Transcript Behavioral Approach to Environmental and Climate Change

National Trust EcoFund
Behavioral approach to environmental and
climate change education
Jenia Lazarova, Julian Asenov
October 2015
With the support of the Federal Ministry for the Environment,
Nature Conservation, Construction and Nuclear Safety of the
Republic of Germany
Contents
Part 1
• Challenges and the importance of starting climate change education early
• International experience in the development of good practices
• Bulgarian national specifics
• Behavioral approach to education for individual contribution to climate change mitigation
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Plan of the session
Part 2
• Key psychological characteristics of children by age group
• Guidance for educational activities
• Parental commitment
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Part 1
The importance of starting climate change education
early and in a school setting
• Opportunity to create interest and responsibility towards nature early in life, and make these a
permanent part of the child’s identity as she matures
• Opportunity for children to form an opinion based on objective information, rather than on the
subjective influence of their parents, relatives and friends
• Opportunity to use the school setting to provide guidance from the teachers, and to organize
appropriate educational activities
• Lack of established defense mechanisms, such as the rejection of undesirable information
• Lack of established daily habits to override
• Insufficient awareness, engagement, or pedagogical ability of some parents to approach the topic
appropriately and systematically enough
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Challenges of the topic
The climate change topic intrinsically entails:
• Communication of negative information, threats and dangerous events
• Use of unknown and difficult-to-pronounce terms
• Making sense of vast geographical scales and long time horizons
• Understanding complex dependencies
• Overriding already established habits and lifestyles
• Adopting a position against the opinion and behavior of the majority
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Status of the international educational framework on climate
change
• Currently, there is no universal framework for education in the field of climate change and
environmental preservation
• The development of good practices is complicated by the nature of the material, as well as the
need to take into account age-related and national specifics
• In this context, the current project has a great significance both in Bulgaria, and internationally
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International experience and lessons learned
• Danish and Austrian scientists performed studies with students aged 16 and 17 on the
effectiveness of climate change education. They concluded that:
• Teaching climate change in the form of a lecture increases student awareness by only 11%, leaving the overall
awareness level below 60%
• There was no change in student attitudes and opinions towards climate change and the need for mitigation of
the negative human impact on it
• Meanwhile, another project provided children in developing countries without access to schools
the opportunity to self-educate by searching for information using only a computer and preformulated questions, and accomplished an impressive increase in the children’s level of
awareness
• Therefore, climate change education should not be in a passive lecture format alone, but it should
engage students trough active participation in activities, and for children over 10 years of age, it
should allow independent searches for information on topics and questions provided in advance
Source: Harker-Schuch & Bugge-Henriksen (2013); Sugata Mitra (2013)
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International experience and conclusions
• Swedish scientists conducted experiments with 12, 16, and 23 year old adolescents and young people,
and identified three types of initial reactions towards climate change education:
• Intellectual approach to the problem (search for additional information)
• Positive emotional reassessment and building up trust towards the source
• Detachment (denial of the problem or avoidance in the form of “It does not concern me”) – most typical for
younger children participating in the study
• Participants who had Intellectual approach or Positive reassessment demonstrated considerably higher
levels of engagement and readiness to undertake actions for environmental preservation
• Therefore, these two types of reactions should be encouraged by the teachers, while the Detachment
reaction should be actively overcome by, for example, giving these children a leadership role or
organizational responsibility in the educational activities on climate change
Източник: Ojala (2011)
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Bulgarian specifics: Individual contributions to climate
change mitigation
Readiness for personal actions
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
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Bulgarian specifics: Main priorities
• Recycling is a key action
• People who recycle tend to contribute in other ways as well
Predictive power of each individual action for the
undertaking of all others
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Bulgarian specifics: Main motivations on national level
• Individuals with the lowest
readiness to contribute, are most
sensitive to the health motivator
• Individuals who contribute actively
are most sensitive to local
authorities’ engagement, and
positive outcomes
• Undecided individuals are most
sensitive to authorities’
engagement, and health
motivators
Relationship between level of readiness
for personal contribution and basic
motivators
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
Much higher
readiness than
others
Same readiness
Much lower
as others
readiness than
others
Engagement of local authorities
Health threat
Positive results
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Undecided
Engagement of other people
Quality of life
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Bulgarian specifics: Parental motivation
Personal motivations of parents by
child’s age group
• Parents of children in different age groups
are influenced by different motivating
factors
35%
30%
• Parents of the youngest and oldest
children would be most prone to take
actions if their health and that of their
close ones were at risk
25%
20%
15%
• Parents of children in the middle age
group, are most strongly motivated by the
engagement of the local authorities
10%
5%
0%
4 to 8
8 tо 14
Engagement of local authorities
13
14 tо 19
Health
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Bulgarian specifics: Parental expectations towards teachers
• Parents of children in different age
groups increasingly believe that
environmental education is teachers‘
responsibility
• This is probably due to a combination
of factors as children grow up:
Proportion of parents who believe that
environmental education is teachers’
responsibility by child’s age group
80%
• Parents become less involved in
their education
75%
• Parents have other, higher-priority
topics on which to educate their
children
• Parents’ knowledge is exhausted, and
children gradually become more
informed than them
70%
65%
60%
55%
50%
4 to 8
14
8 to 14
14 to 19
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Bulgarian specifics: Importance of studying the topic at
school
• Parents of children in all
age groups are convinced
that it is essential to study
climate change at school
• In all age groups and for all
three topics, around 80% of
parents hold this position
Proportion of parents who believe it
essential to be studied at school…
100%
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
4 to 8
8 to 14
14 to 20
The consecuences of climate change
The correct actions actions for climate change mitigation
The necessary steps for climate change adaptation
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Behavioral approach: Guiding principles
• Behavioural economics is a relatively new discipline, which studies how people make decisions
and choices in everyday life
• The guiding principle of behavioural economics is Cognitive ease –the human tendency to save
mental strain and time, while relying on numerous inaccurate and irrational methods
• These methods include:
•
Heuristics and estimates
•
Stereotypes and prejudices
•
Sensory biases
•
First impressions
• The use of heuristics, estimates and biases starts in childhood, and often increases in adults
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Common biases by age group
age
4–8
age
8 – 14
age
14 – 19
Ѵ
Ѵ
Ѵ
ѴѴ
ѴѴ
Ѵ
χ
χ
ѴѴ
ѴѴ
ѴѴ
Ѵ
ѴѴ
Ѵ
χ
• Speak-easy effect - people perceive words that are easier to
pronounce as more trustworthy and more valuable
Ѵ
Ѵ
Ѵ
• Status Quo bias - tendency to remain at the current state, because
of fear of the unknown
χ
χ
Ѵ
• IKEA effect – humans tend to evaluate highly what they personally
created, or contributed to creating
•
Hyperbolic discounting - tendency to desire immediate rewards, and
even prefer them over larger future rewards
• Social conformity bias – tendency to adopt the opinions and
behaviors of the majority
• Availability heuristic - mental shortcut for estimating probabilities
that relies on the ease, with which specific examples come to mind
• Familiarity heuristic– people like more what they are familiar with
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Behavioral approach: Recycling
• According to the data, recycling is a priority personal
action for the mitigation of human impact on climate
• Individuals who recycle, tend to contribute more often
through other actions as well
• Behavioral barriers are:
• Adherence to the mainstream opinion and behavior
• Bias towards the Status Quo
• Striving towards comfort and minimization of efforts
• Example recommendations for overcoming these barriers:
• Creating groups and micro-environments, where the majority recycles – for example through school
programs
• Creating positive stimuli for changing the Status Quo – for example through a reduction of the waste
collection tax
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Behavioral approach: Food and health
• Between 60 and 70% of parents consider as high danger the excessive use of fertilizers, resulting
in high nitrate levels in the food
• At a national level, this is the factor that is most often considered high danger and is the strongest
motivator towards personal actions
• These data demonstrate that information on the topic can be used to nudge adults towards active
contributions for environmental preservation
• Main barrier to overcome:
• For children, food and health are not a priority/ responsibility
• Example recommendations:
•
Active engagement of adults in the topic
•
Older children seek identification with specific brands of foods and drinks; communication that particular
brands, preferred by them, are supporting eco-initiatives, would provoke their interest in the climate
change topic
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Behavioral approach: Energy efficiency
• Awareness on the topic of energy efficiency is relatively high among the Bulgarians, but only 39%
live in insulated homes
• Other 34% express their wish to contribute in this way
• Nearly half of the Bulgarians contribute to mitigation through the use of energy-saving light bulbs
and appliances, and through window insulation
• Behavioral barriers:
•
Financial considerations
•
Hyperbolic discounting - shortsightedness and desire for immediate results
• Example recommendations for overcoming the barriers:
•
Communication with focus on the immediate benefits would help outweigh the financial considerations
•
Programs with subsidies and deferred payment, communicated in an accessible way
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Behavioral approach: Transport and personal vehicles
• Data show the existence of a segment that tends to contribute through all other actions, except
for the use of public transport, bicycling or walking
• This is also the personal action with the highest proportion of respondents stating that they do not
wish to contribute through this action
• Behavioral barriers:
•
Strive for convenience and minimization of efforts
•
Familiarity bias
•
Status Quo bias
•
Social conformity
• Example recommendations for overcoming the barriers:
•
Communication which elevates the status of individuals differing from the crowd
•
Creating strong stimuli for investing in cleaner cars for personal use
•
Organization of group school transport for children living in neighboring areas
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Behavioral approach: Responsible handing of appliances,
batteries, and mobile phones
• Responsible handing over of old appliances, batteries, and mobile phones is the action with the
smallest contribution rate at the national level
• Behavioral barriers:
•
Low awareness
•
Diffusion of responsibility
•
Strive for convenience and minimization of efforts
• Example recommendations for overcoming the barriers:
•
Organization of local campaigns raising awareness of the rationale and benefits of this action
•
Organization of campaigns for collecting old batteries and mobile phones in school, with student
participation in the organization
•
Increasing convenience and displaying the collection bins in a visible location (next to the cashiers) as a
reminder
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Summary of Part 1
• It is important to start environmental education early and in a school setting
• The nature of the material and the need for considering age-related and national specifics
complicate the development of a universal framework and good practices
• International experience points to combining lecturing with activities requiring active participation,
as well as giving older children tasks to search for information independently
• In Bulgaria recycling is a priority personal contribution for climate change mitigation because
people who recycle tend to contribute in other ways as well
• The majority of Bulgarian parents see the topic as very important to be studied at school, and
increasingly tend to transfer to teachers the responsibility of educating their children about it
• The behavioral approach can be applied to overcome the attitudes and barriers, which prevent
people from taking active measures for environmental preservation
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Part 2:
Activities
interests
challenges
• Inability for empathy
and dealing with
negative emotions
• Frequent changes in
mood
• Lack of complex
defense mechanisms
• Short attention span
• Lack of abstract
thinking
world
• Like to create using their
hands
• Like physical activities
• Brag and look for approval
• Compare themselves to
the others
self
Key psychological characteristics by age group: Age 4 – 8
Age
4–8
25
• Curiosity and spirit for
exploration
• Frequent questions
• Like to take objects apart
• Inability to deal with
conflict situations
• Inability to
understand moral
norms
• Most often, good at
following clearly and
systematically
established rules
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Main challenges and recommendations:
Age 4 – 8
challenges
Inability to
understand moral
norms
Short attention
span;
Lack of abstract
thinking
recommendations
• Creating and teaching clear rules related to human
responsibilities towards nature
• Guiding the curiosity and exploratory interest of children
towards nature, plants, and animals
• Active explanation and answering of questions about
nature, plants and animals
• Alternating various activities at short intervals in order for
the topic to be experienced through all senses
• Inclusion of creative and physical activities
• Use of simplified visual materials and pictures to illustrate
more complex activities, dependencies and concepts
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Main challenges and recommendations:
Age 4 – 8
challenges
recommendations
• Due to their inability for empathy, children might
unconsciously harm plants and animals; it is necessary to
explain to them through parallels with humans, that they
are alive, and can sense and suffer
Inability for
empathy and
dealing with
negative emotions
• Children’s inability to deal with negative emotions might
lead to a sense of helplessness regarding their efforts for
environmental preservation; it is important to focus their
attention on the positives and accomplishments: to
communicate widely the results of their efforts, to invite
parents to exhibitions and demonstrations, to give them
approval and explanation why their efforts have been
worthwhile
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Guidance for physical activities: Age 4 – 8
Physical activities:
• Trips to the local park, zoo, or museum of natural history
• Hiking in the mountains
• Camping in nature
• Participating in eco initiatives together with adults – e.g. tree planting
+ Must be combined with clear rules for proper behavior in the forest
• Trash to be held until a waste bin is found for its disposal
• Not to cut the bark of the trees, nor break their branches or pick flowers
• Regular 5-minute reminders of basic rules for climate change mitigation in everyday
activities
+ Must be combined with exploratory activities :
• Collecting herbarium leaves
• Photographing plants and animals
• Describing changes in nature during the seasons
• Observing and attempting to explain the behavior of small animals like birds and
squirrels; comparing animal and human behavior
• Explanations and answers to (relevant) questions
• Relating and demonstrating interesting facts – e.g. how pinecones contain seeds
which can grow into new trees if they fall in a good place
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Guidance for creative activities: Age 4 – 8
Art activities:
• Nature-dedicated area in the classroom created by the children, with guidance from
the teacher
• Nature calendar created by the children, with guidance from the teacher
• Planting a tree, flowers, or herbs in a pot, that children can care after and observe
how they are influenced by light, the seasons, and watering patterns
• Drawing nature, plants and animals
• Creating illustrations and schematics for explaining dependencies and cycles
• Drawing people engaged in environmental preservation activities
• Creating a personal pledge to nature
+ Must be combined with an exploratory emphasis:
• Photosynthesis might be illustrated by sticking nontransparent scotch tape to the leaf
of a living plant – the spot would soon lose its green color
• Plant drawing may be combined with detailed observations of the structure of the
plants - e.g. how the vein patterns of a beautiful autumn leaf resemble a tree
• Drawing animals may be combined with explanations about their habitat and their
adaptation to it
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Key psychological characteristics by age group: Age 8 – 14
self
world
• Like physical and mental
challenges
• Start to form and express a
personal opinion
• Invest in improving their
abilities and aim to control
their surroundings
interests
challenges
Age
8 – 14
• Beginnings of
anticipation of
consequences
• Inability for risk assessment a sense of invincibility,
exaggerated fears
• Organizing knowledge in categories and
abstract features
• Increased attention span (BUT: impact of
digital consumption)
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• Development of empathy and
consideration for others
• Taking on family responsibilities
• Strong interest in social
norms, as well as the
opinions and behaviors of
others
• Forming of social identity
• Moral norms begin to
form
• Sense of independence
begins to form –
unwillingness to follow the
rules of adults
• Strong susceptibility to peer pressure
and role-model influence
• Complicated and frequently changing
social relationships
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Main challenges and recommendations:
Age 8 – 14
challenges
recommendations
• Providing objective factual information; avoiding
description of catastrophic consequences in the future
Inability for risk
assessment,
exaggerated fears
• Directing children’s interest in mental challenges towards
solving puzzles and logical problems relevant to the topic
of nature
• Offering teacher guidance when evaluation and
anticipation of risks and consequences is necessary
Unwillingness to
follow the rules of
adults, and
susceptibility to
social influence
• Giving every child the opportunity to process and organize
the information by herself
• Giving every child the opportunity to learn to develop and
articulate her own opinion based on facts
• Combining creative and physical activities
• Creating inspiring role models by inviting experts to lead
selected activities
• Emphasizing figures from history and literature who
actively protected Bulgarian nature
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Guidance for activities: Age 8 – 14
Physical activities:
• Hiking / camping in the mountains or in nature
• Joined participation in eco-initiative with adults – e.g. planting trees
Creative activities (must involve solving intellectual puzzles or expressing own opinion):
• Writing and illustrating own pledge to protect nature
• Drawing environmental preservation or animal rescue activities
• Writing short argumentative essays on the topic
• Classification tasks for various species of plants, trees or animals
• Creation of illustrations explaining nature’s dependencies and cycles
• Creation of collages from natural materials - such as leaves, seeds, cones, flowers and
twigs collected in the park
• Organizing theme days – focused on forests, animals, recycling etc.
+ Reminders of clearly formulated rules for proper behavior in nature
• Trash to be held until a waste bin is found for its disposal
• Not to cut the bark of the trees, nor break their branches or pick flowers
+ Opportunities for children to look for information and dependencies by themselves
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• Setting and pursuing own longterm goals
• Strive for self-assessment
• Extreme fixating on and
experimentation with own
physical characteristics
interests
challenges
world
self
Key psychological characteristics by age group: Age 14 –
19
• Interest in appropriate
social behavior and
unwritten rules
• Interest in others’
emotions and opinions
• Desire to be taken
seriously, respectfully,
and as equal to adults
Age
14 – 19
• Extreme negligence of
health
• Accelerated emotional
self-awareness
• Tendency for depression and
sudden mood swings
• Development of verbal expression and
emotional control
• Accelerated development of abstract thinking
• Hypersensitivity and active building of
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defense-mechanisms
• Ability for independent
moral evaluation
• Intensive social
experimentation
• Distrust of institutions
and tendency for
insubordination
• Desire to be different from their parents
• Loyalty to friends and peers
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Main challenges and recommendations:
Age 14 – 19
challenges
recommendations
Mistrust of
institutions and
tendency for
insubordination;
Strive for
independence
• Utilizing the teenage strive for independence and respect
by giving them the opportunity to take on a role of
responsibility in the activities – organizational and/or one
of an active participant
• Utilizing students’ interest in the opinions of others
through activities involving interviewing, debates, writing
articles, etc.
• Emphasizing the intellectual challenge through activities in
which students independently research consequences,
systems, dependencies
Desire to be
different from their
parents
• This challenge offers an opportunity to create a more
responsible attitude in children towards the climate and the
environment, compared to that of their adults
• Organizing activities led by the children, but with the
participation of the parents
• Creating positive role models in daily life – finding local and
international celebrities from fashion, films, sports, who are
involved with the green cause
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Main challenges and recommendations:
Age 14 – 19
challenges
recommendations
• Due to their emotional insecurity during puberty, children
in this age group tend to be hypersensitive and overreact
to criticism; it is important to present them with objective
information and avoid language that could be perceived
directly or indirectly as a personal attack
Hypersensitivity
and active building
of psychological
defense
mechanisms
• Hypersensitivity to peers and adults may be circumvented
through the organization of activities in which the
teenager can have a mentoring role over groups of
younger students – this would encourage them to accept
more responsibilities regarding nature as well
• When organizing group projects and activities, it is
necessary to communicate in advance the social rules
participants must follow – for example, everybody
contributes equally, do not interrupt each other, respect
each other's work and time, responsibilities are distributed
and articulated clearly, and clear deadlines are established
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Guidance for activities: Age 14 – 19
Activities in the form of green initiatives:
• Participation in eco-initiatives or organizing one as a school project – e.g. cleaning
local gardens and parks, planting trees, etc.
• Interviews and surveys of peers or adults about their attitudes on the topic, and what
might motivate them to contribute actively
• Interviews with experts and preparation of materials for a school newspaper or
leaflets and posters
• Research and development of intellectual or creative school project aiming to engage
others in active contributions to environmental preservation
• Organizing a school recycling program, as a school project
• Local eco-audits and research on concrete topics – e.g. clean waters, waste disposal
or recycling in own neighborhood (later on, such projects may lead to civil or
municipal initiatives)
+ Offering children the opportunity to independently process and organize the
information on the topic
+ Offering children the opportunity to develop an independent opinion and learn to
express arguments for it, which can later become a permanent part of their identity
+ Giving children the opportunity to become role models and encourage responsible
behavior towards the environment – among younger children, peers, friends, and
parents
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Why engaging the parents is important
• In the two younger age groups, parents are the first and most influential role model for the
children
• Teachers can educate parents on the proper approach to children at a given age
• Coordinating the information children receive at school and at home can reduce the possibility of
conflicting information and confusing the child
• Coordinating the rules and personal actions which the child should undertake in her daily life
allows repetition, perseverance and parental control out of school hours
• If properly planned, activities may have an indirect positive influence on the awareness and
attitudes of parents on the topic of climate change and environmental preservation
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план
Part 2 - B:
Workshop
Part 3:
Summary and Close-up
Contact: [email protected]
Thank you!
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