HOW INDIVIDUAL ENVIRONMENTAL VALUES INFLUENCE KNOWLEDGE ACQUISITION OF ADOLESCENTS WITHIN A WEEK-LONG OUTREACH BIODIVERSITY MODULE

The relationship of adolescents with nature is considered to be of major importance. Consequently, fostering positive environmental values in line with related knowledge was a main intention of our four-day residential outdoor education module within the environment of a forest national park. Using a pre-, post-, retention-test design, we applied the 2-MEV model three times to monitor environmental values and cognitive knowledge, measured by a knowledge scale aligned with program objectives. Our student sample consisted of 333 fourth and fifth graders with a mean age of about 10 years. The typical 2-MEV structure consisting of two higher-order factors “Preservation” and “Utilization” was separately confirmed three times, consistently yielding remarkable structure stability and the dichotomous score pattern. While the factors correlate negatively with each other, their relationship with knowledge acquisition pointed to a positive relationship with preservation preferences. Nevertheless, the acquisition pattern clearly was negatively influenced by utilitarian preferences. The interrelationships of program contents, environmental values and knowledge acquisition are discussed in relation to educational planning procedures.