2002,
Marie Cheak, Trudi Volk, and Harold Hungerford
This illustrated CISDE monograph focuses on the effects of an important environmental education curriculum (Investigating and Evaluating Environmental Issues and Actions) on the students and the island community of Molokai, Hawaii. The researchers are enthusiastic about this study for several reasons. The island of Molokai tends to be a "community" itself, irrespective of the fact that several enclaves of house-holds exist there. It also has very definite bound-aries so there can be no argu-ment as to Molokai's geographic limits, that is the community is very clearly defined, at least in a geographic sense. The issue investigation curriculum is an established one — at the time of the data collection, it had been in place for five years.
The investigation dealt not only with teachers and students in the program but students' parents as well. In addition, community members were interviewed with fascinating results. In general, the components studied were:
• Subjects' familiarity with the curricular program.
• Perceived importance of the program for students, school, island community.
• Extent of the programmatic impact on students' reading and writing abilities.
• Effect on student reading practices.
• Effect on student motivation to read or write.
• Literacy behaviors exhibited by students.
• Student problem solving skills.
• Student interest in the environment of Molokai.
• Attempts by students to improve the environment of Molokai (or to solve an issue on Molokai or another island).
• Reactions to the program from students, staff/faculty, parents, island residents (community members).
• Criticisms of the program from students, staff/faculty, parents, island residents (community members).
Very briefly, it was found that the program impacts problem solving skills, technological skills, reading and writing skills, and responsible environmental behavior. Parents and community members were enthusiastic about the program and its impact on the students.
With respect to writing skills alone, one parent told the interviewers:
"[My daughter] now has a real purpose for writing. The old [writing] program [in another school] was the same old stuff — design a candy bar and a wrapper. Then write an advertisement to sell it. [The other school] had 'creative' kinds of projects like that. It still is a project. There is no real purpose there. It has no tie to the real world. It is creative — that is about all you can say. . . . We are very happy that [she] is in this [issue investigation] program. All of the children work on projects and they work together. It is so exciting to see them relate to the real world."
This monograph is available only from CISDE. Professionals interested in reading about this important investigation should write, email, or call for more information.
To Purchase this publication please contact CISDE or send an e-mail: cisde@midwest.net