Environmental Literacy of Sixth Grade Students in Arkansas: Implications for Environmental Education Reform.

Environmental education must be better integrated into K-12 curriculum to advance environmental literacy. Producing a citizenry that can understand and address the complex environmental issues facing the world today and in the future is essential to sustainable life on this planet. Using the Middle School Environmental Literacy Survey, 6th grade students across Arkansas were surveyed to obtain a baseline measure of environmental literacy based on the four domains of environmental literacy included in the survey; ecological knowledge, environmental affect, cognitive skills, and behavior. Individual domain scores were combined into a composite environmental literacy score. Results were then compared to the national baseline established by the National Environmental Literacy Assessment Project. The research population consisted of a stratified random sample of 6th grade students across Arkansas. An ex post facto research design was used to analyze the sample. The results of the research indicated that the Arkansas 6th grade students scored in the moderate range for the domains of ecological knowledge, environmental affect, and behavior. However, scores for cognitive skills were in the low range. The mean composite environmental literacy score indicated the 6th grade students had a moderate level of environmental literacy overall. Students in Arkansas scored significantly lower (t (4110) = 15.41, p = <0.01) than the students in the national survey on overall environmental literacy. Statistically significant differences were identified based on physiographic region of the state, geographic region of the state, and students’ self-reported level of contact with the outdoors. Despite their noting it is important to expose students to environmental education, teachers who completed the program information surveys indicated none of the schools had an environmental education component in the delivered curriculum. Surveys from individual teachers indicated they received little to no training in environmental education during preservice teacher preparation programs and little to no on-going professional development related to environmental education. To ensure overall environmental literacy in Arkansas, this research indicated that we must improve students’ cognitive skills and ensure teachers have the content knowledge and pedagogical strategies to effectively integrate environmental education across the curriculum. Acknowledgements A research project as robust as this is not possible without the help of many. I am thankful to the administrators at the 40 schools who welcomed us into their schools and granted us access to their students. Without their belief that improving environmental literacy in the K12 environment is crucial to the future of our existence, this project would not have been possible. Thank you to the 60 teachers who took time out of their busy schedules to orchestrate the data collection and to honestly and openly share their thoughts on environmental education through completed surveys. Most especially, thanks are due to nearly 3,500 6th grade students who were willing to take the survey so soon after benchmark testing. The students, the teachers, and the administrators made this study possible. Reading the Scantrons and preparing the data set for analysis would have been much more difficult and time consuming without the help of expert assistance of Ling Ting who coded all the data for analysis and John Paul Jackson who wrote the program to read the Scantron sheets, scanned all the sheets, and created the initial text file. My sincere thanks go to both of you. Thanks to Marsha West and Rick Ward who collected student data. Marsha spent a week on the road in southwest Arkansas and Rick spent a week on the road in southwest and central Arkansas. Without their willingness to help in a significant way, I could not have met the data collection schedule required based on student availability. Special thanks to my committee members, William McComas, Michael Wavering, Cathy Wissehr, and the late George Denny (who left us much too soon). The committee sets the tone for a dissertation project and this committee was enthusiastic, interested, and actively involved in the process from beginning to end. I thank each of you for your guidance, advice, and encouragement throughout this journey. Special thanks to Bill for taking a chance on me, a middle-aged woman, with no formal teaching experiences and admitting me to the Science Education program. Your guidance is the glue that keeps the Science Education students together and I appreciate the opportunities you have given me along the way. Special thanks also to Cathy for serving as my Dissertation Director and guiding me through this research project. Your encouragement, leadership, and compassion for working with your students are amazing. Thank you for giving of so much of your time. Thanks are also due to Dr. Elizabeth Keiffer who stepped in and helped me with the statistics after the loss of Dr. Denny. I am grateful for your willingness to assist during the awkward transition following George’s death. Many thanks go to my second family, Martha Davis, Jody Davis, and Marion Dunagan who reviewed, edited, and helped to format this dissertation. They spent countless hours reading and re-reading my chapters. Perhaps most importantly, they encouraged me and poked me along the way to see that I finished the study. Martha and Jody also travelled through the Ozark mountains to collect student data. I am grateful for their continued love and friendship and their belief in my abilities. Rachel Carson said “If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder, he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement and mystery of the world we live in. ” Thanks to Matthew and Michael Wood who embody the reasons I turned my professional interests from environmental consulting to teaching others and sharing with others my joy and excitement of the outdoor world in which we live. I want you to always have that sense of wonder and awe that keeps you connected with nature. And I will be at least one of the adults who will share it with you. Thanks for inspiring me to work toward a sustainable planet for you. Thanks to my brother, Dan, a teacher, a deep thinker, and a lover of the outdoors. You are also a great inspiration to me. Thanks for your encouragement and discussions along the way. Thanks also to Melissa, my sister-in-law, for her support and encouragement throughout this process. And last, but not least, a heartfelt thank you to my parents, Chester and Susan Wood, who not only loved me and encouraged me throughout this process but also came from Ohio to travel the highways and byways of Arkansas for three weeks collecting student data. Never hesitating when asked, they gave of their time and resources to help make this project a success. I could not have done it without them! I am truly blessed!