Environmental Learning and Communication

Fang, Wei-Ta; Hassan, Arba’at; LePage, Ben A.

doi:10.1007/978-981-19-4234-1_7

Part of the book series: Sustainable Development Goals Series ((SDGS))

9734 Accesses
1 Citations

Abstract

Environmental learning is an act of communication. Whether it is self-directed learning, learning through teachers or professors, or learning through an online platform, all need a learning medium and content. Therefore, environmental learning and communication in this chapter refer to how individuals, institutions, social groups, and cultural communities produce, share, accept, understand, and properly use the environmental information, and then utilize the relationship between human society and the environment through using environmental communication. In the interaction of the social network of human society, from interpersonal communication to virtual communities, modern humans need to participate in environmental decision-making to understand the problems that occur in the world’s environment through environmental media reports. Therefore, this chapter could be focused on “learning as process” and, see how to learn from theorized fields of studies. We may encourage that you may learn from spoken, written, audio-visual, image, and information exchanges through carriers such as learning fields, learning plans, learning mode, information transmission, and communication media. It is hoped that environmental learning and communication, through creation, adopt diverse communication methods and platforms to establish the correct environmental information pipeline.

The field of environmental communication consists of the following seven research and practical areas: environmental discourse, environmental news media, public participation in environmental decision-making, social marketing, and advocacy activities, environmental cooperation and conflict resolution, risk communication, and nature in pop culture and green marketing expression.

J. Robert Cox, Environmental Communication and the Public Sphere, 2010.

You have full access to this open access chapter, Download chapter PDF

Can We Be Entertained to Change Our Lives?: An Introduction to Games for Increasing Environmental Awareness

Environmental Engineering Education in the Modern Era

Trial of Tools to Evaluate Adaptive Processes in Environmental Activities

1 What Should We Learn?

Sorohan (1993) declared “We do; therefore, we learn.” What we learn is a key point, and could be detected from scientific experiments, handworks, and any practices specializing in learning by doing for environmental studies. Efficacy studies, therefore, can be informed and scaled-up to benefit broader populations if we want to learn (Christakis 2009). Why we, or our students, need to learn? This is the topic issue we should ask ourselves before you read this chapter since we are requested today to face many critical situations vis-à-vis global hazards (Bisoffi et al. 2021). In such a learning situation, motivation from students is never a problem to examine disasters they could probably face (Schank 1995); we learn because something must be solved from our needs in our daily lives and/or the nearby future. All hard lessons should be learned during the current and future crisis. In our opinions, one should like to live in this critical world doing hard work for her/his stronger motivation. We need to face in the foreseeable future, therefore, only a short-sightedness should not prevail over a long-term perspective if you do not want to understand from an emergency case without any desirable intention to learn.

“Learning to survive,” learning from lessons requires to address important needs for our students and/or our colleagues (Grant 2002; Keenan 2020), whereas learning the school courses and/or homework does not act on the basis of that learning; it should be innovated related to any programs helping students how to survive. Keenan (2020) argued the wicked problem education for the Anthropocene age:

Wicked problems transcend national, cultural and disciplinary boundaries. Eco-survival, international migration, destabilized global markets, shifts in the balance of strategic power, population pressures, cultural imperialism, post-secular quests for meaning-in-life, ambivalence of bio-scientific progress, to name a selection, are global.

That is, very few conditionings for students were more likely to survive provided that learning occurred since students are never interested on the courses, or they needed to study their “take home message” without learning to their future survival skills. We may argue that students could be attributed for a lack of interest, but rather to its perceived in lower rewarded and admirable traditional school homework. We know little about why students do not say what they learned directly from school when they are heading back home. It’s very ironic to say, class students can be motivated by the desire for the rewards of their personal interests from their experiences and capabilities (Turner and Paris 1995; Finn 2010). All courses should be regarding to social competence and academic survival skills in the real world (Foulks and Morrow 1989). We would strongly argue that prospective teachers need to have their skills with capacity building, to communicate to their students. We believe (Delors 2013), is why learning to be, learning to live together, and learning about the paths followed by humanity and sustainability. We all need to learn how to survive; so we have to learn to live sustainably (Combes 2005).

“Learning as process and outcome” is a theme in the field of environmental education (Rickinson 2006). Environmental learning could be led as an interdisciplinary approach through interactive communication (Rickinson et al. 2009). The students could be emphasized their studies on making communication accessible and useable through their environmental courses, from authoritative to dialogic pedagogies. We need to consider students’ intentions and their active participation in the negotiation of both the content and structure of learning discourse (Aguiar et al. 2010). Since the discourse requires the students to be more actively involved, we need to take an active part in class and display how to answer questions. This process could become part of the stream of discourse (Boyd 2012).

Communication is a learning process for students. The process that we need mutually inclusive support, for example, a desire for mutual learning, and respect teachers and students (Senecah 2007). Environmental communication is one of the notable amplifications to deliver environmental messages (Jurin et al. 2010). Therefore, teachers should try to develop an interpretive program (Hansen 2011). We can conduct interpretive talks and show videos. The content could be prepared a set of interpretive storylines. Based on a clear stage or method, the content of a textbook is written to facilitate environmental communication. Therefore, we need to study the nature of environmental education and its connotation based on environmental psychology, environmental education, and environmental communication: “Why do we learn environmental education?” “How do we learn environmental education?” and “Where do we learn environmental education?”.

1.1 Learning is a Binary Opposition Process

We know that learning is improved when people see a similar process of mediating between binary terms (Egan 1993). Binary opposition is a learning occurs through everyday action and experience (Shekarey 2006). Learning should be simple: “simple to understand the process” of teaching from instructors, and learning are among the important goals of sustainability (Martins et al. 2006). Therefore, the teachers served as research methods instructors, developing and reviewing curriculum (Lanahan and Yeager 2008), should design the pedagogic strategy for making these binary oppositions as an integral part of learning how to utilize sources outside beyond classrooms. For example, teachers may employ a case learning from the binary oppositions and thus help the students how to build a model from this learning process.

First, when we want to teach our students by Learning is a Binary Opposition Process. Then, should we face the focal-point issues whether environmental education be used place-based education, online teaching, or virtual reality teaching? All teaching skills have set off a wave of discussion in the environmental education community in the twenty-first century. In our course, do we need to get used to thinking in terms of “the nature of sympathy life,” from external cases of binary opposition for references (Scheler and McAleer 2017), such as online teaching vs. face-to-face meeting? In short, should students learn to think differently in order to better utilize their learning tools from a thinking step of binary opposition? This is the first step to enter our topic of Learning is a Binary Opposition Process.

We may provide a case study for our students. Do we need to reconsider our world as a place of values to be built up? Can we love and hate blindly, or with evidence to love or hate (Scheler and McAleer 2017)?

These two, differently-held theories and the biophilia hypothesis encourage localized biological education (Olivos-Jara 2020). If we are afraid of the biophobia hypothesis, we also need to discuss which field can we use to teach? Let students love life, and then enter the outdoor field of environmental education to discuss “biophilia.” The term “biophilia” means “love for life or living systems.” This term was first proposed by the well-known social psychologist named Erich Fromm (1900–1980) and was used to describe a psychological trend in which human beings are drawn to all “close to alive” lives. An Ecologist, Edward Osborne Wilson (1929–2021), argues that humans seek to connect with life subconsciously. He put forward the hypothesis “the innate tendency [in human beings] to focus on life and lifelike process” as the deep connection between human beings and other life forms and the whole nature is rooted in our inner biology (Wilson 1984). “Biophilia” is different from “biophobia,” which is what humans have in the environment (see Fig. 7.1).

Humans have had a longing for life since ancient times because death is an end. Therefore, environmental education is the pursuit of a kind of life education that is necessary to sublimate from life and learn through recognition. From the observation of the world, you must learn from all things, including the Book of Changes, I Ching. “It’s still,” “it’s easy to get through.”

After watching life normally, watching the sunset, watching the tide of the four seas; when our heartbeat is synchronized with the pulse of the earth before there is no induction and realization, it is, of course, solid and silent, but once we feel it like a big bell ringing up through the earth, the heavens, and the earth suddenly open up, to penetrate the principles of the things in the world.

Box 7.1: Case Analysis

Biophilia hypothesis vs. marine notes related to biophobia hypothesis.

In August 2002, I was lying on the pier deck of a small island on the Caribbean Sea, listening to the sound of the sea waves, the white sandy beach revealed the silver light of stars, the blue sea water full of indigo, and the silver light of the stars was also reflected at night. Occasionally, skyline lightning suddenly shocked the sea level, lighting up the clouds like the bride in June, bright and invisible, but it was just a glimpse of glory. Did not hear the rumbling of lightning, but only the breaking wave quietly rubbed his feet. The tide here is only tens of centimeters. The sound of the tide in the early morning, beating against the deck, is like a kitten chirping, sweet and gentle. Like the stars covered with oracles in the sky, it is as light as a shaker swaying under the wooden house.

The sky is full of stars, and the artificial satellites with dazzling yellow light confuse my understanding of the stars in the starry sky. The milky road in the sky spreads from the northeast to the southwest. Then, the meteor cross-country, shooting hundreds of millions of light-years of stars, and fell into the atmosphere, too late to make a wish. Heading north, The Big Dipper rotates in the northern sky. I like to look north, imagine the currents of the south, blow the north, and drift into the Gulf of Mexico. Then they parted ways, the ocean currents went downstream to Florida, meanwhile, the reverse currents went up to Mexico, the sea breeze blew the ears, and the distant coconut island was married under the light night sea breeze, tightly covering the sticky lingering and tenderness of summer. The sound of the seaside in the night always stirs the physical genes under the blood, as if the bloody light and shadow wiped out by the last night and the sunset, and then cast into another abyss in the distance.

I want to keep my thoughts still, but the heat of the day is still lingering in my brain, which stirs my centuries of thoughts, and then my emotions fly to the hundred-year taboo of the Caribbean Gulf of Mexico, the hurricane of the 1900s. It is said that a hundred years ago, torrential rain washed up a small isolated city in Texas, the big waves rolled up, and then the house was empty. That lone city never recovered, only staying on the small campus near the bay. It was a wild hurricane on the sea. After rising far away, it re-awakened the deep hatred on the seafloor. The stormy sea was staged at the same time 40 years ago. The wind and rain stormed, and all the island houses were involved in the sea waves. During the process, all the corals on the seafloor flipped. Tossed to the island and accumulated into fossil bones. The little girl on that island clung to the towering coconut palms on the island and waited for the dawn and calm after the storm, only 40 years later, with silver hair to express the fear of that year. Because of the multi-story high waves, the sleeping evil spirits deep in the ocean floor have been awakened, and the corals trapped in the ocean floor have been panic-stricken. After exchanging six houses, big waves sat down on the coral seabed with satisfaction and carried out large-scale sea-land exchange and remediation operations. Tonight, I can’t imagine that the sleeping ocean would be so irritated. I didn’t imagine that the periodic waves would be so appalling. Then, I started to be intimidated by the ocean. Although I did not like to wear a rescue suit during the day, I had already boldly dropped into the deep sea in a roll-back posture. After a circle, I raised my head and stepped on the waves. A circle of currents rides in the deep-sea water (Fig. 7.2a, b). I don’t know how long I can float and/or dive, so I dived into the depths of the coral and shook hands with the starfish. During the day, the waves shone deep into the bottom of the sea. The manatee and turtle grass wandered and wandered. I swam over the fan-shaped corals and greedily wanted to pick one. It is a small piece but the corals of bright red blood and the air become pale and bloodless skulls, and there is a smell in the air. I know that greed only happens on land, and greed should not be brought to the bottom of the sea. I hope forgiveness My recklessness allowed the broken corals to return to the sea to heal, so I returned the pale guilt after the bloody greed to the island and did not dare to bring it to the mainland, as always.

(Wei-Ta Fang, Belize, 2002, unpublished notes)

1.2 Teaching is the Half of Learning

Education is to promote the way of learning by teaching; this also discussed the final way of ultimate eternity in our daily lives. This will be served some kinds of personal reflection and the capability to observe quietly. Confucius (Master Kǒng; or commonly 孔子; Kǒngzǐ; c. 551–c. 479 BC) said in the Way of Ultimate:

The way of ultimate wisdom is the comprehension of absolute integrity, genial development of the common people, and endless pursuit of the perfection of humanities. Acknowledgment of such an ultimate terminus of trinity provides a focus; having a focus enables calmness; a calm demeanor brings about tranquility; a tranquil mind allows for clear deliberation; clear deliberation leads to the attainment of wisdom. There exist the fundamental and incidental, everything has a beginning and an end, knowing what comes first and after takes one closer to know the way.

Wisdom only when “focus, calmness, calm demeanor, tranquility, clear deliberation” are taken into consideration can he gain. We may remember three approaches, like “example education, precept education, and tacit education,” are indispensable in the ancient oriental rules, and the three are indispensable for environmental education from the process of “focus, calmness, calm demeanor, tranquility, and clear deliberation.” The Book of Rites Record (Liji) 《禮記:學記》said, “Take care of the questioner like a bell.” Also, said by the chapter Record on the subject of education in Liji:

However fine the viands are if one does not eat, he does not know their taste; however perfect the course maybe, if one does not learn it, be does not know its goodness. Therefore, when he learns, one knows his deficiencies; when he teaches, he knows the difficulties of learning. After he knows his deficiencies, one can turn round and examine himself; after he knows the difficulties, he can stimulate himself to the effort. Hence it is said, ‘Teaching and learning help each other;’ as it is said in the Charge to Yueh《兌命》, ‘Teaching is the half of learning.’

Therefore, the teacher treats the student like a “hanging bell.” The teacher itself is full and subtle (Fig. 7.3). If the student does not ask, then it depends on the student’s natural experience. If the student does not have any questions, then there is no induction; once the student sees all things in nature, the induction of the mind and the teacher’s detailed explanation like a bell rings and will sound like a big bell ringing—to make students suddenly cheerful. This is one of the crucial pedagogic approaches of oriental education (Fig. 7.4).

Moreover, a few western scholars are emphasizing this kind of spiritual induction for science education. All inductions do not necessarily lie in the psychological interaction between teachers and students, or even the interaction between animal teaching and the psychological level of students. The book entitled Children and Nature: Psychological, Sociocultural and Evolutionary Investigations by Kahn and Kellert (2004), the importance of using animals for education is emphasized, especially for animals that are comfortable with the presence/interaction with humans so that children can develop parenting relationships is explained. By observing and interacting with animals and plants in nature, we can develop the connection to nature/nature connectedness (Cheng and Monroe 2012).

It is important to appreciate and accept nature as important components of life and to strengthen nature relatedness, connectivity, and emotional affinity between humans and nature. In terms of cognitive composition, it strengthens the core of our natural connection and integrates humanity with nature. In terms of emotional composition, it strengthens personal care for nature (Uhlmann et al. 2018; Oh et al. 2020). Behaviorally, it strengthens personal commitment to protect the natural environment (Perkins 2010). In addition, animal appreciation can help children with autism disorders and strengthen the closed support system in the heart, which is a necessary condition to help humans maintain a healthy relationship with nature through life education.

Thus, the design of environmental education should be through the field design. In the field, having a living life provides environmental education materials. In 1998, the Environmental Protection Administration of the Executive Yuan (Taiwan EPA) invited the Ministry of Education, the Committee of Agriculture, and the Construction and Planning Agency (Taiwan CPA) to promote the ecological campus designed by one of the authors, Wei-Ta Fang. He believes that the concept of an ecological campus could be incorporated into course content using the materials in school gardens, such as aquatic plant areas, nectar plant areas, natural trails, nursery areas, and organic compost area. According to the concept of school environmental education, the eco-campus could use the materials “from cradle to grave in gardens. This would allow students see the circularity of water, good, and energy cycles. By growing vegetation and incorporating organic approaches to natural resource use and recycling, simple to complex food/ecological webs are created. Moreover, impacts to these ecosystems such as a lack of water, heat, and exposure to pathogens can illustrate the sensitivity of what we think are robust systems. This project was conducted through careful observation and children’s notes to strengthen the positive interactions between students and the campus’ natural resources to cultivate environmental awareness, such as acuity, care, respect, and a sense of attachment to environments that we often take for granted. The first ecological campus was built on the gardens at Yonghe Primary School, New Taipei City, in Taiwan: “Water area ecological area, bird watching area, butterfly-attracting area, woodland area, grassland area”. Since 2003, the Ministry of Education has promoted “The campuses of Water and Greenery”, and under the circumstances of social changes it’s continued to promote/support school environmental education in the “Green School Project.” It can be seen that the purpose of promoting an ecological garden-style project on green the campus is to provide teachers and students a place to teach and learn about nature education, ecological conservation, and to carry out the following school environmental education elements.

2 How Should I Learn?

2.1 School Environmental Education Should be a Practical-Learning

Environmental knowledge should be gained by implementing theory in real-life activities. In the field of school environmental education, teachers should teach or encourage students to feel the connection between themselves and nature, study environmental education on campus, and arrange formal teaching outside the school to provide students with opportunities to care and protect the living environment.

Therefore, the teaching content of school environmental education is not the installation of knowledge. Since ancient times, Eastern-style teachers have emphasized traditional teaching activities, using mechanical calculations and exercises to force students to learn conceptual knowledge of environmental protection; however, this is futile to be embedded mainly into various science subjects to implement a practical program to solve issues (Chapman and Sharma 2001; Parker et al. 2018; Tariq et al. 2020). In the United States, teachers generally focus on promoting the creative ability of students in the environment and the ability to inquire about environmental knowledge (Sternberg and Williams 1996; Sternberg and Davidson 2005). However, this may be universal though. This may be available equitably to applied to all educators who love universality about truth. Sternberg and Williams (1996) believed that “…Although few, if any, our students will become great artists.” The educator is based on maternal love based on the object-side of education is not the student, but first and foremost the thing that is studied in the classroom. Environmental educators love to teach in the particular while opening them to the universal—to learn from the universality in ecosystems. Students in Australian Universities tried to find toward open-ended, real life, and purposive inquiries from problem-based learning (PBL) (Thomas 2009). The diversity of environmental education learning curriculum activities not only helps students reflect and operate within the environment, but it helps provide a better understanding of the development of environmental protection processes and facilitate citizen discussion and participation. In the school environmental education, the basic concepts of the environmental education curriculum are met. You can teach in the environment, put students in the natural environment and observe environmental problems in person. Therefore, in addition to teaching environmental knowledge for students to observe and record these observations on their own, teachers should guide students to conduct field environmental analyses and comparisons. That is, encourage them to ask questions and build on concepts that are difficult to understand or test. To solve environmental issues, students need to participate in activities that are the subject of teaching and guiding students to think more critically, and to evaluate the data as part of the teaching process (Fig. 7.5).

Box 7.2: Case analysis

Nymphar shimadae Hayata cultivated on campus in Taiwan (Figs. 7.6, 7.7, 7.8 and 7.9).

In Taiwan, it is not difficult to cultivate Nuphar shimadae Hayata. Nuphar shimadae has a temperature requirement between 10 °C and 32 °C. However, if grown/maintained for a long time the growth rate water flow through a pond will slow.

Nymphae is an aquatic plant so where it needs to be well light. It’s best to plant Nymphae in a pool that can be directly exposed to sunlight and surrounded by woods. Only the light formed by the natural sunlight is enough to make the leaves of Nymphae grow aquatic leaves and flowers (Fig. 7.6). The demand for water quality and fertilizer is not as high as that of water lilies and Guanyin lotuses are commonly seen in the market. If it is cultivated in a pond, the fertilizer in general agricultural soil is sufficient. If it is cultivated in an aquarium, add a proper amount of comprehensive liquid fertilizer every week, and use root fertilizer every month, such as the general care method of waterweed, you can grow a beautiful nuptial grass. Then, we talked about the choice of symbiotic organisms. Because the young buds of Nymphae are particularly tender, they are a favorite food for herbivorous organisms. For example, grass carp and other organisms that eat the buds are not suitable for cultivation. Tilapia digs the bottom sand to build a nest during breeding. A large amount of overturning will cause the stems of Nymphae to be lifted. Therefore, it is necessary to carefully choose the organisms that symbiotic with Nymphae.

We are based on the four aspects of the “Three-year Implementation Plan for Strengthening School Environmental Education” issued by the Taiwan EPA of the Executive Yuan, including promoting school environmental management, implementing environmental teaching, promoting campus environmental protection, and providing environmental education facilities. The aforementioned content includes the planning and management of the learning fields, and in the aspect of teaching materials, promoting life-like environmental protection activities. In addition, according to the five aspects of the “Self-Checklist Green School Plans” including the aspects of life, campus, buildings and facilities, teaching and outreach activities, administrative management, and the characteristics of school environmental education, all need to be properly implemented teaching at an appropriate level. These teaching activities need to pay attention to the following:

2.1.1 Environmental Educators Need to Understand Their Audience

We can use simple and old examples, because of the change of concept, the graph of the new example is converted for a simple and understanding explanation.

2.1.2 Environmental Education Should Try to Minimize Scientific Jargon

For example, we often say “paradigm shift” in academics, but in practice, this is a proprietary scientific term that few people understand (Fisk 2019).

2.1.3 Teaching Using Various Methods

Use Microsoft presentation software (PowerPoint).
Use videos for playback.
Use lively hands-on activities.
Perform nature experiences off-campus.
Use citizen science surveys (Hsu et al. 2018; Chao et al. 2021).
Use social media for teaching.

2.1.4 Teaching Demonstration of Artificial Wetland on Campus and Outdoor Wetland0.0.2

Assist students to understand the role of wetlands in the carbon cycle and their role in mitigating climate change.
Emphasize the concept of water storage = sponge.
To teach the function of carbon sink in the coastal wetlands and/or reference wetlands of the inland (Otte et al. 2021), please do not use blue carbon, because this is scientific jargon.
Emphasize that this is a wildlife habitat (Fig. 7.10). Red-crowned waterfowl, mallards, and other waterfowl have been observed in the urbanized areas (Fang et al. 2020).
Fig. 7.10
Emphasize that this is a wildlife habitat. Red-crowned waterfowl, mallards, and other waterfowl have been observed on pond areas (Photo by Max Horng)
Full size image
Amphibians were observed.
Observe the diversity of vegetation.
Check the drainage holes of the artificial wetland.

2.1.5 Teachers Need to Understand the Content of Teaching Content

To teach students according to curriculum standards, teachers need to understand subject matter deeply and flexibly so they can help students create useful knowledge to understand.

2.1.6 School Environmental Education Work is Dedicated to Environmental Education

The roles and functions of environmental educators are like liaisons between school teachers and policymakers. School environmental education personnel must be interested in environmental affairs. In addition, they need to have the ability to communicate in the community, resist stress, and be environmentally literate (Fig. 7.11). Through the cultivation and certification of the school’s environmental education program by the Environmental Protection Agency of the Executive Yuan (Taiwan EPA), the liaison work of the resources, courses, and personnel of the school’s environmental education activities is integrated. In the environmental education teacher team, a team of environmental educators who support and cooperate is established. All school teachers in the team can obtain the qualification of environmental personnel through the certification of the Taiwan EPA.

For school teachers, textbooks in environmental education-related fields are the most important teaching resource, and the most obvious constraint they face most often. For students and parents, textbooks are the most important medium for understanding the content of school curricula (Westbury 1990). Therefore, according to the main characteristics of school curriculum content, teachers need to strengthen their vocational skills, conduct student interaction, and communicate with parents, including the following three aspects:

The teacher’s understanding of the subject content of the environmental-related field is especially the scope and topics to that teacher who often teaches the subject for promoting environmental education (Liu et al. 2015).
The teacher’s grasp and use of the content representation of the above-mentioned environmental-related fields, such as what form (analog, example, metaphor, illustration, and demonstration, etc.) is used to express the content of the subject are effective, most convincing, and most likely for students to understand.
The teachers understanding of environmental content learning and learners, such as students’ existing concepts, concepts before learning specific content, feeling easy or difficult concerning a certain content, whether it is easy to understand or misunderstand, and know what factors affect the student’s learning progress, so use the contact book for parent communication.

2.2 Social Environmental Education Should be an Adaptive Learning

If we say that school environmental education is formal environmental education, then social environmental education is non-formal environmental education. By definition, the term social environment refers to the education environment that is promoted through social interactions between social groups, teachers, families, and government agencies outside the school environment. An environmentally-friendly social environment helps foster positive peer relationships, generates good interactions between adults and children between generations, and provides adults with opportunities to support the achievement of their social goals.

We may define that adaptive learning should be sought to address differences in ability by targeting teaching practices that address the unique needs of an individual for citizens. Environmental education is fostering environmentally conscious citizens. In ancient Greece Aristotle started to promote social environmental education. From Jean-Jacques Rousseau to John Dewey, the progressive schools‘ movement started in the classroom and promoted nature studies and conservation education, and outdoor education-style social education. Fundamentally, social environmental education is a cross-disciplinary education. It draws on social and scientific studies and uses environmental protection as a model to further develop critical thinking and creativity. Creative thinking and integrated thinking can solve real environmental problems.

Therefore, in the process of cultivating environmentally conscious citizens, environmental education trains environmental citizens to compete in the global economy, has environmental protection skills, knowledge, and inclinations, can make wise choices, and exercise the rights and responsibilities of global citizens. To achieve this goal, social-environmental education must include the following:

2.2.1 Strengthen Affection Ability

Strengthen environmental sensitivity and environmental appreciation ability.

2.2.2 Strengthen Ecological Knowledge

Strengthen our understanding of major ecological concepts, including caring for individuals, species, ethnic groups, communities, ecosystems, and biogeochemical cycles.

2.2.3 Improve Socio-political Understanding

Strengthen our understanding how human cultural activities affect the environment, including an understanding of geography, history, and environmental aesthetics. In addition, regardless of the local, regional, and global environment, a sound global citizen should understand the interdependent relationship of economy, society, politics, and the ecological environment.

2.2.4 Strengthen the Basic Knowledge of Problem Occurrence

Strengthen social education needs to understand the knowledge of environmental issues.

2.2.5 Strengthen Skill Development for Environmental Protection and Analysis

Encourage the public to use information from primary and secondary sources for analysis, and strengthen the ability to synthesize and evaluate information on environmental issues.

2.2.6 Strengthening Personal Responsibility

Enable the public to understand the role of individuals and groups can strengthen the broad impact on society.

2.2.7 Strengthen Citizenship Skills and Strategies

Actively participate in social and environmental education activities. They are like participating in conferences, seminars, and work organized by international organizations, government agencies, or civil society organizations. Workshops and seminars can include events such as World Wetland Day on February 2nd, World Earth Day on April 22nd, and World Environment Day on June 5th as well as other commemorative activities. The following are the resource channels for social environmental education:

Learning using mass media: TV, radio, newspapers, magazines, social media, and digital information (information and communications technology, ICT tools) (Wals et al. 2014; Chao et al. 2020; Stagg et al. 2022).
Learning with social and educational institutions: Visiting museums, zoos, expositions, bird gardens, botanical gardens, planetariums, science education centers, local cultural centers, cultural parks/houses, nature education centers, tourist attractions, scenic areas, conservation area, aquarium, and national park (Fig. 7.12).
Fig. 7.12
Officers and visitors also can learn with social and educational institutions at the Endemic Species Research Institute, Council of Agriculture, Jiji, Nantou, Taiwan (Photo by Wei-Ta Fang)
Full size image

3 Environmental Learning Center Should be Suitable for the Best Quality Education

We understand that six basic elements influence the quality of education as a high-quality learning environment, such as: (1) The teacher and teaching methods; (2) Educational content; (3) Learning environment; (4) Place management; (5) Preconditions for pupils; and (6) Funding and organization. In the curriculum of a school’s environmental education program including the non-formal curriculum associated with social environmental education, a type of environmental learning center forms where teachers can lead students to the outdoors to develop a student’s environmental literacy. The environmental learning center is a place where environmental educators, students can congregate. It’s also a symbol of the effectiveness of environmental education in a region. In the United States, a nature center usually displays small living animals, such as insects, reptiles, rodents, or fish. Therefore, the nature center also has a museum exhibition and has the function of displaying natural history. However, a domestic Environmental Education Center may have a wider range of exhibitions. In addition, the difference between an Environmental Education Center and a Nature Center is that museum exhibitions and educational course activities commonly require appointments (Figs. 7.13 and 7.14). However, many international nature areas and university campuses can provide self-directed learning without a prior appointment (Figs. 7.15 and 7.16).

3.1 Features of Environmental Learning Center Implementation

An Environmental Learning Center teaches people to experience nature and establish a relationship with nature and the environment (Figs. 7.17, 7.18 and 7.19). The function of research and learning of environmental education and school environmental education can be:

3.1.1 Have Hardware and Software Facilities and Personnel

Own land, building reductions and simplified hardware facilities, perfect activity plans; and paid full-time professional staff, as well as unpaid volunteer support.

3.1.2 Independently Operating Legal Organization Entity

It is a legally independent entity operated by a team with a clear vision of ecological conservation, education, and rehabilitation. Although some centers allow free admission, small donations are encouraged to help offset expenses.

3.1.3 Professional Employees with Salary

To strengthen the breadth and depth of tourism, combined with the training of local commentators, create local employment opportunities through the principle of professional salary cooperation. Because these professional local employees not only have a good understanding of the local human environment, geographical landscape, and the climatic and safety conditions that must be paid attention to when interpreting services.

3.2 Participatory Learning at the Environmental Learning Center

Environmental education is a process that advances with time. Through dialogue with educators, we identified five factors that are typical characteristics of symbolic and substantive participatory learning in the twenty-first century (Loh 2010).

3.2.1 Authenticity

Understanding the learner’s identity, interests, and relevance of the curriculum can develop professional knowledge.

3.2.2 Creativity

Environmental education is a creative space for developing professional knowledge (Fig. 7.20). Therefore, participatory learning needs to improve learners’ motivation, creativity, and lively participation through environmentally meaningful games and experimental activities.

3.2.3 Co-configured Expertise

Based on the professional knowledge jointly configured by teachers and learners, the teachers and learners collectively integrate the skills and knowledge of environmental protection and share the tasks of teaching and learning. You should learn to let go.

3.2.4 Motivation and Engagement

Educators teach learners to use a variety of media, tools, and practical methods to use lively and interesting teaching methods to motivate participation and expand opportunities for creating and solving problems, such as through the carbon footprint calculations to discuss how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

3.2.5 Learning Ecosystem

Learning the ecological environment based on an integrated learning system can promote and encourage environmental connections between individuals, families, schools, communities, and the world. The structure of the environmental learning center is to show the interconnection between these five different aspects, which can be interdependent and complementary at the same time.

4 Learning Plans Toward Sustainability

Environmental learning centers are not the same as nature conservation areas because the purpose of setting up an environmental learning center is to emphasize the function of education in addition to conservation. At the same time, they shoulder social responsibility, educate local school students, parents and children, and the public, and take care of the local environment. The environmental learning center is an important field for the development of environmental education and the provision of resource services.

4.1 Program of Environmental Learning Center

4.1.1 Formal Education

The school’s class cooperates with the Nature Center to run environmental protection or natural ecology summer camp. Leading or co-sponsored off-school teaching or summer activity courses are part of the school’s formal education curriculum.

4.1.2 Non-formal Education

Parents participate in outdoor or indoor activities organized by the government, colleges, parenting classes, homeschool classes. These activities include science camps, field visits, ecotourism, food education, visits to other educational facilities or outdoor recreational activities. These are short-term courses without credits or non-school activities (Figs. 7.21, 7.22, 7.23, 7.24, 7.25 and 7.26).

The use of community-developed natural centers for the participation of surrounding residents and school teachers and students can enhance local environmental awareness and strengthen local emotional connections. The center of nature must act as a bridge between parent-child and nature. Using the theory of experiential learning, Kolb (1981, 2005) summarized empirical learning. The empirical learning mode reinforces the learning of practical experience, allowing learners to learn about environmental phenomena, discover natural mysteries, and gain spiritual growth and inspiration from different cultures (Joy and Kolb 2009). By directly comprehending and mastering skills through experience or by indirectly understanding the experience represented by symbols, you can transform thinking into learning theory and the learning style inventory (Kolb 1981, 2005). Finally, based on internal reflection, one can strengthen external action capabilities and understand the importance of environmental protection.

4.2 Course Content of the Environmental Learning Center

For the Nature Center to be able to implement curriculum programs with environmental education content and local environmental content, it needs to use different teaching strategies based on different age groups, objects, and make the overall teaching program run more smoothly to achieve the teaching goals. Therefore, the contents of the environmental education curriculum plan should include the following:

4.2.1 Environmental Learning Goals

The purpose of environmental education is for to learners acquire knowledge and action ability to improve the environment. Therefore, the environmental education teaching goals should include awareness, knowledge, affective level (environmental ethics), civic activity skills, and citizens‘ experience in active participation as the main axis of development

Awareness is the ability to feel and respond to the environment. For example: “I feel the current situation of global warming.”
Knowledge is to assist learners with the ability to understand the operation of nature, learn the interaction between humans and the environment, and understand the basic operation of the natural environment. For example: “the cause of global warming and the problem of carbon emissions.”
Environmental ethics will assist learners to develop values and ethics for the environment. For example: “If I know that carbon emissions are too high, can I stop driving, sell my car, and take public transportation in Taipei?” Said one of the authors Wei-Ta Fang. The answer is yes.
Citizen action skills are required to assist learners conduct surveys, prevent environmental pollution, and seek action to resolve environmental issues. For example: “Do I have a way to calculate my carbon footprint?”
Citizen action experience will assist learners to improve environmental awareness, knowledge, attitudes, and action skills, and invest in environmental protection, prevent excessive carbon footprint, and explain their experience in solving environmental issues and problems. For example: “After I sold my car if I knew how to calculate carbon emissions, I started to take public transportation, and I would calculate how much carbon footprint I could reduce during the year, to reduce collective pollution caused by air pollution from non-point sources,” said by Wei-Ta Fang. In addition, we (the authors) preached a simple life of energy-saving and carbon reduction, and lived a daily life without a TV, private car, and locomotive in the family, and exempted the karmic forces from the use of cars and locomotives to generate carbon emissions from transportation), This is a kind of environmental protection action generated by good intentions.

Box 7.3: Learning and celebration at Dr. Hungerford’s residence.

Harold R. Hungerford (1928–) taught at the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale (SIUC). He was in science and education topics, such as Teacher Education, Teaching Methods, Educational Technology, Higher Education, Language Education (Fig. 7.27).

4.2.2 Environmental Education Issues into School-Based Curriculum

Environmental education is integrated learning. Therefore, the curriculum cooperates with the surrounding environment, activities, and atmosphere to allow students achieve their educational goals. A school-based curriculum helps students achieve their learning and educational goals. Measures that schools can take include readjusting learning goals, changing the organization of teaching content, conducting optional studies, and conducting teaching assessment strategies. Therefore, the school-based curriculum is the result of a balance between the curriculum issued by the Ministry of Education and the autonomy of schools and teachers.

4.2.3 Interpretation of Environmental Education

Interpretation is the process of conveying information. It meets people’s needs and curiosity through the transmission of information. In the process of arranging the tour experience, it uses different media, including speeches, tours, displays, practices, and pictures to develop a new understanding of environmental issues. The narration function includes information, communication, guidance, service, education, propaganda, art, entertainment, inspiration, and business promotion roles.

4.2.4 Purpose of the Narration Plan

The purpose of the narration program is to assist learners to understand the learning activities and use teaching resources wisely. It can be integrated with environmental resource, land use, and related plans to create a low-intensity environmental impact design, create an environmental learning center that is integrated with local ecology, and uses suitable commentary media to integrate various environmental and ecological characteristics.

4.2.5 Interpretation Object

Interpretation services are mainly to provide learners with relevant information and help learners to choose a variety of experience activities to obtain a high-quality learning experience.

4.2.6 Interpretation Media

The explanation methods can be distinguished through different types of media (Table 7.1).

Table 7.1 Interpretation media of an environmental education center)

Full size table

Self-guided narration (non-personal narration): Through self-guided narration facilities, the narration is performed through placards, displays, publications, audiovisual media, and self-guided trails.
Guided commentary (personal commentary): Consultant services, live tours, special lectures, and performances (Fig. 7.28). Such communication is two-way, and the content and methods can be adjusted in the interpretation process at the appropriate time, and timely responses can be made.
Fig. 7.28
Assembly photos. Consultant services, live tours, and live performances with commentator commentary guided explanations are conducted in the form of personnel explanations from self-guided narration (non-personal narration) to guided commentary (personal commentary) at outdoor activities (top: Yoro Tribe, Jianshi, Hsinchu, Taiwan; bottom: Sanxia, New Taipei City, Taiwan) (Photo by Max Horng)
Full size image

4.3 Educational Interpretation Plan

Because the learning center has various zones, activities and environmental conditions are different, so a variety of interpretation services are provided in different activities as shown in Tables 7.2 and 7.3.

Table 7.2 Interpretation plan)

Full size table

Table 7.3 The displays of explanation facilities)

Full size table

4.3.1 Ecotourism Commentary

Animal and plant knowledge: For example, explain the ecology of frogs in Taomi Village, Puli, Nantou, Taiwan;
Aesthetic knowledge: For example, explain the primitive features of a tribal community, such as slate houses, wooden structures, south island trunk-type buildings.
History, geography, literature, architecture, religion, folklore, and other knowledge. For example, when conducting an ecological tour in Taiwan’s aboriginal tribal areas with ecological characteristics, you can explain the local history and culture, such as in Taiwan: Hsinchu’s Qalang Smangus of the Atayal history (Fang et al. 2016), Miaoli’s Nanzhuang of the Saisiyat history, Hualien’s Fata’an of the Amis history in wetland culture, the slate house construction of the Paiwan’s history. In Sabah, Malaysia, you can find and see different aboriginal tribes of Malays, Bajau, Dusun Lotud, Kadazandusun, Cocos, and Murut live in different regions (Fig. 7.29).
Fig. 7.29
Assembly photos. Here are few photos of different ethnics wearing their colorful dress, found and live in Sabah. They are Malays, Bajau, Dusun Lotud, Kadazandusun, Cocos, and Murut, captured during different occasion of cultural exhibitions (Photos by Arba’at Hassan)
Full size image

They can be found in Semporna, Tuaran, Penampang, Sandakan, and Keningau. Sabah has more than 33 ethnic tribes, each with a different culture and language.

4.3.2 Commentary During Travel and Study

Understanding the scenery and points of interest between locations being visited.

4.3.3 Opportunity Commentary on Accommodation Resources

Meal commentary: For environmentally friendly local specialties, food education can be conducted (Fig. 7.30). For example, you can explain the location of the environment in which it is produced and design the menu with features such as health, freshness, hygiene, and price.
Fig. 7.30
Food education can be conducted with the indigenous tribes. Fishing and prey are mainly the sources of food, such as wild boar, deer, and goat wrapped by bamboo leaves at Tayal culture (Photo by Max Horng)
Full size image
Accommodation explanation: Emphasizes the characteristics of eco-friendly hotel accommodations, including location, scale, facilities, room size, specifications, and types, all of which meet the accommodation requirements set by the relevant regulations of the surrounding environment of the ecotourism location.

4.4 Teaching Activity Strategy

The choice of an explanation strategy must be based on the content and goals of the course. It was found that the narrative questioning method only improved environmental knowledge; however, the role-playing method (Gao et al. 2009) improved environmental knowledge, sensitivity, attitudes, internal control views, and environmental actions (Worth and Book 2014; Gordon and Thomas 2018).

Our strategy for integrating teaching activities is suggested to be applied flexibly to the commentary activities:

4.4.1 Music, Dance or Drama

The teaching content is presented in the form of music, dance or theater performance.

4.4.2 Role-Playing

Use role-playing to stimulate learners’ understanding of environmental issues and teaching content.

4.4.3 Lecture or Movie Viewing

Hire a professional to give a direct lecture on a specific topic or teach through film watching.

4.4.4 Appreciation or Writing of Poetry

Use the appreciation of new poems and the writing of various poem styles to let learners show their feelings about environmental issues and problems.

4.4.5 Teaching of Cartoons and Pictures

Encourage learners to learn about the environment through interesting patterns, and use the pictures to discuss issues.

4.4.6 Guided Meditation

Allow learners to calm down and feel and think about the relationships and status of the environment through meditation.

4.4.7 Games

In addition to helping learners have novel feelings about the course activities, they can also learn about knowledge, attitudes or skills on specific environmental issues.

4.4.8 Values and Attitudes

Through diagrams, reading and listening, etc., to help learners recognize their values, and help them think and build positive environmental values and attitudes.

5 Learning

Environmental learning involves the social, physical, psychological, and cultural factors experienced by the learner, which will then affect the student’s ability to learn. The assessment of environmental learning requires the determination of knowledge, attitudes, and practices, whether sustainable development is integrated into the overall teacher’s readiness to assess integrated education, and whether it has been incorporated into the teaching and learning stages (Norizan 2010:41).

5.1 Triadic Reciprocal Determinism Explores the Dependence of Teachers and Students

Environmental sociologist Albert Bandura (1925–2021) proposed the theory of social cognition in the 1960s, which produced a connection between behaviorism and cognition. Bandura proposed the theory of social cognition in 1986, stating that “all behaviors are based on the psychological needs of satisfying feelings, emotions, and desires.” Social cognitive theory is based on the idea that humans learn by observing others. This can only happen if the individual recognizes behavior and environmental factors that are conducive to learning. Human pre-set behaviors allow them to attach to anything that exists at a critical period of social development. After this attachment period, as children grow up, they will learn to imitate teachers, peers, and siblings to solve problems. These cognitive activities are carried out not only through thinking but also through social and emotional connections. Therefore, Bandura’s social learning theory (Bandura 1977) has expanded into a comprehensive theory of human motivation and action, by analyzing cognitive, vicarious, self-regulatory, and self-reflective processes in psychosocial function (Bandura 1986).

Bandura first proposed the argument of reciprocal determinism on the social basis of thought and action (Bandura 1986). Figure 7.31 we call Triadic Reciprocal Determinism (TRD). In short, ternary reciprocity determinism can be explained as people think, believe, and feel, which then affects their behavior. Conversely, the natural and external effects of human behavior determine their thinking patterns and emotional responses.

Therefore, social-emotional learning increases reduces the slow response of learning. In social cognitive learning theoretical models, behavioral factors affect environmental factors, and environmental factors affect behavioral factors. Environmental factors influence personal factors (cognitive, emotional, and other biological habits). Personal factors are also affected by behavior. Therefore, all factors are interconnected and interact to enable learning in the environment. Humans can use plans and elaborate the learning environment needed to trigger a response through behavioral changes and personal factors, and then strengthen the resilience of their learning (Fig. 7.32). In situations where peers learn together, the process by which teachers evoke personal and behavioral responses through teaching is called situational inducement. If the learning situation is tense and the learner is slow, then they will stop learning in the environment. Remember that the three aspects of social cognitive theory must work together to create a favorable learning environment. In addition, if context induction induces a high-stress response, then the attachment relationship between teachers and learners is broken, the teacher-student relationship is affected, and the learning context begins to deteriorate.

5.2 Strengthen Voluntary Environmental Learning Behaviors

The goals of social cognitive and attachment theory are for teachers to accompany students, let students know where teachers are, and what positive feedback they provide (McLeod 2009). Students should think that teachers can be trusted not because the teacher has the authority to reward and punish, but because the teacher’s relationship has received the following three major feedback phenomena. Behaviorist advocate Edward Lee Thorndike (1874–1949) summarizes three major laws of “trial and error”:

5.2.1 Law of Effect

In the process of learner trial and error, if other conditions are equal, and after a specific response in the learning situation, a satisfactory result can be obtained, the connection relationship will be strengthened; if unhappy results are obtained As time goes by, its connection is weakened.

5.2.2 Practice Law

In the process of trial and error learning, the connection of any stimulus and response, once practiced, the strength of the connection will gradually increase; if not, the strength of the connection will gradually decrease.

5.2.3 The Law of Preparation

In the trial and error learning process, when the connection between stimulus and response has a state of preparation beforehand, if the learning is realized, you will be satisfied, otherwise you will be troubled; otherwise, when this connection is not When you are ready to implement, you will feel annoyed if you do. Therefore, the “try-and-error” learning model is still very useful for human learning.

It is recommended that teachers can give some easier homework to strengthen positive promotion in the promotion of attachment statement, affective statement, and arousal statement (Fig. 7.33). As a result, students have more confidence to continue their studies.

5.3 Learning Through Different Types of Learning Methods

In deep environmental education and learning, you can use multiple methods such as decision analysis, analysis of dilemma, value clarification, problem solving, false test, role-playing, game simulation, outdoor teaching, and group discussion (Zipko 1980; Errington 1991; Wheeler 2006; Raymond 2010; Fang et al. 2017).

Eco-environmental education is a “conceptual experience” that allows learners to study and understand the relationship between learning resources and the environment. The process of learning is through the skills learned in school, linking to the predetermined learning goals and the real needs of environmental protection, the use of focused thinking methods, coordination and problem-solving skills, concern for social impact, environmental pollution, ecological destruction, and other diverse issues. In the process of developing interpreters, it is necessary to set up internship courses for field activities. Based on experience, understanding, and appreciation of nature as the learning focus, through an in-depth understanding of outdoor ecology and cultural assets, students are trained to understand the ways of acting as ecological commentators. The integration and guidance of environmental education activities, the development of interpretive education in environmental learning centers.

In the course of the narrator’s development, narration training is conducted through McGuire’s Information Processing Theory (McGuire 1968). McGuire believes that there are three stages of information reception: “attention → understanding → acceptance.” These three stages developed into six stages in the 1960s, and behavior changed due to “attention → understanding → acceptance.”

McGuire later proposed 12 steps in 1989 to explain the factors that influence behavior, including:

(1)
Contact information;
(2)
Pay attention to the information;
(3)
Like or become interested in the information;
(4)
Understanding the message (what can be learned?);
(5)
Skill acquisition (learn how to operate);
(6)
Convincing message (change of attitude);
(7)
Storage/consent of memory contents;
(8)
Information search and retrieval;
(9)
Making decisions based on retrieval;
(10)
The behavior is consistent with decision-making;
(11)
Strengthen ideal behavior;
(12)
Strengthening after behavior.

The 12-point arguments advocated by McGuire focused on the psychological and behavioral aspects of “message → behavior,” but the preaching is too strong and cannot explain non-informative education methods (McGuire 1968). In the information processing to learn in environmental education (McGuire 2006; 2015), “cognition, affection,” in addition, to explaining the sources of rational “cognition and skills” experience from behavioral change (Fig. 7.34), the emotional experience is lacking insensibility.

The learning process of environmental education should cover three aspects: rationality, emotion, and ultimate care. They evaluated the university’s environmental general courses to place too much emphasis on the teaching content of the cognitive domain, but the teaching goals of the affective domain and the action domain did not receive enough attention, because most of the courses did not improve students’ affective environmental literacy and environmental action (Fang et al. 2018; Liang et al. 2018).

Emotional experience is the psychological and physical state that the learner traces back after studying in the nature center. The process of tourism activities includes “Expectation-Outbound-Travel-Return-Recall” and other parts. In the “emotional experience,” learners must learn to experience the environment with their hearts. This feeling is not something that can be experienced by looking at flowers. When the environment permits, the learner must carry travel notes and even make records with images, and use audiovisual equipment, such as telescopes, cameras, voice recorders, and video cameras, to leave landscapes and people in nature.

When the learner records all the situations as much as possible, they record the fact sheet with their own interpretation of their observation experience and realizes the experience of invisible mountains and forests in a mood of caring for the environment. In tourism learning, Gossling (2006) used a simple coordinate to show the difference between ecological learning and mass tourism. With an “unpleasant” feeling, he showed that the experience of mass tourism is too superficial. In addition, hurried behavior cannot produce the joyful feeling of deep experience (Gossling 2006:93). Gosling believed that only by a deep and slow appreciation of nature’s pulse and breathing can one enjoy the pleasure of reading the landscape pleasure. “Reading ecology” is like flipping through a good book, you can get the deepest baptism and feast in the soul.

6 Information Transmission

Looking at the evolution of social science from the perspective of environmental education information transmission, if the amount of information generated by an environmental social event is determined by the degree of social impact it can bring. In other words, the lower the frequency of social and environmental events the larger the impact of information will occur.

Take personal reception as an example. The value of information depends on the degree of accident caused by the impact of information. If the degree of accident is higher, it means that the individual finds that it is inconsistent with the original block impression. The change will be greater.

Box 7.4: Case Analysis: Strengthen from unknown information we need to discover

Let’s take Taoyuan farm ponds, Taiwan, as an example (Fig. 7.35). Compared to the past 100 years, the temperature in Taipei has increased by 2 °C and Taichung has increased by 2.3 °C.

The temperature in the Taoyuan farm ponds area has not increased. The cooling effect of farm ponds is equivalent to sun-moon lake. Using data from the Central Weather Bureau, the temperature in Taoyuan has not changed much, but the fluctuations are severe. Based on the 100-year temperature record from Taichung, we can predict that the temperature in Taichung will rise from 23.9 °C in the next century, at least to 26.2 °C in a hundred years. Because we know that we can almost survive by rising 1, 2, and 3 °C, there are only a few more typhoons and heavy rain. When it rises to 6 °C, the whole world will be in trouble.

“So, why does Taoyuan have so many ponds?”

About 20,000 years ago, an earthquake subsided in the Taipei Basin. The ancient Danshui River led the entire river from the ancient Shimen River to the Taipei Basin. The river in the Taoyuan platform became a beheaded river, so there was no source of irrigation water. Without irrigation water, development is relatively slow. From the past, Zimuliu (知母六), an aboriginal official of the Qing Dynasty (清朝), led the Hans to dig the first pond, Longtan Big Pond 274 years ago from 1748 to 2022. Later, the Taoyuan terraces have gradually continued. There are thousands of ponds (see Fig. 7.36). In the past, the ponds were accounted for about 11.8% of the total area of the Taoyuan Tableland. Now the land area is only accounts for 3.8%, and almost 90% of the pond area has disappeared.

“So, how do we do rehabilitation?”

In 2003, we hoped to restore Nuphar shimadae, so we also dug some ponds for re-cultivation. We found that the pond have some collective memories (Chao et al. 2021). The pond can provide leisure, fishing, biodiversity, and another function preserving Hakka culture (Fig. 7.37). Hakka culture is farming on sunny days and reading on rainy days, so the Hakkas are very hardworking people. The Hakka nationality also has the culture of building a Pavilion of Cherish the Words under the atmosphere of reading, so talking about culture here has far-reaching significance to tradition.

However, the government revised the law in 2016 because Article 95, paragraph 1, of the Electricity Act stipulates that nuclear review will be abolished in 2025. The government is hobbling on a road to a non-nuclear homeland and energy transition. Under the hasty and blind planning, it has been declared that 20% of the country’s energy will be renewable. However, under the green energy policy, renewable energy conflict with the saltpans and wetland ecosystems in southern Taiwan. Many projects occupy 70% of saltpans. As of 2018, Taoyuan City occupies 17 larger ponds in Taoyuan to build photovoltaic panels and may be continued to build in the future (Song et al. 2018).

Compound semiconductor thin-film solar cells used in solar photovoltaic panels are composed of four raw materials: copper (Cu), indium (In), gallium (Ga), and selenium (Se). Because the aforementioned elements have good light absorption capacity, high power generation stability, high conversion efficiency, and high overall power generation, solar photovoltaic panels will infiltrate substances such as selenium (Se), gallium (Ga), indium (In), and thallium (Tl). After years of embroidery of the photovoltaic panel, toxic metals will seep into the water of the farm ponds, polluting the water source of the city. Because farmers raise fish in farm ponds, harvesting in June every year, a large number of fish in farm ponds could be entered the fish market for sale, forming carcinogens that are harmful to the human body.

This case tells us that because Taoyuan Farm ponds is a wintering area for birds in winter (Hsu et al. 2019), after a large-scale survey of the birds in the ponds from 2003 to 2019, at least one hundred species of birds were discovered in the birds. In 45 ponds, at least 15,053 birds are found every four months in winter (Figs. 7.38 and 7.39).

In addition, the number of birds has been calculated to be zero in the area where the 9 photovoltaic ponds in Taoyuan are installed. After ecological damage, winter birds in the Taoyuan Farm Ponds, including ducks, have no longer been able to use the photovoltaic ponds (Fig. 7.40).

In addition, the electricity generated by photovoltaic panels are and transmission to the urban areas is far. Moreover, as is the case with transmission systems the loss and waste of electricity are substantial (Wu et al. 2016a, b). In addition, photovoltaic panels are not efficient in the energy conversion process; the efficiencies of compound semiconductors were estimated to be 28% as a solar energy conversion process from Oxford Photovoltaics (PV) reports in UK (Paleocrassas 1975; Ross and Hsiao 1977; Extance 2019), and during the rainy season in northern Taiwan, power generation is limited (Shih et al. 2016). Because the floating photovoltaic power plant covered part of the pond surface (Su and Lo 2021; Hsiung 2022), the proposed optimization model could only reach up to 15.1% in hydro-floating photovoltaic power output (Zhou et al. 2020). The installation of PV on fish ponds may have a moderate negative impact on fish production, due to a reduction in dissolved oxygen levels (Château et al. 2019). In addition, the release of the heavy metals from the panels into the farm ponds (Fabini 2015), create environmental and human health problems, entering humans through the food chain and affecting the safety of the lives and property of the residents in Taoyuan.

We know that environmental education has a long way to go. The green or renewable energy banner may be as meaningless as clean coal. We should be focused on finding renewable energy sources, but it can’t be at the expense of the environment. Environmental education and educators now have the difficult task of educating stakeholders on the negative impacts of renewable sources of energy on the environment (see Fig. 7.41), especially at a time when the public has been told renewable energy will solve many of our problems, including climate change.

6.1 Learning Interface for Information Transfer

Environmental education is a teaching approaches that transmits environmental information from the source to another, while exchanging/moving information. The dynamic interaction of three elements in the process of environmental education information transmission: learner, domain/expert, and intermediate medium of instructional model is presented in Fig. 7.42. The “reappearance” and interpretation of the significance of environmental education that academia pays attention to needs to be based on the definition of the feedback generator and action assessor for an intrinsic value in self-revelation (Cohen 1983).

Learning environmental education issues through the interface of the learning environment requires integration of relevant courses, including integration of environmental education issues into thematic and multi-disciplinary courses. The basic laws of environmental information transmission need to be defined. The main points are as follows:

6.1.1 Planning Arrangement

Planned commentary: Guided commentary according to the needs, time, and location of the ecological learner.
Arrange in advance: Consider the time and space conditions in the explanation, and make proper arrangements in advance.
Proficiency in knowledge: Perseverance in collecting local materials and ecological stories, reading and studying how to apply them.
˜Memorize numbers: When explaining the age, area, height, and length, you should say the numbers.

6.1.2 On-site Mastery

Flexible and flexible: the explanation varies from person to person, according to time, and according to local conditions. Adjust the content of the commentary promptly in different seasons, climates, occasions, and atmospheres.
Projection of sight: When conducting an ecological explanation, the sight should be directed to each learner who is listening.
Modest tone: Avoid using inappropriate words such as “education” and “you” to avoid discomfort to the listener.
Moderate tone: Do not speak too fast or too slowly when speaking, and whisper in the wild to avoid disturbing the quiet habitat of wild animals.
Explain clearly: The ecological explanation should be detailed and clear, and should not be omitted deliberately, but it should be simple and concise, not overly verbose.
Positive interaction: Let learners express their thoughts or opinions promptly.
Collective action: Pay special attention to the safety of learners, and traffic and accidents are strictly prohibited.

6.2 The Transfer Process

In environmental communication, the processing of information is structured to influence and control each other, resulting in complex interaction results. In a complex system, the state of balance and change will occur between different input and output situations. In the system, each part depends on another and is also limited by it. In addition, feedback loops and self-regulating loops are often part of such a system and have a non-linear relationship. The system also strengthens the situation by receiving input, processes the teaching process, produces and outputs results, and interacts with the environment. For example, the results of teaching can create job opportunities, establish growth and satisfaction situations. In the process of information transmission, simpler systems can be embedded into more complex systems.

The impact of environmental communication is also discussed based on phenomenological methods. The basic assumption is that human beings understand the world and the meaning is derived from direct experience of phenomena. Therefore, phenomenology has the following three principles:

6.2.1 Knowledge is Created by Direct Experience

It could be learned with the world under conscious experience.

6.2.2 The Meaning of Things is Connected with the Underlying Factors of Personal Life

Things have a strong potential influence on life and will give more important meaning. Therefore, meaning is directly related to function.

6.2.3 Convey Meaning from Language

Therefore, the experience of channeling knowledge is created by the language channel.

Through the process of interpretation, the world is constructed by individuals. Such an interpretation is an active process of the mind, with the characteristics of fluctuating back and forth between states of experience, and the meaning given to world experience.

This process is also called the hermeneutic cycle. We first experience something, then we interpret and give meaning, then from the next experience to another test, re-interpretation, and so on. The greater the cognitive impact on an individual, the greater the cognitive change and re-interpretation. Make thought corrections.

Box 7.6: Case Analysis: Climate Warming

The importance of phenomenology to environmental communication lies in the great impact on personal experience. For example, half of Americans, often see climate warming as an “abstract phenomenon” that is difficult to connect with personal experience. That is because the continental United States of America (USA) is so vast that it cannot feel the actual pressure of climate change (Karl et al. 1996; Eckstein et al. 2021). The increase of the Global Conflict Risk Index (GCRI) is not large enough to unequivocally. The Long-Term Climate Risk Index (CRI) from the top three countries most affected from 2000 to 2019 should be listed as Puerto Rico, Myanmar, and Haiti, respectively (Eckstein et al. 2021).

For example, Hurricane Maria was devastated the northeastern Caribbean in September 2017, particularly Dominica, Saint Croix, and Puerto Rico, and Haiti. It is regarded as the worst natural disaster in recorded history to affect those islands (Zorrilla 2017). Regarding to the worst natural disasters, however, many teachers from Florida and Puerto Rico Secondary School in science could be held naïve views about climate change (e.g. that ozone layer depletion is a primary cause of climate change) and, poor idea of climate change science before Hurricane Maria hits (e.g. that it must be based on controlled experiments for it to be valid)(Herman et al. 2017). Rafael et al. (2021), however, surveyed citizens with general knowledge of global climate change increased from 43 to 62%, before and after an extreme weather event, specifically Hurricane Maria. Puerto Ricans trust non-profit institutions and the scientific community more than state authorities. After Hurricane Maria hits, citizens increased trust in the scientific community (Rafael et al. 2021). The question is: How can we taught knowledge without direct experience with the world under conscious experience relying as it does on relational values (Reid 2019)? As Karl et al. (1996) noted, the increase of the Global Conflict Risk Index (GCRI) is not large enough to quite significant in a practical sense from American.

According to Yu et al. (2020), the students with lower levels of knowledge were significantly more likely to find uncertainties related to climate change to be a greater obstacle to engaging in pro-environmental behaviors. As lived in one of the island nations, Taiwanese people believe in climate change because the island is small and experience several typhoons in a year. The area of Taiwan cannot be compared to the States of the East Coast of the United States that experience multiple hurricanes every year. Might be we need to go way to put the country size and beliefs into context to compared to all island nations. These impacts in our studies include the negative environmental information transmitted by global climate change, and Taiwan islanders are more likely to have negative connections. In other words, phenomenology also emphasizes the relevance of the individual to information generation from risk perception and response toward climate change (Yu et al. 2020).

When human beings consider environmental issues to be related to themselves, because of the disaster brought about by climate change, they have a negative impact, then human beings are more convinced of the fact of climate change. In addition, typhoon-affected households living in the immediate vicinity will be more empathetic than humans or ecosystems in distant countries that have been affected by hurricanes or tsunamis.

We feel that the empathy of the typhoon victims will be stronger than that of the tsunami victims. This is because of the typhoon for Taiwan residents, the frequency and intensity of the correlation are quite large. Therefore, environmental phenomena are affected by personal experience and personal exposure scenarios. In addition, human beings have a learning connection with environmental disasters that “this is the impact of climate change.” These concepts are deeply entrenched and cannot easily be changed by the once and twice information transmission. This is also the main focus of environmental education that we can extract from phenomenological theoretical conventions.

6.3 Capacity Building

Capacity building is a concept of behavior change. In the realization that we will understand the obstacles to environmental development goals and measure the results that can achieve sustainable development, environmental education capacity building is the process by which individuals acquire environmental protection knowledge, attitudes, and skills development. In the process of environmental education capacity building, many organizations explain the connotation of community capacity building in their own way. The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction defines capacity development in the field of disaster risk reduction (DRR) as: “the process by which humans develop their capabilities through the systematic organization of society.” This process is effective to achieve social and economic goals, including improving knowledge, skills, systems, and institutional social and cultural environments. Below we distinguish between capacity building as community capacity building and individual capacity building.

6.3.1 Community Capacity Building

The first international organization to talk about community capacity building was the United Nations Development Programme. Since the 1970s, the United Nations Development Program has provided fundraising for the construction of training centers, contact visits to the Third World, construction of offices for local talent cultivation, on-the-job training,, and consulting services. In the process of capacity building, the country’s financial resources, manpower, science and technology, organizational system, and resource management are used. The goal is to solve problems related to national policies and development directions while taking into account the constraints and needs of human development in national development. However, the formation strategy of the third world country’s development capacity building model requires an independent model. Because once the UN funds are stopped, self-funding must be used to build the country, so as to prevent excessive reliance on long-term international assistance and the systematic intervention of international power.

6.3.2 Personal Ability Building

Personal level capacity building requires participants to “strengthen knowledge systems and technical capabilities so that individuals can actively participate in the process of learning and adapting to changes in the environment.” According to the development of individual actions, feedback from the learning system is required, and learning can be carried out on an equal and mutually beneficial basis. Therefore, capacity building is not simply a matter of talent training or human resource development, but a change of thinking. In addition, improving personal capabilities is not enough to promote the sustainable development of society. It also needs the cooperation of the system and the organizational environment to make it work.

In management training, Broadwell (1969) described the capacity building model as four-level learning system. These four stages indicate that humans did not know have much knowledge at the beginning of learning and, that they “have no self-awareness or awareness of their ignorance and incompetence.” When human beings realize their incompetence, they self-will consciously acquire skills, and then consciously use this skill. In the end, this skill may be used without being consciously thinking about the situation. In other words, the individual has already become familiar with this set of technology, and already has “unconscious competence.”

Introduce elements of learning, including helping learners understand “what they don’t know” or recognizing their blind spots. When the learner enters the learning state, they pass the four mental states shown in Fig. 7.43 until they reach the “unconscious ability” stage. By understanding the model and training plan for environmental education, the needs of learners can be determined, and learning goals can be set under specific environmental education topics based on the learner’s goals.

Unconscious Incompetence: In the state of “unconscious incompetence,” the learner is unaware of the existence of skills or knowledge gaps.
Conscious Incompetence: In the state of “conscious incompetence,” learners are aware of the gap in learning skills or knowledge and understand the importance of acquiring new skills. It is at this stage that learning can really begin.
Conscious Competence: In conscious competence, learners know how to use skills or perform tasks, but doing so requires frequent practice and conscious thinking and hard work (Fig. 7.44).
Fig. 7.44
The recognition of these environmental issues has created strong personal belief, and promoted the establishment of environmental impact assessment systems, such as buying a forest for carbon sinks. Forests provide a “carbon sink” that world’s forests could absorb a net 7.6 billion metric tons of CO₂ per year (Harris and Gibbs 2021). At a foundation unit, the areas could be protected from 288,149 square meters of green spaces (Baoshan Hsinchu, Tongluo Miaoli, Yuli Hualien, and Puli Nantou). The Carbon Budget Model of the forest uses the best available information on forests and tree growth sponsored by Hetong Culture and Art Foundation, Tainan, Taiwan (Right person: President Ms. Ileana Lee) (Photo courtesy of Hetong Culture and Art Foundation, Tainan, Taiwan)
Full size image
Unconscious Competence: In the unconscious ability, individuals have sufficient experience and can easily perform skills. When they perform, they are skilled in the unconscious state.

In addition, in the four stages of learning ability, the teachers can choose the topic content that helps the learners to enter the next stage by knowing which stage the learners is in, in order to improve their (teachers’ and learners’) skills based on competency-based education. It is even possible to use an assessment model to prove to the learners their ability gaps, thereby transferring learners from the first stage to the second stage of learning.

7 Communication Media

In modern society, communication through the media has become a means of disseminating or obtaining information or a distraction. Therefore, in environmental education and communication, media publications such as formal publishing, communication publishing, and the Internet have become information disclosed path. The mass media has a major task in environmental education. Countries around the world make extensive use of the media to disseminate scientific knowledge about environmental protection and stimulate the general public’s awareness of environmental consciousness, such as environmental pollution, soil degradation, resource depletion, species extinction, and the general public about environmental health, public health, and nutrition information. The recognition of these environmental issues has created strong public opinion, stimulated social resistance movements, and promoted the establishment of environmental protection laws and environmental impact assessment systems, all of which are the effects of mass media.

In developing countries, the use of radio and television in the past has a special educational effect for the public, especially the invention of the transistor radio, which made the radio the most widely used mass communication tool in the twentieth century. In addition, after the 1990s, the Internet made the world a realm without borders. Communicate with the “process model” of the blog, can provide feedback on online networking, and help develop ideas and promote teaching strategies and methods for deep learning (Chao et al. 2020).

In addition, more and more environmental education promoters use Facebook groups, Google Meet groups, WeChat groups, and Line groups to share ideas. The heavy use of social media can help environmental education promoters keep in touch with their peers around the world (Fig. 7.45).

7.1 Formal Media

7.1.1 Research Community

The research community’s communication channels include a series of books, monographs, journal articles, seminar papers, posters, and institutional repositories (Fig. 7.46).

Many universities and research institutions have in-house online research archives of open research files. These archives are called repositories and are listed as a publication. If a researcher places work in an open research file, it should then be considered published. However, we all know that this will result in more nonsense being made available to the public due to copyright issues (Kodaneva 2021). We could mean the downfall of peer-reviewed papers. If it is a previously unpublished work, storing it in an archive and making it public may cause copyright attribution when these materials are published in the future. If the work has already been published, the original publisher may retain these rights and may not redistribute the work through archival. However, the archive provides an online version for public reading, which is conducive to the outside world (Kodaneva 2021).

7.1.2 The General Public

Wikipedia, feature articles/access/talk; open access journals and books release.

7.2 Informal Media

7.2.1 Research Community

Opening speeches, meeting records, and social media.

7.2.2 The General Public

Social media, for example: Twitter, Facebook, blogs (text posting); or Instagram (image posting).

7.2.3 Between the Research Community and the General Public

Use research community websites to publish published articles, such as: academia.edu and researchgate.net.

7.3 Communication Effect

7.3.1 Increased Awareness

Increasing human awareness of environmental knowledge and deepening understanding of environmental knowledge.

7.3.2 Informed Choices

Improve the ability to make informed choices among alternatives.

7.3.3 Exchange of Information

Increase the degree of exchange of information, themes, or opinions. In the International Environmental Education Project promoted by UNESCO, the following information exchange suggestions have been made for the mass media:

In regular radio, television, internet, cartoon programs, or live programs, add vivid and interesting environmental issues, such as playing wonderful ecological documentaries or ecological music, and the sounds of animals and birds.
Inviting people to participate in discussions on environmental issues.
Radio, Internet and TV programs, and special exhibition should include environmental disasters and environmental degradation (Fig. 7.47).
Fig. 7.47
Special programs at exhibitions should include environmental disasters and environmental degradation like biological losses (Photo by Wei-Ta Fang)
Full size image
Providing radio, internet and television producers to participate in environmental education training, and/or study special exhibition in museums.

8 Summary

J. Robert Cox, an environmental communication scholar who was the President of the National Sierra Club, once mentioned that the field of environmental communication consists of the following seven research and practical fields, including: “Environmental Discourse (Rhetoric and discourse), media and environmental news, public participation in environmental decision-making, social marketing, and advocacy activities, environmental cooperation and conflict resolution, risk communication, and natural expression in pop culture and green marketing” (Cox 2010). From a practical point of view, environmental learning and communication adopt effective communication methods and apply environmental management strategies and technologies to environmental management and protection. We realize that environmentalism begins with environmental learning and communication; however, from the buzz in the 1960s to the twenty-first century, it gradually turned into “environmental skepticism.” American society loves economic development, a version of environmental protection. In the 1960s, environmental movements were ignited by the sparks of writers, or more specifically and accurately, by “Rachel Carson’s typewriter” (Flor 2004). Therefore, from the perspective of history, there are six basic elements of environmental learning and communication: “ecological knowledge, cultural sensitivity, networkability, ability to use media, environmental ethics practice, conflict resolution ability, and mediation and arbitration ability” (Flor 2004). From the research of scholars, people’s indifference is far more complicated than the lack of information. In fact, too much dazzling environmental information today is often counterproductive and confusing. When humans understand the complexity of environmental issues, they will feel overwhelmed and helpless. This will often lead to human apathy for environmental protection or suspicion of environmental science. Therefore, after the rise of artificial intelligence research in the twenty-first century, virtual environments have become the mainstream of consciousness. The conspiracy thesis of environmental skepticism holds that human beings will eventually be combined with technology. Concerning the legitimacy of environmental rhetoric, conspiracy theorists questioned environmental protection and believed that environmental protection was the biggest obstacle to economic development. These myths will pose increasing challenges to environmental protection and sustainable development of society (Jacques 2013). Therefore, how to clear the source and how to dispel chaos anyway depends on the cooperation of environmental research scholars, sustainable development research scholars, and mass communication scholars to convey the correct knowledge and skills of environmental protection.

References

Aguiar OG, Mortimer EF, Scott P (2010) Learning from and responding to students’ questions: the authoritative and dialogic tension. J Res Sci Teach Off J Natl Assoc Res Sci Teach 47(2):174–193
Google Scholar
Bandura A (1977) Social learning theory. Prentice Hall, Hoboken
Google Scholar
Bandura A (1986) Social foundations of thought and action: a social cognitive theory. Prentice Hall, Hoboken
Google Scholar
Bisoffi S, Ahrné L, Aschemann-Witzel J, Báldi A, Cuhls K, DeClerck F, Duncan J, Hansen HO, Hudson RL, Kohl J, Ruiz B, Siebielec G, Treyer S, Brunori G (2021) COVID-19 and sustainable food systems: What should we learn before the next emergency. Front Sustain Food Syst 5:650987. https://doi.org/doi.org/10.3389/fsufs.2021.650987
Google Scholar
Boyd MP (2012) Planning and realigning a lesson in response to student contributions: intentions and decision making. Elem Sch J 113(1):25–51
Google Scholar
Broadwell MM (1969) Teaching for learning (XVI). The Gospel Guardian. wordsfitlyspoken.org
Google Scholar
Chao S-H, Jiang J, Hsu C-H, Chiang Y-T, Ng E, Fang W-T (2020) Technology-enhanced learning for graduate students: exploring the correlation of media richness and creativity of computer-mediated communication and face-to-face communication. Appl Sci 10:1602. https://doi.org/10.3390/app10051602
Article Google Scholar
Chao S-H, Jiang J, Wei K-C, Ng E, Hsu C-H, Chiang Y-T, Fang W-T (2021) Understanding pro-environmental behavior of citizen science: an exploratory study of the bird survey in Taoyuan’s farm ponds project. Sustainability 13:5126. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13095126
Article Google Scholar
Château PA, Wunderlich RF, Wang TW, Lai HT, Chen CC, Chang FJ (2019) Mathematical modeling suggests high potential for the deployment of floating photovoltaic on fish ponds. Sci Total Environ 687:654–666
Google Scholar
Chapman D, Sharma K (2001) Environmental attitudes and behavior of primary and secondary students in Asian cities: an overview strategy for implementing an eco-schools programme. Environmentalist 21(4):265–272
Google Scholar
Cheng JC-H, Monroe MC (2012) Connection to nature: children’s affective attitude toward nature. Environ Behav 44(1):31–49
Google Scholar
Christakis DA (2009) The effects of infant media usage: what do we know and what should we learn? Acta Paediatr 98(1):8–16
Google Scholar
Combes BP (2005) The United Nations decade of education for sustainable development (2005–2014): learning to live together sustainably. Appl Environ Educ Commun 4(3):215–219
Google Scholar
Cohen JB (1983) Involvement and you: 1000 great ideas. ACR North American Advances, Duluth
Google Scholar
Cox JR (2010) Environmental communication and the public sphere, 2nd edn. Sage, Thousand Oaks
Google Scholar
Curtiss PR, Warren PW (1973) The dynamics of life skills coaching. Life skills series. Training Research and Development Station, Dept. of Manpower and Immigration
Google Scholar
Delors J (2013) The treasure within: learning to know, learning to do, learning to live together and learning to be. What is the value of that treasure 15 years after its publication? Int Rev Educ 59(3):319–330
Google Scholar
Eckstein D, Künzel V, Schäfer L (2021) Global climate risk index 2021. Who Suffers Most from Extreme Weather Events, 2000–2019
Google Scholar
Egan K (1993) Narrative and learning: a voyage of implications. Linguist Educ 5(2):119–126
Google Scholar
Errington E (1991) Role playing and environmental issues. Aust J Environ Educ 7:1–15
Google Scholar
Extance A (2019) The reality behind solar power’s next star material. Nature 570(7762):429–433
Google Scholar
Fabini D (2015) Quantifying the potential for lead pollution from halide perovskite photovoltaics. J Phys Chem Lett 6(18):3546–3548
Google Scholar
Fang W-T, Hu H-W, Lee C-S (2016) Atayal’s identification of sustainability: traditional ecological knowledge and indigenous science of a hunting culture. Sustain Sci 11(1):33–43
Google Scholar
Fang W-T, Ng E, Chang M-C (2017) Physical outdoor activity versus indoor activity: their influence on environmental behaviors. Int J Environ Res Public Health 14(7):797
Google Scholar
Fang W-T, Lien C-Y, Huang Y-W, Han G, Shyu G-S, Chou J-Y, Ng E (2018) Environmental literacy on ecotourism: a study on student knowledge, attitude, and behavioral intentions in China and Taiwan. Sustainability 10(6):1886
Google Scholar
Fang W-T, Shih S-S, Cheng B-Y, Chou J-Y (2020) Clustered constructed wetland systems in Metropolitan Taipei. Wetland Sci Pract April 2020:96–107
Google Scholar
Finn PJ (2010) Literacy with an attitude: educating working-class children in their own self-interest. Suny Press, Albany
Google Scholar
Fisk S (2019) Clean out your ‘jargon’ closet: simplify your science communications for greater impact. CSA News Magazine
Google Scholar
Flor AG (2004) Environmental communication: principles, approaches and strategies of communication applied to environmental management. University of the Philippines-Open University, Los Baños
Google Scholar
Foulks B, Morrow RD (1989) Academic survival skills for the young child at risk for school failure. J Educ Res 82(3):158–165
Google Scholar
Gao F, Noh JJ, Koehler MJ (2009) Comparing role-playing activities in second life and face-to-face environments. J Interact Learn Res 20(4):423–443
Google Scholar
Gordon S, Thomas I (2018) ‘The learning sticks’: reflections on a case study of role-playing for sustainability. Environ Educ Res 24(2):172–190
Google Scholar
Gossling S (2006) Ecotourism as experience-tourism. In: Gossling S, Hultman J (eds) Ecotourism in scandinavia: lessons in theory and practice. CABI
Google Scholar
Grant J (2002) Learning needs assessment: assessing the need. BMJ 324(7330):156–159
Google Scholar
Hansen A (2011) Communication, media and environment: towards reconnecting research on the production, content and social implications of environmental communication. Int Commun Gaz 73(1–2):7–25
Google Scholar
Harris N, Gibbs D (2021) Forests absorb twice as much carbon as they emit each year. World Resources Institute. https://www.wri.org/insights/forests-absorb-twice-much-carbon-they-emit-each-year
Herman BC, Feldman A, Vernaza-Hernandez V (2017) Florida and Puerto Rico secondary science teachers’ knowledge and teaching of climate change science. Int J Sci Math Educ 15(3):451–471
Google Scholar
Hsiung KH (2022) Policy and legal issues of the environmental and social inspection in fishery-solar energy. In: IOP conference series: earth and environmental science, vol 1009, no 1. IOP Publishing, Bristol, p 012009
Google Scholar
Hsu C-H, Lin T-E, Fang W-T, Liu C-C (2018) Taiwan roadkill observation network: an example of a community of practice contributing to Taiwanese environmental literacy for sustainability. Sustainability 10(10):3610
Google Scholar
Hsu C-H, Chou J-Y, Fang W-T (2019) Habitat selection of wintering birds in farm ponds in Taoyuan, Taiwan. Animals 9:113. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani9030113
Article Google Scholar
Jacques P (2013) Environmental skepticism: ecology, power and public life. Ashgate
Google Scholar
Joy S, Kolb DA (2009) Are there cultural differences in learning style? Int J Intercult Relat 33(1):69–85
Google Scholar
Jurin RR, Roush D, Danter KJ (2010) Environmental communication: skills and principles for natural resource managers, scientists, and engineers. Springer Science & Business Media, Berlin, Heidelberg
Google Scholar
Kahn P, Kellert S (2004) Children and nature: psychological, sociocultural and evolutionary investigations. Environ Values 13(3):409–412
Google Scholar
Karl TR, Knight RW, Easterling DR, Quayle RG (1996) Indices of climate change for the United States. Bull Am Meteor Soc 77(2):279–292
Google Scholar
Keenan WJ (2020) Learning to survive: Wicked problem education for the Anthropocene age. J Glob Educ Res 4(1):62–79
Google Scholar
Kodaneva SI (2021) The transformation of copyright under the influence of the development of digital technologies. Law Digit Econ 4(14):31–38
Google Scholar
Kolb DA (1981) Experiential learning theory and the learning style inventory: a reply to freedman and stumpf. Acad Manag Rev 6(2):289–296
Google Scholar
Kolb AY (2005) The Kolb learning style inventory-version 3.1 2005 technical specifications. Hay Res Direct 200(72):166–171
Google Scholar
Lanahan BK, Yeager EA (2008) Practicing teachers as elementary social studies methods instructors: issues in preparing preservice elementary teachers. Soc Stud Res Pract 3(2):10–28
Google Scholar
Liang S-W, Fang W-T, Yeh S-C, Liu S-Y, Tsai H-M, Chou J-Y, Ng E (2018) A nationwide survey evaluating the environmental literacy of undergraduate students in Taiwan. Sustainability 10(6):1730
Google Scholar
Liu S-Y, Yeh S-C, Liang S-W, Fang W-T, Tsai H-M (2015) A national investigation of teachers’ environmental literacy as a reference for promoting environmental education in Taiwan. J Environ Educ 46(2):114–132
Google Scholar
Loh KY (2010) New media in education fiesta (20100906, Day 1). In: Learning journey [Blog spot]. Retrieved from http://lohky.blogspot.ca/2010/09/new-media-in-education-fiesta-20100906_07.html
Martins AA, Mata TM, Costa CA (2006) Education for sustainability: challenges and trends. Clean Technol Environ Policy 8(1):31–37
Google Scholar
McGuire NM (2015) Environmental education and behavioral change: an identity-based environmental education model. Int J Environ Sci Educ 10(5):695–715
Google Scholar
McGuire SY (2006) The impact of supplemental instruction on teaching students how to learn. New Dir Teach Learn 2006(106):3–10
Google Scholar
McGuire WJ (1968) Personality and attitude change: an information processing theory. In: Greenwald A, Ostrom T, Brock T (eds) Psychological foundations of attitude. Academic Press
Google Scholar
McLeod SA (2009) Attachment theory. Retrieved from http://www.simplypsychology.org/attachment.html
Norizan E (2010) Environmental knowledge, attitude and practice of student teachers. J Environ Educ 19:39–50
Google Scholar
Oh RRY, Fielding KS, Carrasco RL, Fuller RA (2020) No evidence of an extinction of experience or emotional disconnect from nature in urban Singapore. People Nat 2(4):1196–1209
Google Scholar
Olivos-Jara P, Segura-Fernández R, Rubio-Pérez C, Felipe-García B (2020) Biophilia and biophobia as emotional attribution to nature in children of 5 years old. Front Psychol 11:511. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00511
Article Google Scholar
Otte ML, Fang W-T, Jiang M (2021) A framework for identifying reference wetland conditions in highly altered landscapes. Wetlands 41:40. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-021-01439-0
Article Google Scholar
Paleocrassas SN (1975) Photolysis of water as a solar energy conversion process: an assessment. Hydrogen energy. Springer, Boston, pp 243–253
Google Scholar
Parker L, Prabawa-Sear K, Kustiningsih W (2018) How young people in Indonesia see themselves as environmentalists: identity, behaviour, perceptions and responsibility. Indonesia Malay World 46(136):263–282
Google Scholar
Perkins HE (2010) Measuring love and care for nature. J Environ Psychol 30(4):455–463
Google Scholar
Rafael MT, Santos-Corrada M, Sandra M (2021) Perceptions of climate change in Puerto Rico before and after Hurricane Maria. Am J Clim Chang 10(2):153–166
Google Scholar
Raymond C (2010) Do role-playing simulations generate measurable and meaningful outcomes? A simulation’s effect on exam scores and teaching evaluations. Int Stud Perspect 11(1):51–60
Google Scholar
Reid A (2019) Climate change education and research: possibilities and potentials versus problems and perils? Environ Educ Res 25(6):767–790
Google Scholar
Rickinson M (2006) Researching and understanding environmental learning: hopes for the next 10 years. Environ Educ Res 12(3–4):445–457
Google Scholar
Rickinson M, Lundholm C, Hopwood N (2009) Environmental learning: insights from research into the student experience. Springer, Dordrecht
Google Scholar
Ross RT, Hsiao TL (1977) Limits on the yield of photochemical solar energy conversion. J Appl Phys 48(11):4783–4785
Google Scholar
Schank RC (1995) What we learn when we learn by doing. Technical Report No. 60. Institute for the Learning Sciences Northwestern University
Google Scholar
Scheler M, McAleer G (2017) The nature of sympathy. Routledge
Google Scholar
Senecah SL (2007) Impetus, mission, and future of the environmental communication commission/division: are we still on track? Were we ever? Environ Commun 1(1):21–33
Google Scholar
Shekarey A (2006) The consequences of the binary opposition/continuation approaches to modernism and postmodernism: a critical educational study. Tamara: J Crit Organ Inq 5(1)
Google Scholar
Shih YH, Shi NX, Tseng CH, Pan SY, Chiang PC (2016) Socioeconomic costs of replacing nuclear power with fossil and renewable energy in Taiwan. Energy 114:369–381
Google Scholar
Song LY, Yadav R, Liang HC (2018) Research on eco-friendly solar energy generation in Taoyuan pond. In: 2018 IEEE international conference on advanced manufacturing (ICAM). IEEE, pp 264–267
Google Scholar
Sorohan EG (1993) We do; therefore, we learn. Training Dev 47(10) 47. Gale Academic One File, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A14536292/AONE?u=googlescholar&sid=bookmark-AONE&xid=279114b1. Accessed 29 Aug. 2022.
Stagg BC, Dillon J, Maddison J (2022) Expanding the field: using digital to diversify learning in outdoor science. Discip Interdiscip Sci Educ Res 4(1):1–17
Google Scholar
Sternberg RJ, Williams WM (1996) How to develop student creativity. ASCD
Google Scholar
Sternberg RJ, Davidson JE (eds) (2005) Conceptions of giftedness, vol 2. Cambridge University Press, New York
Google Scholar
Su PW, Lo SL (2021) Using landsat 8 imagery for remote monitoring of total phosphorus as a water quality parameter of irrigation ponds in Taiwan. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28(47):66687–66694
Google Scholar
Tariq S, Sultan S, Choudhary FR (2020) Environmental education and practices in Canada, Turkey & Pakistan at primary level: a content analysis. Res J Soc Sci Econ Rev 1(4):389–400
Google Scholar
Thomas I (2009) Critical thinking, transformative learning, sustainable education, and problem-based learning in universities. J Transform Educ 7(3):245–264
Google Scholar
Turner J, Paris SG (1995) How literacy tasks influence children’s motivation for literacy. Read Teach 48(8):662–673
Google Scholar
Uhlmann K, Lin BB, Ross H (2018) Who cares? The importance of emotional connections with nature to ensure food security and wellbeing in cities. Sustainability 10(6):1844
Google Scholar
Wals AE, Brody M, Dillon J, Stevenson RB (2014) Convergence between science and environmental education. Science 344(6184):583–584
Google Scholar
Westbury I (1990) Textbooks, textbook publishers, and the quality of schooling. In: Elliott DL, Woodward A (eds) Textbooks and schooling in The United States. NSSE, pp 1–22
Google Scholar
Wheeler SM (2006) Role-playing games and simulations for international issues courses. J Polit Sci Educ 2(3):331–347
Google Scholar
Wilson EO (1984) Biophilia. Harvard University Press, Cambridge
Google Scholar
Worth NC, Book AS (2014) Personality and behavior in a massively multiplayer online role-playing game. Comput Hum Behav 38:322–330
Google Scholar
Wu YK, Ye GT, Shaaban M (2016a) Analysis of impact of integration of large PV generation capacity and optimization of PV capacity: case studies in Taiwan. IEEE Trans Ind Appl 52(6):4535–4548
Google Scholar
Wu YK, Ye G-T, Shaaban M (2016b) Impact analysis of large PV integration: case studies in Taiwan. In: 2016b IEEE/IAS 52nd industrial and commercial power systems technical conference (I&CPS). IEEE, pp 1–10
Google Scholar
Yu TK, Lavallee JP, Di Giusto B, Chang I, Yu TY (2020) Risk perception and response toward climate change for higher education students in Taiwan. Environ Sci Pollut Res 27(20):24749–24759
Google Scholar
Zhou Y, Chang FJ, Chang LC, Lee WD, Huang A, Xu CY, Guo S (2020) An advanced complementary scheme of floating photovoltaic and hydropower generation flourishing water-food-energy nexus synergies. Appl Energy 275:115389. https://doi.org/doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2020.115389
Google Scholar
Zipko SJ (1980) Simulation for environmental education and awareness. Sci Activities 17(2):32–38
Google Scholar
Zorrilla CD (2017) The view from Puerto Rico—Hurricane Maria and its aftermath. N Engl J Med 377(19):1801–1803
Google Scholar

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Graduate Institute of Environmental Education, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan
Wei-Ta Fang & Ben A. LePage
Open University Malaysia Kota, Sabah, Malaysia
Arba’at Hassan
Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, PA, USA
Ben A. LePage

Authors

Wei-Ta Fang
View author publications
You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar
Arba’at Hassan
View author publications
You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar
Ben A. LePage
View author publications
You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Wei-Ta Fang .

Rights and permissions

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

The images or other third party material in this chapter are included in the chapter's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the chapter's Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Fang, WT., Hassan, A., LePage, B.A. (2023). Environmental Learning and Communication. In: The Living Environmental Education. Sustainable Development Goals Series. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-4234-1_7

Download citation

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-4234-1_7
Published: 30 September 2022
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-19-4233-4
Online ISBN: 978-981-19-4234-1
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Environmental Learning and Communication

Abstract

Similar content being viewed by others

Can We Be Entertained to Change Our Lives?: An Introduction to Games for Increasing Environmental Awareness

Environmental Engineering Education in the Modern Era

Trial of Tools to Evaluate Adaptive Processes in Environmental Activities

1 What Should We Learn?

1.1 Learning is a Binary Opposition Process

Box 7.1: Case Analysis

1.2 Teaching is the Half of Learning

2 How Should I Learn?

2.1 School Environmental Education Should be a Practical-Learning

Box 7.2: Case analysis

2.1.1 Environmental Educators Need to Understand Their Audience

2.1.2 Environmental Education Should Try to Minimize Scientific Jargon

2.1.3 Teaching Using Various Methods

2.1.4 Teaching Demonstration of Artificial Wetland on Campus and Outdoor Wetland0.0.2

2.1.5 Teachers Need to Understand the Content of Teaching Content

2.1.6 School Environmental Education Work is Dedicated to Environmental Education

2.2 Social Environmental Education Should be an Adaptive Learning

2.2.1 Strengthen Affection Ability

2.2.2 Strengthen Ecological Knowledge

2.2.3 Improve Socio-political Understanding

2.2.4 Strengthen the Basic Knowledge of Problem Occurrence

2.2.5 Strengthen Skill Development for Environmental Protection and Analysis

2.2.6 Strengthening Personal Responsibility

2.2.7 Strengthen Citizenship Skills and Strategies

3 Environmental Learning Center Should be Suitable for the Best Quality Education

3.1 Features of Environmental Learning Center Implementation

3.1.1 Have Hardware and Software Facilities and Personnel

3.1.2 Independently Operating Legal Organization Entity

3.1.3 Professional Employees with Salary

3.2 Participatory Learning at the Environmental Learning Center

3.2.1 Authenticity

3.2.2 Creativity

3.2.3 Co-configured Expertise

3.2.4 Motivation and Engagement

3.2.5 Learning Ecosystem

4 Learning Plans Toward Sustainability

4.1 Program of Environmental Learning Center

4.1.1 Formal Education

4.1.2 Non-formal Education

4.2 Course Content of the Environmental Learning Center

4.2.1 Environmental Learning Goals

Box 7.3: Learning and celebration at Dr. Hungerford’s residence.

4.2.2 Environmental Education Issues into School-Based Curriculum

4.2.3 Interpretation of Environmental Education

4.2.4 Purpose of the Narration Plan

4.2.5 Interpretation Object

4.2.6 Interpretation Media

4.3 Educational Interpretation Plan

4.3.1 Ecotourism Commentary

4.3.2 Commentary During Travel and Study

4.3.3 Opportunity Commentary on Accommodation Resources

4.4 Teaching Activity Strategy

4.4.1 Music, Dance or Drama

4.4.2 Role-Playing

4.4.3 Lecture or Movie Viewing

4.4.4 Appreciation or Writing of Poetry

4.4.5 Teaching of Cartoons and Pictures

4.4.6 Guided Meditation

4.4.7 Games

4.4.8 Values and Attitudes

5 Learning

5.1 Triadic Reciprocal Determinism Explores the Dependence of Teachers and Students

5.2 Strengthen Voluntary Environmental Learning Behaviors

5.2.1 Law of Effect

5.2.2 Practice Law

5.2.3 The Law of Preparation

5.3 Learning Through Different Types of Learning Methods

6 Information Transmission

Box 7.4: Case Analysis: Strengthen from unknown information we need to discover

6.1 Learning Interface for Information Transfer

6.1.1 Planning Arrangement

6.1.2 On-site Mastery

6.2 The Transfer Process

6.2.1 Knowledge is Created by Direct Experience

6.2.2 The Meaning of Things is Connected with the Underlying Factors of Personal Life

6.2.3 Convey Meaning from Language

Box 7.6: Case Analysis: Climate Warming