Cognitive engagement leads to greater environmental stewardship intentions and behaviors

Environmental education teaches people about environmental impacts and encourages them to adjust their behaviors to be better environmental stewards. In an informal setting, environmental interpretation (EI), a form of EE, presents information in a way that promotes reflection and a positive behavioral change. The Junior Ranger (JR) program is an example of an EI program in U.S. National Parks. The purpose of the program is to provide children the opportunity to improve awareness of environmental issues and instill behaviors of advocacy and conservation. These kinds of programs seek to achieve “elaboration,” which is defined as awareness, interest in learning, and cognitive engagement. The authors of this study sought to understand if the Great Smoky Mountains National Park JR program could lead to greater elaboration, and whether elaboration could influence participants' stewardship intentions and behaviors.

The elaboration likelihood model (ELM) suggests that elaboration may lead to a change in attitude and behavior, and it can occur through two different routes: central or peripheral. While peripheral cues do not require much thought and are short and direct (example: “don't litter”), they are less likely to persuade people unless constantly present. However, central messages inspire deeper interest in a topic so that people are more inclined to process information, to come to their own conclusions, and to shift their attitudes. Because elaboration is more likely to occur through the central route, the authors believed that higher levels of elaboration would be connected to a greater intent to engage in stewardship behaviors that could be applied in national parks, at home, and in the community.

This study took place in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and the authors developed their survey by first providing pilot surveys to children in other programs and improving questions based on feedback. The final survey was distributed before and after the JR program experience to two independent samples, children from ages 8-13. The survey measured the three constructs of elaboration (awareness, interest, and cognitive engagement) and the three types of stewardship behaviors that may follow from elaboration (in-park, at-home, and community behaviors). A total of 164 pre-experience surveys and 185 post-experience surveys were analyzed using statistics and modeling. The ratio of males to females was fairly equal, the participants had a mean age of 10, and the majority (90%) of participants were white.

The results of this study suggested increases in participants' awareness, interest, and cognitive engagement, as well as the self-reported behaviors and intentions to commit to perform in-park, home, and community stewardship. All aspects related to awareness improved, which included ideas related to healthy animals and plants to benefit the parks and the planet. For interest in learning, two out of three items, such as how to keep park rivers clean and how to preserve park cultural sites, significantly increased. Two of four items for cognitive engagement, including how to behave when visiting the park and how important parks are, significantly increased. Reported behaviors, such as cleaning up litter within parks, volunteering and talking with others in the community, and recycling and turning off lights at home, improved after the program.

This study was limited by the age of the participants since they were all children, and the results may have been influenced by the social desire to provide pleasing information. Because the study asked about self-reported behaviors instead of measuring behaviors, this could limit the validity of the analysis. Furthermore, results may differ in other park locations and in different EI programs.

The authors recommend that the ELM be considered when practitioners are creating youth programs, because they could target elaboration by providing opportunities to reflect on concepts and issues and support cognitive engagement. The authors provided a few examples of how to incorporate this kind of EE into programs, such as active engagement in real environmental problems. They also suggested participant-centered learning to encourage self-efficacy and establishing place-based programs in nature. Generating emotional connections to places, possibly through community collaboration and student discussion, could also enhance engagement.