Videos in the Classroom Can Help Teach about the Endangered Species Act

Previous research shows that educational videos can improve environmental knowledge and attitudes. Since videos are already commonplace in many schools, they present a major opportunity for reaching young audiences. However, studies evaluating the effectiveness of these videos in a classroom context are limited. To investigate the viability of videos in formal environmental education (EE), the authors of this study conducted an experiment using videos about the United States' Endangered Species Act (ESA).

The authors chose to create and use videos about the ESA, because the law is complicated and often controversial. To foster positive attitudes, the ESA requires careful explanation and framing, which the authors believe makes it an ideal candidate for presentation in video format. They produced three videos, each roughly 20 minutes long. Each video told a narrative about a species in a different stage of recovery under the ESA.

To evaluate the effectiveness of these videos, the researchers screened them to six 10th-grade classes in an Oregon high school, showing one video to each class. A total of 140 students completed questionnaires about their knowledge and attitudes regarding the ESA before and after viewing the video. The questionnaire gathered information on how much students learned from the video, whether and how their attitudes toward the ESA changed, and which videos were associated with the greatest changes.

The researchers concluded that all three videos significantly improved student knowledge about the ESA. However, knowledge retention varied according to which video students watched. Only one video caused student attitudes toward the ESA to become significantly more favorable. The authors hypothesize that this video's success may have been due to its positive tone, encouraging message, and efforts to directly address arguments against the ESA.

This study demonstrates that video styles and topics can affect knowledge retention and attitudes. Therefore, teachers should not expect all environmental videos to be equally successful in the classroom. More research is necessary to understand the impact of videos in other locations and age ranges. Additionally, the post-video questionnaire did not examine the long-term effects of the videos. Furthermore, the authors considered a video to be successful if it caused students to feel more positively about the ESA; this is a subjective viewpoint, and may not be consistent with every educator's goals.

Showing educational videos in the classroom appears likely to improve content retention. The authors recommend showing carefully crafted, positively-framed videos to improve students' attitudes toward the ESA and conservation topics more broadly. When selecting a video, teachers should ensure it presents a thorough and well-balanced perspective of the issue. The authors call for further investigation into the best practices for creating environmental education videos.