Developing sustainable environmental behavior in secondary education students (12-16): Analysis of a didactic strategy

Abstract

Even though the concern about the environment has never been so deep in the developing countries, this fact does not translates into behaviours that are environmentally responsible. One of the possible reasons of the gap between attitudes and behaviours is that the generalized interest for the environment lives with a feeling of hopelessness and incapability to turn the interest in actions. Environmental Education (EE) may play a core role in the solution of this problem, if makes them capable to have a "sustainable" behaviour and make decisions in favour of the environment. In this paper we present a investigative didactic methodology, of a constructivist type, that intends to achieve this goal. The results obtained with students of E.S.O. show that it is a good alternative compared to a more traditional methodology. © Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.