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Young People's General Approach' to Environmental Issues in England and Germany.

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Title: Young People's General Approach' to Environmental Issues in England and Germany.
Language: English
Authors: Prelle, Sylvia, Solomon, Joan
Source: Compare. Mar 1996 26(1):91-101.
Peer Reviewed: N
Page Count: 11
Publication Date: 1996
Intended Audience: Researchers
Document Type: Journal Articles
Reports - Descriptive
Descriptors: Adolescents, Comparative Education, Cross Cultural Studies, Cultural Background, Cultural Influences, Environmental Education, Foreign Countries, Holistic Approach, Holistic Evaluation, Life Style, Political Issues, Secondary Education, Social Attitudes, Social Problems, Student Attitudes, Student Characteristics, Student Participation
Geographic Terms: Germany, United Kingdom (England)
ISSN: 0305-7925
Abstract: Reports on a study of adolescent students' opinions concerning environmental issues. Students from rural and urban areas in England and Germany answered questionnaires covering environmental issues, their individual lifestyles. Questionnaires included free writing sections. Attempts to understand the students'"umweltbewusstsein" (the whole range of a person's knowledge, attitudes, and behavior). (MJP)
Entry Date: 1997
Accession Number: EJ546584
Database: ERIC
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  Value: <anid>AN9607241129;CMO01MAR.96;1999Aug09.13:52;v4.0</anid> <jsection id="AN9607241129-1"> Research Report</jsection> <title id="AN9607241129-2">YOUNG PEOPLE'S 'GENERAL APPROACH' TO ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES IN ENGLAND AND GERMANY </title> <p>This paper reports on a study of 14-year-old school students from four different locations, i.e. London, Hamburg, a rural area in central England and a rural area in western Germany. It was based on responses to a detailed questionnaire which included questions about life-style, and also sections of free writing. The data were then interpreted by a new approach to the complex ways in which young people react to salient environmental issues. </p> <hd id="AN9607241129-3"> Different Issues, Different Links </hd> <p>Often in educational literature the link between the kind of environmental knowledge which education may impart, and the outcome in terms of responsible action, has been assumed to be linear in far too simplistic a sense: </p> <p>Environmental education helps to encourage awareness of the environment, leading to informed concern for, and active participation in, resolving environmental problems. (National Curriculum Council of Great Britain, 1990) </p> <p>It is well known from previous research that the connection between environmental education and environmental behaviour is not at all simple. In the first place, as Lehmann & Gerds (1991) have shown, environmental behaviour depends on the special nature of the issue as perceived by the individual. He writes that 'the characteristics which a person attributes to a specific environmental problem considerably influence their active ecological behaviour' (our translation). This is not only a question of individual perception; different issues certainly do affect different facets of human life and can have different social and moral dimensions. However, there is also evidence that some people are more likely than others to believe that their own activities may have an effect on the environment (Peyton & Miller, 1980). This aspect of environmental reaction is usually referred to as 'locus of control' and goes a long way towards explaining why there is no straightforward connection between environmental awareness and environmental action, across different issues (e.g. Wiesenmayer et al., 1984; Solomon, 1992). </p> <p>The complexity of these links between awareness and action is also a product of the wide range of the temporal and spacial dimensions in the issues encountered. Environmental problems may be local or global, and some of their effects may extend far beyond our life-times. Thus it is reasonable to expect a 'horizon of responsibility' in the scale of generations (Ziman, 1988) or a 'horizon of concern' in geographical or social space. For each issue and each person these limits extend a finite but variable extent from the observer's time and location. This is one reason why some philosophers, such as Jonas (1984), have argued for a completely new kind of environmental ethic. </p> <p>Environmental issues also have different dimensions with respect to political and sectional interests. Many have such complicated economic implications that some writers, such as Al Gore (1993), have suggested that fundamental changes to the organisation of human societies may be required for their resolution. On the other hand the German sociologist Ulrich Beck (1986) has argued that the 'cognitive opaqueness' of so many geographical and social issues is a feature of our 'Risikogesellschaft' (risk society) and leads inevitably to ambivalence and what he calls 'boundlessness' in decisions on technological issues. Clearly, this aspect of current environmental problems has particularly severe implications for young school students whose understanding of the structure of society and the nature of politics is likely to be very limited (Furth, 1980; Solomon, 1988). </p> <p>The characteristics of the knowledge needed to understand environmental issues are problematic. The resolution of issues may demand both highly specialised expert knowledge and new interdisciplinary approaches. The consequent necessity for students to rely on experts, who themselves either argue tangentially or are in open disagreement, may well cause frustration. Previous British research on the public understanding of science in circumstances of personal risk (Jenkins, 1990; Solomon, 1992; Wynne, 1992) has shown that such incomprehension may also result in resignation or anger and/or refusal to consider the issue any further. </p> <p>A similar attitude of rejection towards instruction can be produced by finding that there is very little possibility for the individual to understand what kind of action is feasible for the control or eradication of the environmental effects. While many young people in both Germany and Britain may be active in environmental causes, or may express approval for those who are, this does not necessarily imply that the students themselves have a well-understood plan for the resolution of some, or indeed any, environmental problems. Neither is it at all clear whether knowledge and instruction about the issues on which they are prepared to act are closely linked to any action. In their meta-analysis of research on the subject, Hines et al. (1987) have concluded that although some knowledge of the subject area is certainly a prerequisite for action, knowledge of available courses of action must also be present. </p> <p>Issues which involve threats to our own health, or threats to wildlife, tap into deep sources of idiosyncratic emotion. These relate to the strong moral impact that characterises so many environmental problems. Any attempt to resolve such problems needs to take into account notions of personal responsibility, rights and honourable behaviour. Much research (e.g. Iozzi, 1984: Marentvic-Pozarnik, 1995) indicates that both children and adults do use moral arguments, in either a reflective or non-reflective manner, when thinking about these contentious issues. </p> <hd id="AN9607241129-4"> Umweltbewusstsein or 'General approach' </hd> <p>In traditional work on intention and behaviour (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975) it is usual to adopt a linear model in which beliefs feed into attitudes, attitudes into intentions, and intentions into behaviour. Information, if accepted, is thought to change the subjects' beliefs (see Fig. 1). Despite the feedback loop between the resulting behaviour (action) and the beliefs about the behaviour, and also subsequent modifications to it, there are a lot of assumptions in this over-simplified model which make it difficult to apply to environmental issues in the light of the previous discussion. In the first place, it completely ignores the evaluative, moral and emotional perception of the issue. Secondly, it leaves out the cognitive/evaluative aspects of the action strategies. Related to this is the question of the subjects' own 'locus of control', their feelings of power or helplessness to act, which varies not only from person to person as we have argued, but also from one topic (e.g. litter) to another (e.g. nuclear wastes). </p> <p>In addition to these specific factors, which might perhaps easily be added to the original scheme in some form or other, there lies a deeper feeling of unease about any model of this kind. The scheme leaves so little room for the kinds of re-interpretation, multiple evaluation, or hermeneutic circles, which writers in the post-modern movement, such as Rorty, Dilthey and Geertz, have taught us to expect. We shall rerum to this point later. </p> <p>In the following discussion of data we shall use the German term ' Umweltbewusstsein' to describe the whole range of a person's knowledge, attitudes and behaviour (Rost et al., 1992). Szagun et al. (1994) have produced a useful summary of the standard models that try to define and measure Umweltbewusstsein but there is, as yet, no defined orthodoxy in the matter. Our approach is more generalised and less quantified, it thus avoids dissection into sharply defined categories and subcategories where the powerful concepts of belief, attitude and intention so often simply merge into each other. The word is taken to include the cognitive, moral and affective processes that form beliefs, interests and understanding, as well as, more indirectly, the resulting behaviour, but without making any assumptions about the mechanisms through which they might interconnect. It is this sense of Umweltbewusstsein which translates into the composite theoretical construct of 'general approach'. In practice this needs to be distinguished from the only observable feature of a person's reaction to an issue, their behaviour or action, which is not so much be based on it as loosely indicated by its general features. </p> <p>The Umweltbewusstsein of people towards an issue comprises both their awareness of it and their cognitive ability to understand its scientific, social and moral aspects. Both the awareness and the understanding may be influenced by a whole raft of general beliefs--some personal, some cultural, some deeply held and others little more than surface conventions, and all may be specific to the topics involved. The beliefs and behaviour that they inspire will have affective and moral components. </p> <p>In the context of environmental issues, cognitive abilities imply not just Piagetian logico-mathematical development but also knowledge of action strategies which are inevitably steeped in moral and social values. According to Kohlberg (1976), these moral and social values are also slowly acquired through childhood and adolescence. Amongst the 14-year-olds in our study, these abilities may not yet be fully developed. However, it may be important to remember that even if some standard test shows that a student could understand or react at a certain level of maturity to one issue, s/he may react differently to another issue with a different salience (Doise & Mugny, 1984). This effect is known as decollage in classical Piagetian theory and may well be expected to be more pronounced in the affective than in the cognitive domain. At all events, this is a study at one point in time and not only do adolescents mature, it is also true that adults change their views. We present it as a snap-shot of young people's views and attitudes. </p> <p>A more difficult and deep-seated sociological problem is the effect of context on role, and hence attitude. We need to be aware that the young people adopt different roles: they are pupils at school, sons or daughters at home, they are peers among their friends, and group members when they are caught up in an organisation. In each of these roles they have to meet different expectations, which may sometimes be at odds with each other. Even on paper this may have affected their written responses, depending on whether they felt themselves addressed as pupils, young people, or children. This may warn us to word the questions carefully, and yet still to expect some level of contradiction in the data. </p> <p>The final set of variables which determine this general approach to environmental issues is demographic and cultural. According to the meta-analysis of Hines et al. (1987) and Durant et al. (1989), socio-economic, education, age and gender-related factors all correlate with how we are likely to react to issues. Although it would clearly be a mistake to attribute a common causal link to these correlations they do colour in the 'local culture' of the group to which a person may be affiliated, and so make an impact on the cultural 'webs of significances' (Geertz, 1973) which colour all beliefs and attitudes almost without the person knowing it. We carried out our present study in the belief that different trends in overall national cultures, German or British, or the sub-cultures of urban or rural localities, or gender, do indeed affect reactions to environmental issues, and we hoped to catch at least some of these variations in the responses of our samples of young people. </p> <hd id="AN9607241129-5"> The Questionnaire </hd> <p>The first page enumerated nine environmental issues: </p> <ulist> <item> packaging and litter: </item> <item> acid rain; </item> <item> the hole in the ozone layer; </item> <item> the threat to wildlife; </item> <item> cutting down the rain forest; </item> <item> the use of private cars and public transport; </item> <item> nuclear power stations; </item> <item> farming and our food; </item> <item> the pollution of rivers and beaches. </item> </ulist> <p>In every case, two possible points of concern were indicated very briefly under each issue to remind students why it might be considered to be problematic. </p> <p>The students were asked first to tick one of two boxes labelled 'Very important' or 'Not so important' for each of the issues. Then they had to put a star beside the three issues they thought to be the most important. This provided a simple if rather crude way to rank order the perceived importance of the issues for our four samples of students-German, English, urban and rural. Then, for just these three 'starred' issues the students were asked to answer some questions on a second sheet in a few lines of free writing. </p> <p>The first question, 'Why do you think it is important?', allowed the students to display their understanding and knowledge of the issue which they had chosen. As argued above, understanding and knowledge in this context also includes the evaluation of its social and moral dimensions. In coding the students' answers, note was taken of the extra information provided and the emotional tone of the response. </p> <p>The second question, 'What do you think should be done about it?', begins to lead the student towards considering action, while still keeping close to the evaluative or attitudinal reaction. Those with a developed sense of political or social action had no difficulty in answering this question. However, it was also possible to answer in simplistic terms of what other people, or just 'they', should do. In coding their answers, note was taken of whether the student had written about 'I/we' or 'they' ('the government') or had suggested specific legislation. The phrasing of the question tried to ensure that it did not influence the student's answer very strongly in terms of the locus of control. </p> <p>The third question asked 'What do you yourself do about it?'. This was uncomfortably direct and confrontational. Some students, for some issues, felt able to give a positive answer. Many others simply wrote 'Nothing', either as a reaction to the challenging question or indicating that they recognised the issue as lying outside their locus of control. Some few also gave vent to feelings of angry helplessness, for example, 'There is nothing I can do' or 'What could I do?'. These types of responses were all carefully coded. </p> <p>The third sheet of the questionnaire made a simple attempt to map out some of the features of the student's life-style which might have indicated a disposition towards interest in the countryside, wildlife or animals. The very last question asked 'What do you think about groups like Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, etc.?'. Once again, this attempted to look at an aspect of the student's general approach rather than of their overt behaviour. </p> <hd id="AN9607241129-6"> Presentation of the Data </hd> <p>First we scored responses on the opening page of the questionnaire. Figure 2 below sets out a simple comparison between the German and English students' scoring of the three most important environmental issues. We can see that students of both nations were in general agreement about the three most important issues--the hole in the ozone layer, the cutting down of the rain forest and the threat to wildlife. Indeed, we need to look closely to find significant national differences in perceived importance. The German students considered packaging and nuclear power to be amongst the three most important more often than did the English students who rated acid rain and river pollution as starred issues significantly more frequently than did the Germans. </p> <p>Closer scrutiny of the whole sample's responses to page one yielded no significant overall differences at all with respect to urban/rural residence, and only two with respect to gender. Taking both nations together, the girls tended to consider the threat to wildlife as more important than the boys (more pronounced amongst German than English students); and more boys than girls (again more pronounced in Germany than in England) considered nuclear power as not very important. </p> <p>Not surprisingly, both German and English urban students were more likely to have packaging and litter as a starred issue than were rural students. But it was only English rural students who were significantly more concerned about acid rain than urban students and English rural students who thought issues of public and private transport significantly less important than did their urban counterparts. Amongst the German students, the girls were significantly more likely to have starred the threat to wildlife than the boys. (A similar difference was displayed in the English sample but not at a significant level.) </p> <p>Careful coding and analysis of the students' free writing on the second sheet of the questionnaire gave rather tantalising glimpses of their general approach to the three starred issues that they had chosen as being the most important in their eyes. Figure 3 shows the complete analysis of the three most popular issues. </p> <p>It is immediately clear that the three issues evoke very different responses. </p> <p>(<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref1">1</reflink>) Students write in predictably emotional tones about the threat to wildlife giving little in the way of cogent reasons for their concern. Hence they are less often wrong in the reasons that they give for the importance of the issue than they are for either the hole in the ozone layer, or for cutting down the rain forest. They are also less often right. It may be less surprising that the two issues concerned with animals, the threat to wildlife and farming methods, evoke the most emotional responses, and yet the similarity ends there. Fewer students were interested in farming methods but those who were often made more correct responses. Differences between the cognitive/affective nature of the students' responses appear in every case. </p> <p>(<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref2">2</reflink>) From Fig. 4 we see that the majority of students are prepared to say what 'others', in some general sense, should do about it, but a larger percentage (13.3%) can see a role for legislation with respect to the hole in the ozone layer and for cars and transport than for the other issues. From these answers, and those to the next question, we begin to see how the students perceive their own locus of control, their social understanding, knowledge of the subject area, and also knowledge of available courses of action. </p> <p>(<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref3">3</reflink>) When it comes to the challenge in the third question, the students are almost twice as likely to give a plausible response about what they would do about the issue with respect to the ozone layer, even if it is only using a sun cream, than they are to the threat to wildlife or to cutting down the rain forest. In both the latter cases about 10% of the students express feelings of helplessness. Perhaps it is surprising that they are no more emotional in this respect towards the threat to wildlife than they are towards the cutting down of the rain forest. The hole in the ozone layer, with its global political implications, evoked fewer feelings of impotence than either of the other two issues for these young students. Once more this suggests a quite different emotional colouring to argument about this issue from that provoked by more naturalistic issues. </p> <hd id="AN9607241129-7"> More Glimpses of Umweltbewusstsein </hd> <p>Information about the life-style of the students forms an important aspect of their Umweltbewusstsein but proves even more ambiguous and difficult to track down than the nature of their arguments about issues. We asked only a few general questions which we believed might be connected with attitudes towards environmental issues, but had to ignore completely any of those details of personal history which can sometimes have such a profound effect on both action and intention to act (Solomon, 1992). We then looked for significant connections in the cross-tabulations between these matters of life-style and the opinions expressed on the first sheet about environmental issues. </p> <p>The sample of English urban students came from just two schools, one of which was in an area of inner London with a mix of population, some from a long established community and an almost equal number from a first-generation population originating in the Indian sub-continent. The other English school was a large comprehensive situated in a very small country town which drew in students from all the surrounding villages. The German sample was drawn from two schools in Hamburg, both of which were ethnically fairly homogeneous, and two rural schools which were outside Hamburg and in Neresheim. It seems inevitable that a subtle mixture of sub-cultures of many varieties may be included in our sample. </p> <p>There were a few significant national differences in holiday activities, with the German students more likely to favour sunbathing by the seaside and sports, and the English keener on visiting places of interest. The greatest number in both samples were more likely to spend their holidays meeting friends and/or watching TV. </p> <p>Only about 20% of the students ticked observing wildlife as a holiday activity and these were significantly more likely to have the threat to wildlife, and farming methods, (but not cutting down the rain forest) as their most important environmental issues. Slightly fewer students went walking or hill climbing during their holidays and these were also significantly more likely to be concerned about farming methods but, perhaps surprisingly, did not rate river and beach pollution any more highly than non-walkers. </p> <p>The less naturalistic pastime of visiting places of interest, which was favoured by over 50% of the English students, related significantly with concern over the more industrial and less naturalistic issues--acid rain and nuclear power. </p> <p>There were also a few students who were active in the Friends of the Earth (FoE) or other environmental movements. It was instructive to see that nearly 80% of the whole student sample held a positive view about the FoE and the other environmental groups, with the effect being significantly stronger in Germany than in Britain. This suggests a firm place for these environmental groups in the prevalent school student culture. Not surprisingly, being active in FoE seemed to influence the students' rating of environmental issues. For this small group, only 3.9%, packaging and litter, acid rain, cars, nuclear power and farming methods were all significantly more important than for those who were not active in these environmental groups. It was also possible to detect a connection between the large numbers expressing general approval for the FoE and their preferred holiday activities: observing wildlife, going walking, sunbathing and doing sport. </p> <p>The question about pet-care yielded just one significant result. It seems that those who looked after their own pets were, as might be expected, significantly more likely than others to put the threat to wildlife as one of their three key issues. However, just having a pet in the family, but not taking care of it oneself, shows a smaller and less significant correlation with concern about wildlife. There were so few students in our sample who were vegetarian that we could gain no reliable information on this score. </p> <p>Finally, we found a few unexpected connections which were interesting, if a little puzzling. These included the observation that our urban German children reported going walking and observing wildlife more often than did rural German children, and that in both countries girls reported that they observe wildlife and go walking more often than do boys. These sort of results are probably easier to accept as being memorable events, or as acceptable features of the local or gender sub-cultures in Germany and Britain, than as the basis for an actual census of country walkers. </p> <hd id="AN9607241129-8"> Interpretations </hd> <p>Although the study was carried out by means of a questionnaire administered to a comparatively small sample of students in four disparate locations, it has provided us with far more intriguing data than it might have been expected to do. Before we attempt any interpretation, there are a few elements of 'noise' in our data that need to be mentioned. First, it was apparent that the German students had more correct information about most of the environmental issues and that they wrote more fluently about them. We guessed that they had learnt more at school about these issues, and we knew that some of the English students were recent immigrants to that country and clearly had difficulty in writing at all. Some of their second sheets were left completely empty. </p> <p>Nevertheless, the data obtained fulfilled two valuable functions. In the first place they showed clearly how very different in emotional tone, cognition and invitation to act, these nine issues appeared to be to the students. No simple overall model, cognitive, social or moral, seemed likely to encompass all this diversity. </p> <p>Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, our data produced enough connections with life-style to add support to the idea of environmental awareness and behaviour based on the far looser concept of Umweltbewusstsein. The curious clusters of significant cross-tabulations between issues and life-styles, and life-styles and nationality, situation or gender, cast doubt on both linear models of environmental awareness and also on the kind of Marxist determinism which insists on causal relations based on social self-interest. The young people had life-styles, in terms of the holiday activities they preferred, attitudes towards environmental groups and care for animals, some of which showed a significant link with their environmental concerns. This certainly suggests an interactive model of influences but not one which is either linear or causal in the manner so often accepted. We also found that the emotional tone of the students' comments varied from issue to issue in a way which was hard for any outsider to interpret. </p> <p>On the basis of these features we begin to see Umweltbewusstsein as nearer to a cultural product than to a mere collection of factors. For example, the placing of the ozone layer near the top of the students' list of concerns, together with their comparatively cool but correct way of talking about it, would not have been easy to forecast but was common to students of both genders and both nations. On the other hand, there were marked differences between the genders and the nations about river pollution, with greater interest amongst English boys, although the tone of response was emotionally cool. On the threat to wildlife, all the students were emotionally committed, as might be expected, but found difficulty in writing to the point. Taking a global view of these disparate results we may begin to see that these agreements on what it is right to emote about, or what is right for girls or boys to do, points to factors which are social and cultural, not just personal. </p> <p>Conventionally, explorations of culture have been carried out by means of intensive in-depth interviews with single subjects, or by 'living with the natives'. These methods claim, or at least seek, to capture the most intimate or ill-defined thoughts and feelings of others about what we, but not they, have defined as problems or issues. However, we adults may all live with adolescents without being able to understand their attitudes, let alone our own. Ethnographic researchers commonly pour scorn on the use of questionnaire methods of research for cultural ends and yet we claim that this small study has gone some distance along the cultural path with respect to general environmental approach, or Umweltbewusstsein, without recourse to traditional anthropological methodology. </p> <p>Cultural effects are so close to us that answering questions about them directly is often hard, and understanding the answers may prove too highly problematic for others. All we have caught in the way responses to our questionnaire about environmental issues and life-style are a few intimations of group preferences in style and behaviour which may be called cultural in a local sense. Capturing such illusive cultural aspects by any methodology is never easy for reasons which Geertz has eloquently described in his analysis of 'local culture'. </p> <p>To grasp concepts that, for another people, are experience-near, and to do so well enough to place them in illuminating connection with experience-distant concepts theorists have fashioned to capture the general features of social life [or of attitudes towards the environment], is clearly a task at least as delicate, if a bit less magical, as putting oneself in someone else's skin. (Geertz, 1993, p. 58; our addition in brackets) </p> <p> <bold> Correspondence: </bold> Dr Joan Solomon, University of Oxford Department of Educational Studies, 15 Norham Gardens, Oxford, OX2 6PY, UK. </p> <p>DIAGRAM: FIG. 1. Traditional linear model with feedback. </p> <p>GRAPH: FIG. 2. Responses 'very important' to the nine environmental issues. </p> <p>GRAPH: FIG. 3. Cognitive/affective responses to the three starred issues. </p> <p>GRAPH: FIG. 4. Indications of locus of control on the three starred issues. </p> <hd id="AN9607241129-9"> REFERENCES </hd> <p>BECK, U. (1986) Risikogesellschaft--auf em Weg in eine andere Moderne (Frankfurt am Main, Suhrkamp Verlag). </p> <p>DOISE, W. & MUGNY, G. (1984) The Social Development of Intellect (Oxford, Pergamon Press). </p> <p>DURANT, J., EVANS, G. & THOMAS, G. (1989) The public understanding of science, Nature, 340, pp. 11-14. </p> <p>FISHBEIN, M. & AJZEN, I. (1975) Belief, Attitude and Behaviour. An introduction to theory and research (Reading, MA, Addison-Wesley). </p> <p>FURTH, H. (1980) The World of the Grown-ups (New York, Elsevier). </p> <p>GEERTZ, C. (1973) The Interpretation of Cultures (New York, Basic Books). </p> <p>GEERTZ, C. (1993) Local Knowledge (London, Fontana Press). </p> <p>GORE, A. (1993) The Earth in Balance (New York, Plumebook, Penguin). </p> <p>HINES, J., HUNGERFORD, H. & TOMERA, A. (1987) Analysis and synthesis of research on responsible environmental behaviour: a meta-analysis, Journal of Environmental Education, 18, pp. 1-8. </p> <p>IOZZI, L. (1984) Summary of research in environmental education, in: L. IOZZI (Ed.) Monographs in Environmental Education and Environmental Studies (Columbus, Ohio State University). </p> <p>JENKINS, E. (1990) Domestic energy and the elderly: the understanding of energy, paper presented at the Public Understanding of Science Conference, Science Museum, London. </p> <p>JONAS, H. (1984) Das Prinzip Verantwortung (Frankfurt am Main, Suhrkamp Verlag). </p> <p>KOHLBERG, L. (1976) Moral Stages and Moralisation, in: T. LICKONS (Ed.) Moral Development and Behaviour, pp. 2-15 (London, Holt Rinehart & Winston). </p> <p>LEHMANN, J. & GERDS, L. (1991) Merkmale von Umweltproblemen als Ausloser okologischen handelns, in: G. EULEFELD, D. BOLSCHO & H. SLYBOLD (Eds) Umweltbewusstsein und Umwelterziehung (Kiel, IPN). </p> <p>MARENTVIC-POZARNIK, B.M. (1995) Probing into pupils' moral judgement in environmental dilemmas: a basis for teaching values, Environmental Education Research 1, pp. 47-58. </p> <p>NATIONAL CURRICULUM COUNCIL OF GREAT BRITAIN (1990) Guide 7 Environmental Education (London, HMSO). </p> <p>PEYTON, R. & MILLER, B. (1980) Developing an internal locus of control as a prerequisite for taking environmental action, in: A. SACKS et al. (Eds) Year Book of Environmental Education, pp. 173-192 (Columbus, OH, Ohio State University). </p> <p>ROST, J., EIGENBROT, D., DAVIER, M. & SENKBEIL, M. (1992) Ein Situationsfragebogen zur Erfassung von Bewaltigungsstrategien beim Umgang mit Informationen uber die Umwelt, in: G. EULEFELD (Ed.) Empirische Studien im Bersich der Umwelterziehung--Voraussetzungen, Zwischenberichte, Ergebnisse (Kiel, IPN). </p> <p>SOLOMON, J. (1988) Science Technology and Society Courses: tools for thinking about social issues, International Journal of Science Education, 10, pp. 379-387. </p> <p>SOLOMON, J. (1992) The classroom discussion of science-based social issues presented on television: knowledge, attitudes and values, International Journal of Science Education, 14, pp. 431-444. </p> <p>SZAGUN, G., MESENHOLL, E. & JELEN, M. (1994) Umweltbewusstsein bei Kindern und Jungendlichen (Frankfurt, Peter Lang). </p> <p>WEISENMAYER, R., MURRIN, M. & TOMERA, A. (1984) Environmental education research related to issue awareness, in: L. IOZZI (Ed.) Monographs in Environmental Education and Environmental Studies (Columbus, Ohio State University). </p> <p>WYNNE, B. (1992) Public understanding of science research: new horizons or hall of mirrors, Public Understanding of Science, 1, pp. 37-44. </p> <p>ZIMAN, J. (1988) Deciding about Energy Policy (London, CSS Report). </p> <aug> <p>By Sylvia Prelle and Joan Solomon </p> </aug> <nolink nlid="nl1" bibid="bib1" firstref="ref1"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl2" bibid="bib2" firstref="ref2"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl3" bibid="bib3" firstref="ref3"></nolink>
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  Data: Young People's General Approach' to Environmental Issues in England and Germany.
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  Label: Authors
  Group: Au
  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Prelle%2C+Sylvia%22">Prelle, Sylvia</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Solomon%2C+Joan%22">Solomon, Joan</searchLink>
– Name: TitleSource
  Label: Source
  Group: Src
  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="SO" term="%22Compare%22"><i>Compare</i></searchLink>. Mar 1996 26(1):91-101.
– Name: PeerReviewed
  Label: Peer Reviewed
  Group: SrcInfo
  Data: N
– Name: Pages
  Label: Page Count
  Group: Src
  Data: 11
– Name: DatePubCY
  Label: Publication Date
  Group: Date
  Data: 1996
– Name: Audience
  Label: Intended Audience
  Group: Audnce
  Data: Researchers
– Name: TypeDocument
  Label: Document Type
  Group: TypDoc
  Data: Journal Articles<br />Reports - Descriptive
– Name: Subject
  Label: Descriptors
  Group: Su
  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Adolescents%22">Adolescents</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Comparative+Education%22">Comparative Education</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Cross+Cultural+Studies%22">Cross Cultural Studies</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Cultural+Background%22">Cultural Background</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Cultural+Influences%22">Cultural Influences</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Environmental+Education%22">Environmental Education</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Foreign+Countries%22">Foreign Countries</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Holistic+Approach%22">Holistic Approach</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Holistic+Evaluation%22">Holistic Evaluation</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Life+Style%22">Life Style</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Political+Issues%22">Political Issues</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Secondary+Education%22">Secondary Education</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Social+Attitudes%22">Social Attitudes</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Social+Problems%22">Social Problems</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Student+Attitudes%22">Student Attitudes</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Student+Characteristics%22">Student Characteristics</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Student+Participation%22">Student Participation</searchLink>
– Name: Subject
  Label: Geographic Terms
  Group: Su
  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Germany%22">Germany</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22United+Kingdom+%28England%29%22">United Kingdom (England)</searchLink>
– Name: ISSN
  Label: ISSN
  Group: ISSN
  Data: 0305-7925
– Name: Abstract
  Label: Abstract
  Group: Ab
  Data: Reports on a study of adolescent students' opinions concerning environmental issues. Students from rural and urban areas in England and Germany answered questionnaires covering environmental issues, their individual lifestyles. Questionnaires included free writing sections. Attempts to understand the students'"umweltbewusstsein" (the whole range of a person's knowledge, attitudes, and behavior). (MJP)
– Name: DateEntry
  Label: Entry Date
  Group: Date
  Data: 1997
– Name: AN
  Label: Accession Number
  Group: ID
  Data: EJ546584
PLink https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=eric&AN=EJ546584
RecordInfo BibRecord:
  BibEntity:
    Languages:
      – Text: English
    PhysicalDescription:
      Pagination:
        PageCount: 11
        StartPage: 91
    Subjects:
      – SubjectFull: Adolescents
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Comparative Education
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Cross Cultural Studies
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Cultural Background
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Cultural Influences
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Environmental Education
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Foreign Countries
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Holistic Approach
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Holistic Evaluation
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Life Style
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Political Issues
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Secondary Education
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Social Attitudes
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Social Problems
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Student Attitudes
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Student Characteristics
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Student Participation
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Germany
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: United Kingdom (England)
        Type: general
    Titles:
      – TitleFull: Young People's General Approach' to Environmental Issues in England and Germany.
        Type: main
  BibRelationships:
    HasContributorRelationships:
      – PersonEntity:
          Name:
            NameFull: Prelle, Sylvia
      – PersonEntity:
          Name:
            NameFull: Solomon, Joan
    IsPartOfRelationships:
      – BibEntity:
          Dates:
            – D: 01
              M: 01
              Type: published
              Y: 1996
          Identifiers:
            – Type: issn-print
              Value: 0305-7925
          Numbering:
            – Type: volume
              Value: 26
            – Type: issue
              Value: 1
          Titles:
            – TitleFull: Compare
              Type: main
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