Robinson, Theresa Y.

A study of the effectiveness of environmental education curricula in promoting middle school students' critical thinking skills.

Carbondale, IL

2005

Ph. D., Southern Illinois University Carbondale, 2005

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Abstract:

The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which selected environmental education curricula contributed to middle school students' critical thinking skills as measured by the Critical Thinking Test in Environmental Education (CTTEE). The researcher attempted to determine the variability in the outcome variable, critical thinking attributable to gender, academic ability, socio-economic status, and pretest score. This study involved randomly assigned intact sixth, seventh, and eighth grade classes representing five different schools. Students in classes included in the experimental treatments experienced instruction in: Project WET (n = 48), Project WILD (n = 61), Project Learning Tree (n = 45), or Investigating and Evaluating Environmental Issues and Actions (IEEIA) (n = 44). The classes that comprised the control group experienced traditional science instruction (n = 48). All students were pre tested. Teachers taught the lessons in the experimental treatments within an eight-week period at a rate of two lessons per week for eight weeks. A total of 16 lessons were presented to each experimental group. The control classes continued with traditional science instruction. Following instruction all groups were post tested. A hierarchical linear model (HLM) was selected as the statistical method for estimating the influence of curriculum on critical thinking in environmental education. The HLM provides a means of explaining how variance in some outcome is a function of both individual differences and differences in the contexts in which learning occurs. The results indicated that 30.3 % of the variance in critical thinking scores could be explained by differences in curriculum without the influence of student level variables. Gender, socioeconomic status, academic ability, and pretest were added to the level one equation yielding a between school variance change of 3.59%. That is, the selected student level variables accounted for only 3.59% of the variability in critical thinking scores. An analysis of covariance controlling for the effects of pretest score indicated that the most effective model was the Investigating and Evaluating Environmental Issues and Actions followed by Project WILD, Project WET, and Project Learning Tree.

Abstract

Aknowledgments

List of Table

List of Figures

Chapter 1: Introduction

Defining Critial Thinking
Problem Statement
Purpose Statement
Need for the study
Signifiance for the study
Research questions
Statistical hypotheses
Assumpations
Liminations
Definitions

Chapter 2: Review of the literature

Critical thinking skills and abilities
Critical thinking instruction
Critical thinking in environmental education
Studies related to environmental education
Critical thinking assessment
Critical thinking in environmental education curricula
Critique

Chapter 3: Research methods

Reserach questions
Hypotheses
Statistical hypotheses
General procedures
Research design
Sample
Curricul included in the study
Project WET
Project WILD
Project learning tree
Investigating and evaluating environmental issues and actions (IEEIA)
Treatments
Measures
Critical thinking
Student characteristics
Gender
Grade level
Academic ability
Socioeconomic status
Curricula
Analytic model
Analysis covaricance

Chapter 4: Findings

Analysis of the data for ANOVA assumptions
Directions for creating HLM 6.0 files from SPSS 12.0
Data from research question one
Data from research question two
Summary of mayor findings

Chapter 5: Conclusions

Summary of purpose
Summary of procedures
Summary of findings
Conclusions
Recommendations

References

Appendices

Appendix A Critical thinking test in environmental education
Appendix B Directions for administration of the CTTEE
Appendix C Letter to teacher and letter to administrator
Appendix D IEEIA teacher instructional flow chart
Appendix E How scientist work series
Scientific method prest and posttest
Ball bounce activity sheet
Appendix F Sketching gadget anatomy activity
Appendix G Science quest roller coaster worksheet
Thrill of the hill presentation outline

VITA

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28.01.2020