Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
Measuring Attitude Transformations in Physical Geography Courses at
Northwest Vista College, USA Scott L. Walker, ScEdD
Presented at the International Conference on Awareness of the Need for Environmental Protection: A Role for Higher Education], July 21-23, 2010, Hoa Sen University, Ho Chi
Minh City and An Giang University, Long Xuyen City, Vietnam
“Statistical analyses revealed that there is no significant relationship between
environmental knowledge and environmental attitude”
(DeChano, 2006)
Knowledge ≠ Attitudes
• Knowledge is relative to the social setting & the perspective of the person with the knowledge
• Knowledge is a moving target manufactured within a process of transformation in student thinking rather than an end product.
Attitudes…
…are being studied as if they are objects with predetermined, matter-of-fact values based in "truth" of the hegemony
Background
Attitudes are…
the total of one’s “inclinations and feelings, prejudice or bias, preconceived notions, ideas, fears, threats, and convictions about any specified topic”
(Thurston, 1928)
Background
3 parts:
• affect
• cognition
• behavior
Affect is co-structured with an evaluative emotional response that places a value on something that can…
Background
• Override our rational thought (i.e. cognition)
And
• Influence behavior only when an attitude is strong!
Background
Studies of Environmental Attitudes Using Surveys
55% elementary & secondary students
05% graduate students
22% adult public
18% undergraduate students
Background
Transformative Learning
Since strong attitudes resist change, adult learners attitudes are difficult to influence without them first analyzing their own perceptions of:
1. the world
2. hegemony
3. prior experience
Background
Adult student self-analysis of their thinking is not easy for several reasons:
• it is not comfortable for the instructor
• adults tend to rebuff suggestions that do not fit well into their preconceived notions of the world (they mark them as immaterial, bizarre, erroneous, irregular)
Background
However, adult students grow intellectually and personally when they must grapple with dissonance in their own thinking through alternative views rather than stimulus-response (behavioral) instruction.
Background
Students attain new knowledge and attitudes when they are forced to seek out additional perspectives.
We can call this “meaning perspective”
Background
P = fas(Nex + Epr)
P represents adult learners’ perspectives,
fas equates to the function of one’s assumptions,
Nex is one’s new experience resulting from discourse and cognitive dissonance,
Epr is their prior experience.
Background
Some Instructional Methods:
1. create disorienting dilemmas
2. offer critical reflection activity (to include asking "why they think the way they do?"
3. create room for rational dialogue
Okay, so we modify instruction to address adult learner perspective transformation.
Now how can it be assessed?
Study Description
We can use a survey instrument to help determine if the classroom psychosocial learning environment is conducive to perspective transformation
AND
we can also determine the extent to which students: 1. don't get it 2. begin a transition 3. get it 4. actually transition/disrupt behavior
Study Description
Study Population:
community college students (U.S. 2-year undergraduate
program)
Instrument pilot tested x3:
1st - 99 items, N = 178 Geography Students
2nd - 98 revised items, N = 356 (various disciplines)
3rd - 67 revised items, N = 115 Geography Students
Instrument Description
Final Instrument:
Transformative Learning Environment Survey (TLES) 4 transformative learning environment scales 1. disorienting dilemma 2. self-reflection 3. meaning perspective & critical discourse 4. acting 2 affect scales 1. safe learning environment 2. satisfaction 67 items total
Results: Reliability
Chronbach's Alpha = 0.96 (second pilot)
(overall) 0.97 (final administration)
Results: Construct Validity
• Factor analysis using intuitive-rational method • Extent to which items load on apriori scales • Kept items loading at least 0.40 on their own scale
Discussion
So, what do we have?
-Refined TLES developed to explore adult student perspectives
-Focuses on transformative learning rather than object-value
-Reliable/valid instrument developed for research application
Discussion
What can we do with the TLES? We can investigate: 1. Pre-/post-levels of student perceptions 2. Control group vs. treatment group perceptions 3. Associations between student satisfaction and
the eight TLE scales 4. Extent to which students find the psycho-social
learning environment safe and conducive toward environmental discourse
5. Instructor vs. student perceptions
Discussion
What’s the value in this?
-TLES looks inward at students' perceptions
NOT
-What attitudes are EXPECTED to be given information
The role of higher education in relation to the natural
environment is not to fill students full of facts they can simply recall
and then expect them to form pre-defined, culturally-prescribed
attitudes…
Rather…
Why don't we start where the students are and offer a psycho-social learning environment that
transforms their thinking through...
...dissonance embedded in discourse in a way that students feel safe and
satisfied.
Otherwise, we can espouse all the "knowledge" about the
environment we want, but attitudes will remain the same.
