A re-assessment of factors associated with environmental concern and behavior using the 2010 General Social Survey

The associations between social and psychological influences and environmental attitudes, intentions and behavior have generated considerable interest, both in the fields of environmental behavior and of environmental education. We use the 2010 General Social Survey (GSS) to study these associations and expand the scope of earlier studies by including additional measures across social demographic, social psychological and behavioral blocks. The findings highlight the relationships between social psychological constructs and environmental concern and behavior, as well as the relationships between social demographic characteristics and environmental values and beliefs. The findings from this study will be useful to environmental educators and communicators interested in studying the social psychological and social demographic bases of environmental concern and behavior.     

The National Environmental Literacy Project: A Baseline Study of Middle Grade Students in the United States

The authors discuss environmental literacy in the United States and present a brief summary of the results of a major national study designed to attain a baseline measure of environmental literacy among middle school students in the United States The authors include events that led up to the study and desctibe future directions for environmental literacy assessment.     

美国课堂管理中的新方法:行为契约

行为契约是美国课堂管理行为主义控制派的管理方法之一,用以矫正学生的行为.本文介绍了课堂行为契约的种种类型,并对它的起草、签订和修改进行了讨论,对课堂行为契约的功能与机理等问题进行了探索.     

Childhood Ideology in the United States: A Comparative Cultural View

Childhood ideology functions in each nation as a complex of ideas about what children are like and how best to teach and socialise them. One important domain of childhood ideology concerns ideas and practices related to children's development and behaviour management. Drawing from an analysis of popular childrearing magazines and early childhood education materials in the United States, this cultural study describes contemporary American mainstream beliefs concerning children's early emotional and behavioural development. In particular, the paper explores themes of emotional expression, autonomy, individuality, power, and consumerism. Some comparisons with Japanese views on child development and emotional/behavioural socialisation are also made. The paper suggests that popular ideas and techniques of emotional and behavioural management in the United States in both families and early childcare environments reflect a dominant ideology of children that has potentially negative consequences for children's welfare. Furthermore, childhood ideologies, while retaining culturally specific values and ideas neither remain static nor exist in isolation from one another. The paper questions the global diffusion of a Western-style professionalised discourse of child psychology that may not be applicable to all nations and their children.     

Environmental Education in the United States: A Survey of Preservice Teacher Education Programs

Abstract

The status of the environmental education component of preservice teacher education programs is unknown nationally. This study surveyed 715 institutions of teacher education using a mail questionnaire. The response rate was approximately 63%. The results indicate that most schools have few requirements related to environmental education, and in the majority of schools environmental education is not institutionalized.     

Gender Effects in Assessment of Economic Knowledge and Understanding: Differences Among Undergraduate Business and Economics Students in Germany,Japan, and the United States

Gender effects in large-scale assessments have become an increasingly important research area within and across countries. Yet few studies have linked differences in assessment results of male and female students in higher education to construct-relevant features of the target construct. This paper examines gender effects on students’ economic content knowledge with a focus on construct-relevant explanations. Moreover, we compare gender effects cross-nationally between Germany, Japan, and the United States. To assess economic content knowledge of higher education students, we used translated, adapted, and validated versions of the Test of Understanding in College Economics (TUCE, 4th ed.), an instrument that is commonly used internationally. We found gender effects on test scores in all three countries; effects were larger in Germany and the United States than in Japan. Gender effects were generally more pronounced on the numeracy subscale than on the literacy subscale, that is, male students had a greater edge over female students when items required calculations. In our conclusion, we discuss how numeracy and literacy items may tap different abilities.     

环境教育实施与环境行为养成——以台湾某国小高年级学生为例

以自编的“环境行为问卷”为研究工具,以桃园某国小全体五、六年级学生为研究对象,以问卷调查法收集资料,再用t考验、单因子变异数、皮尔逊积差相关、多元回归做统计分析,研究结果均指出学童参与打扫行为的表现是正向且积极的,而打扫行为与环境行为间亦有很高的相关性,打扫行为与环境态度可决定学生环境行为的强弱指标．由此看出,学校环境教育方法与内容得当,会对环境行为的养成有极大帮助．     

工读学生攻击性行为与社会问题解决特点的研究

本研究采用投射测验,通过集体开放式问卷的形式来比较工读生和普通生攻击性行为社会问题解决的特点。结果表明:(1)和普通生相比,工读生在社会问题的解决中攻击性和操纵性反应比较明显,亲社会的策略较少。(2)当被要求寻找其他替代性的策略去解决问题时,工读生提出的解决问题的策略的数量通常少于普通学生,解决问题的方式、变通性和可行性都较普通学生差,可以看出他们缺乏人际冲突解决的必要技巧和方法。他们在社会问题解决上表现出的这些特点都和他们的攻击性行为有一定的关系。     

中美两国的理工科大学人文素质教育比较研究

人文素质是理工科大学生综合素质的重要组成部分,它更多是倾向于社会人的基本素质的培养。然而随着中国现代化步伐的突飞猛进,一些院校为了追求卓越的学术成就和轰动的市场名利,淡化了人文素质教育,以至于大学生尤其是理工科大学生的人文素质令人堪忧,很多问题和缺憾渐渐凸显出来。然而在美国工科院校的课程设置调研中却发现:人文素质类课程占比较高,形式多样,几乎与专业课持平。加强理工科大学生的人文素质教育已成为世界高等教育的发展趋势。本文采取调查研究、数据分析、文献解读和梳理等研究方法,对中美两国的理工科大学人文素质教育的现状进行了比对,互相取长补短,以期推进我国理工科大学的人文素质教育水平的提升。     

An Analysis of the Predictive Validity of the New Ecological Paradigm Scale

Abstract

The widely used New Environmental Paradigm (NEP) scale was recently revised to address concerns about its dimensionality and validity. As an ever larger number of researchers from an increasing variety of disciplines incorporate environmental issues into their research, the need for environmental concern measures such as the NEP will broaden. The authors evaluated the predictive validity of the original and revised versions of the NEP scale, some abbreviated NEP-derived scales, and a non-NEP environmental attitudes scale. All of these scales explained a significant amount of the variance in a measure of intention to engage in proenvi-ronmental behavior. Based on the results, the authors suggest how researchers should use these scales in their research.     

Variation in Environmentalism Among University Students: Majoring in Outdoor Recreation,Parks, and Tourism Predicts Environmental Concerns and Behaviors

In a survey of Canadian university students (N = 205), the relationship between majoring in an outdoor recreation university program and environmental concern, cooperation, and behavior were examined. Stepwise linear regression indicated that enrollment in outdoor recreation was predictive of environmental behavior and ecological cooperation; and these results held independently of age and gender. We then examined the possibility that environmental concern may mediate these relationships. Inclusion of ecocentrism as a mediating variable indicated that environmental concern partially accounted for the relation between outdoor recreation and self-reported environmental behavior, and fully mediated (reduced to nonsignificance) the relationship between outdoor recreation and ecological cooperation. Results are discussed in the context of education, and more specifically experiential outdoor education as promoting environmental behavior through greater concern for the ecosystem.     

Teamwork and Entrepreneurial Behavior among K-12 Teachers in the United States

Abstract

This study attempted to identify the predictors of entrepreneurial behavior by assessing a series of variables that included teamwork skills and demographic variables, and to explore teachers’ experiences with teamwork. A sample of 367?K-12 public school teachers completed the survey. The findings indicated that teamwork predicts entrepreneurial behavior. Most participants received teamwork training through their school districts. Barriers to teamwork included time constraints, individual differences, and inability to collaborate.     

美国高校环境伦理教育探析

环境教育的最终目标之一是改变人们的环境行为,而环境教育研究表明,单一的“知识-态度-行为”转化模式是难以取得预期效果的,环境行为的核心涉及到人们的环境态度和伦理责任,环境教育的重心也需放在环境伦理教育上。美国高校自20世纪70年代初就开展了环境伦理教育,在30多年的发展过程中积累了很多值得我们学习的经验和教训。     

文化差异对美国汉语课堂教学的影响

文章基于Hofstede提出的集体主义社会文化和个人主义社会文化的差异在课堂中的具体反映,结合个体的教学经验,分析在美国本土的汉语教学中,教师如何适应这种不同的社会文化对课堂教学的影响。文章所讨论的具体内容包括学习动机、课堂发言、回答问题、学生提问、考试成绩和教学中的公平原则等六个方面。     

Fostering changes in attitude,knowledge and behavior: demographic variation in environmental education effects

This study employs a uniquely multi-factorial, large-scale design to investigate baseline differences and the effects of a singular outdoor educational program on environmental attitudes, knowledge and behavior among primary and secondary school students educated in four different countries. Statistical modelling approaches employed country of residence, age, nationality, sampling year, gender and urban/ rural habitation as predictor variables. Baseline scores were explained by a number of predictors but country of residence and rural-urban differences appeared as the most consistent explanatory variable for positive changes in attitude, knowledge and behavior. Given the nexus of political, social, natural and cultural data contained within the residence variable, we discuss the complex web of drivers that may influence environmental literacy and environmentally responsible behavior. Spatial variation in the value of outdoor education programs is also discussed.     

一线与非一线城市留美学生跨文化适应情况的比较分析

2019年8-12月,笔者利用在AUIA(American Universities in Asia)国际暑期学校做助教以及在加州大学圣克鲁兹分校做交换生的机会,用问卷星对部分在美国的中国留学生进行了留美期间跨文化适应情况的问卷调查,将被调查对象分为一线城市学生及非一线城市学生两类,从地区差异的角度了解在不同社会环境中成长的留美学生在留学期间跨文化适应的群体特征,为教育研究部门、留学生及其家长提供参考。结果表明,来自我国一线城市和非一线城市的留美学生在学习、生活、人际交往等方面的跨文化适应上既有共性也有差异,各有优势与不足。本文针对两类学生的共性和差异性问题分别提出了改进建议。     

英汉习语文化差异的对比分析

习语是语言的精华,在语言中占有重要地位。通过分析比较英汉习语的来源及其折射的文化,揭示英汉习语的文化特点和差异,感受英汉文化的异同,说明语言和文化之间密不可分的关系,以便真正理解和掌握语言。     

Does culture travel? Cultural influences on environmentalism in Taiwan in comparison to the United States

Abstract

This study investigates how the grid-group two-dimensional cultural theory (CT) of Douglas and Wildavsky, demographic attributes, and partisan identification are associated with environmentalism in Taiwan, in comparison to the Weather, Society, and Government survey collected in the United States. Results reveal that partisan identification better explains environmental attitudes and concerns in Taiwan, but its explanatory power is not comprehensive. Gender and age explain environmental concerns in Taiwan but not environmental attitudes. The impact of CT on environmentalism appears in the Taiwanese environmentalist’s group but not in the public, whereas CT has satisfactory power in explaining environmentalism in the United States.     

中美研究生职业能力构建及培养比较分析

职业能力是劳动者从事某种职业必备的各项能力的综合概括,是支撑其职业人生的关键。研究生作为高素质的专业人才,其职业能力高低关乎其个人的发展前途,关乎其对团队的存在价值,关乎其对社会的贡献。因此运用比较教育学原理通过对中美研究生创新能力、人际关系能力、沟通交流能力以及自主创业能力的比较分析,揭示中国研究生职业能力的现状、问题及成因,探索提高中国研究生职业能力的路径具有重要理论意义和现实意义。