A Quantitative Comparison of Environmental Education, Conservation Education, Outdoor Education, Ecological Education, Environmentalized Education and General Education based on Goals.

Overview & Synopsis

Investigated was the relationship of environmental education to ecological education, outdoor education, conservation education, environmentalized education, and general education. Goals selected from the literature were analyzed to obtain 60 goals representing each of the 6 areas. Using a Q-sort procedure, 65 selected individuals, representing the 6 areas, rank-ordered the goal statements. The resulting scores were analyzed using multivariate analysis of variance and one-way analysis of variance followed by Scheffe's Test. The results show that goals describing man's relationship to and utilization of the environment were ranked high by all groups. Goals describing specific subjects such as health, population growth, and outdoor science were ranked low by most groups. Personal data, education, and occupation related to the rankings of the environmental education and environmentalized education categories. A model developed to illustrate the relationship between the 6 groups is presented. The model shows environmental education overlapping the 5 other areas, with strong overlaps with conservation education and environmentalized education. (BT)