Research on the determinants of environmentally conscious behavior in nature experience-based environmental learning for fourth graders

Abstract

This study engaged participants from Kasumigaura Kojo Taiken School (Lake Kasumigaura Experience School ) in an environmental learning program that allows them to experience nature, for analyzing the determinants of environmentally conscious actions using the simultaneous multi-population analysis. The study confirmed configural invariance, indicating that there were no differences in responses among the groups before, immediately after, and one month after the learning. In other words, the determinants for environmentally conscious actions may not change as a result of environmental learning. The results suggest that prior studies on the determinants of environmentally conscious behavior that did not involve any environmental learning can be used as a reference for creating content on environmental learning. Environmentally conscious actions were influenced by attitude toward environmental preservation, affinity, value recognition, and social norm evaluations. In particular, attitude toward environmental preservation had a strong influence on environmentally conscious actions immediately after learning. It was suggested that to strengthen environmentally conscious actions, such actions should be influenced by the nature of attitude toward environmental preservation.