raising awareness of environmental issues, encouraging positive
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Oryx, 2024, 58(2), 210–217 © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Fauna & Flora International doi:10.1017/S0030605323000303
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