Student: Mika Mandeville
Graduation date: May 2017
Type: Concentration (single major)
Date approved: October 2016
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Summary
Since writing my initial concentration, Water Distribution in Relation to the Economic Disparities in Megacities, I took three EDU courses and became actively involved in two service programs within the education field. These experiences all fostered a more tangible focus for my concentration. I chose change my concentration entirely from water management to education, in order to actively study an area that I can now see myself going into beyond school; informal education programs. Furthermore, this concentration holds more relevance to my immediate context and will allow me to study directly in Portland.
Education takes place in a wide range of learning environments, both formal and informal. Within the United States’ formal educational system, “differences in race, ethnicity, social class, language, gender, sexual orientation, and religion all define inequality in public education” (Neito 2005, 44). Furthermore, within informal learning environments, “participants tend to exhibit great degrees of heterogeneity when they enter free-choice learning experiences” (Herman et al. 2013, 4). A student’s school shapes their education, but so does its context such as the prevalent industries, outdoors spaces, community centers, and museums. Additionally, the surrounding community members and their values can foster ways of thinking in young individuals. These external and internal factors create a unique learning experience for each student, even within the same physical space. Studying the characteristics of both formal and informal learning environments may provide insight into how the relationship between these two enhance or detract from environmental education.
The external spaces, in which education occurs, can be referred to as informal learning environments. The learning that takes place in these environments has been popularly termed by Falk et al. (2009) as free-choice learning, and is specifically “voluntary, often socially mediated, and stimulated by the needs and interests of the learner” (Kola-Olusanya 2005, 1). Free-choice learning is initiated by the learner, and is independent from formal education requirements. However, research shows that informal learning environments are more effective when there is overlap between school-based learning and informal learning experience. For this reason, informal learning environments can be studied through the context of formal education. Herman et al. (2013, 5) states, “to help situate environmental free-choice learning within the goal of lifelong learning, it must be intimately integrated with other learning experiences, including those in the formal school environment.” Additionally Bozdoğan (2008, 2) acknowledges that, “though formal education and informal education are interlocked and complement each other, they are educational areas with totally different features” and the significance of both needs to be recognized.
Not only are students disadvantaged by the inequalities mentioned above, teachers also face challenges within the context of incorporating informal learning environments into formal education; both Bozdoğan (2008) and Walsh and Straits (2014) strongly emphasize how essential the teacher’s role is in planning an effective learning experience. It is necessary for teachers to carefully plan and be engaged at all stages of the learning experience, in order for an informal learning experience to be fully integrated. This can be difficult for teachers when they are bound to standardized assessments when measuring the “learning outcomes” or “success” of informal learning. Often, the experiences that students find most beneficial and lasting are not directly linked to the curriculum or their teacher’s aim (Storksdieck et al. 2005). Lohman (2000, 7) identifies four inhibitors that teachers face: “lack of time for learning, lack of proximity to learning resources, lack of meaningful rewards for learning, and limited decision-making power in school management.” Unfortunately, not all schools will have the resources to help their teachers create truly complimentary learning experiences.
Incorporating informal learning environments into formal education has the potential to relate learning to a reality outside the classroom, especially within Environmental Education (EE), which is multidisciplinary in nature. In their research, Loughland et al. (2013, 12) found most students view the “environment” as “something out there”, and don’t develop a ‘relation’ conception. This is not the goal of environmental education, as Farmer et al. (2007, 34) identify the three goals of EE to be: “gain an understanding of their connection to the natural world and the underlying principles”, “understand their roles within the environment”, and “how they can become “catalyst for the changes” needed”. This relationship between formal and informal learning is of particular interest within the field of Environmental Education because it may increase a ‘relation’ conception in students, and enhance an understanding of their context.
Sources
Bozdoğan, Aykut E. 2008. “Planning and Evaluation of Field Trips to Informal Learning Environments: Case of the ‘energy Park.’” Journal of Theory and Practice in Education 4 (2): 282–90.
Farmer, James, Doug Knapp, and Gregory M. Benton. 2007. “An Elementary School Environmental Education Field Trip: Long-Term Effects on Ecological and Environmental Knowledge and Attitude Development.” Journal of Environmental Education 38 (3): 33–42.
Herman, Benjamin C., Joanne K. Olson, James D. Holtz, and James T. Colbert. 2013. “The Relationship between Environmental Free-Choice Learning and Students’ Learning, Attitudes, and Policy Views about Waterways.” International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education 11 (6): 1327–50. doi:10.1007/s10763-012-9379-3.
Kola‐Olusanya, Anthony. 2005. “Free‐choice Environmental Education: Understanding Where Children Learn outside of School.” Environmental Education Research 11 (3): 297–307. doi:10.1080/13504620500081152.
Lohman, Margaret C. 2000. “Environmental Inhibitors to Informal Learning in the Workplace: A Case Study of Public School Teachers.” Adult Education Quarterly 50 (2): 83–101. doi:10.1177/07417130022086928.
Loughland, Tony, Anna Reid, Kim Walker, and Peter Petocz. 2003. “Factors Influencing Young People’s Conceptions of Environment.” Environmental Education Research 9 (1): 3–20.
Nieto, Sonia. 2005. “Public Education in the Twentieth Century and Beyond: High Hopes, Broken Promises, and an Uncertain Future.” Harvard Educational Review 75 (1): 43-64.
Storksdieck, Martin, Kirsten Ellenbogen, and Joe E. Heimlich. 2005. “Changing Minds? Reassessing Outcomes in Free-Choice Environmental Education.” Environmental Education Research 11 (3): 353–69.
Walsh, Lori, and William Straits. 2014. “Informal Science Learning in the Formal Classroom.” Science and Children 51 (9): 54–58.
Questions
- Descriptive: What are the prominent informal learning environments incorporated into the formal educational system? What actors participate in this relationship between informal and formal learning environments?
- Explanatory: Why are informal learning environments used to supplement the learning in formal environments? What are the characteristics of informal learning environments that have the potential to enhance or detract from a student’s education?
- Evaluative: How is the learning that takes place in informal learning environments measured and assessed? Who benefits from the integration of informal learning environments, and in what ways?
- Instrumental: How can informal learning experiences be used across multiple subjects to foster multidisciplinary learning? How can informal learning environments become accessible to a wider range of students?
Concentration courses
- SOAN 305 (Environmental Sociology, 4 credits), spring 2015. This course provided insight to how environmental studies in Portland Public Schools are present and integrated into a variety of setting within society at large.
- ED 215 (Education in a Complex World, 4 credits), fall 2015. This course deepened my understanding of the current complexities present in education, and included a practical component where I observed a classroom in Portland weekly and first-hand.
- ED 446 (Reimagining Teaching and Learning, 4 credits), spring '16. This course reflected on the students' response to educational institutions, which assisted me in envisioning alternative learning environments with a strong understanding of the current situation.
- ED 455 (Science Education in the 21st Century, 4 credits), spring '16. This course will help me understand the significance of scientific education within and beyond school as well as how it is currently taught, a vital component to the interdisciplinary nature of environmental studies.
- ED 405 (Phil/Practice Environ/Ecol Ed, 4 credits), spring '17. This course explores the field that my concentration is based in. It will provide me with fundamental sources that will be applicable to the top and bottom of my project's hourglass.
Arts and humanities courses
- HIST 261 (Global Environmental History, 4 credits). Pre-approved A&H course; no justification required.
- PHIL 215 (Philosophy and the Environment, 4 credits). Pre-approved A&H course; no justification required.