An Evaluation Study of the Wenlau River Education
Program to the Learning Effectiveness Environmental
Education of the Higher Graders of an Elementary School
Abstract
The originality of human civilization usually started near the rivers,
so a river is the best place to learn how to conserve the water resources
for students. This research hope to evaluate the effect of “The Wenlau
River Education Program” (WREP) to the knowledge, attitude and
behavior skills of the higher graders of an elementary school and to
cultivate the elementary school students’ knowledge, feeling,
responsibility, and action intention of protecting and conserving the river
through this environmental education.
The “non-equal pre and post-test control group”
quasi-experimental design was used in the research. The subjects
were two classes of the fifth graders in Sun-Tan Elementary School
in Taichung County. One class was the experimental group who
received WREP for twelve weeks, and the other class was the
control group who didn’t receive WREP. Both experimental group
and control group accepted pre-test and post-test questionnaire
a week ahead and later the instruction separately. Beside quantity
information of a questionnaire, the teachers’ observation records
and students’ portfolios were also collected as qualitative
information.
Through the data analysis, major results were shown as below:
1. After WREP, the experimental group’s knowledge, feeling,
responsibility, and action skills were significantly better than
those of the control group.
2. WREP could significantly increase participants’ awareness and concern
of river conservation.
3. WREP could significantly increase participants’ knowledge and
understanding of river conservation, river environment, river water
quality, ecological environment, the impact of foreign creatures and
destruction to river environment.
4. WREP could significantly increase participants’ sense of responsibility
toward the river, and they were more willing to participate improving
the river environment. They also agreed the task of river conservation
should start from themselves.
5. WREP could significantly positively change participants’ attitudes of
the river conservation. They agreed the river conservation is “necessary,
emergent, related with me, my business, my responsibility and worth
of supporting.”
6. WREP could significantly increase participants’ intentions to take
action. They had higher action intentions than before to ask themselves,
classmates and families to avoid polluting rivers, to call police or
environmental institutes when the river was polluted, to be volunteers
of environmental protection, to make posters about declaring river
conservation.
7. WREP could significantly increase participants’ skills to use strategies
of environmental action. They felt after this course they had more
abilities to prevent themselves and others from polluting rivers, to call
police or environmental institutes when the river was polluted and to
use action strategies to solve river problems.
8. WREP could significantly lower participants’ perceptions of two
barriers of action taking those are “lack of the knowledge and skills of
river conservation and fearing conserving rivers only by themselves.”
Key words: river conservation, water resource, environmental
education, quasi-experimental design, river pollution