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Andreas Ch. Hadjichambis

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  • 18
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  • 25+

Conservation Reasoning and Proposed Actions for the Protection of Threatened Plant Species: Insights From a Sample of Rural and Urban Children of Cyprus

English

Cyprus

Abstract Investigating children’s beliefs and values toward threatened biodiversity can contribute to their understanding about nature and to the prevention of sociopolitical issues that may emerge when nature policy is being implemented. This study investigates children’s beliefs about threats to plants, the personal values associated with conservation, and actions children consider desirable regarding the conservation of three threatened plant species of Cyprus. Photos of threatened plants were used during interviews with 60 students (30 urban and 30 rural residents) aged 10–12 years. Results showed that participants deemphasized anthropogenic threats, while attitudes of individual responsibility were prevalent. Participants proposed actions of higher effectiveness mainly when they felt that they would be able to implement them. Findings suggest that an educational policy on threatened plant conservation should adopt a social character, focusing on attitudinal development and participatory learning approaches that will enhance children’s sense of ownership and efficacy.

Andreas Ch. Hadjichambis

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  • 18
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  • 25+

Evaluating the impact of the Earthkeepers Earth education program on children’s ecological understandings, values and attitudes, and behaviour in Cyprus

English

Cyprus

Abstract The recent educational reform in Cyprus moved education about sustainability to the forefront of environmental learning. The present study examines the impact of an earth education program, Earthkeepers, on children’s ecological understandings, environmental values and attitudes, and behaviour. The program was implemented during two consecutive years with 491 4th to 7th graders from nine different schools in Cyprus. Quantitative data were collected using individual concept, attitude and behaviour questionnaires, and a satisfaction survey. Qualitative data were collected using individual semi-structured interviews with twelve students and nine teachers from six different schools. Data analysis showed gains in students’ understanding as well as significant changes towards more proenvironmental values, attitudes and behaviour. Interviews confirmed the quantitative results and verified students’ behaviour.

Andreas Ch. Hadjichambis

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  • 18
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  • 25+

Integrating Sustainable Consumption into Environmental Education: A Case Study on Environmental Representations, Decision Making and Intention to Act

English

Cyprus

Abstract During the last decades, current consumption patterns have been recurrently blamed for rendering both the environment and our lifestyles unsustainable. Young children are considered a critical group in the effort to make a shift towards sustainable consumption (environmentally friendly consumption). However, young people should be able to consider sustainable consumption as a potential venue, among their options. The present study investigates the effectiveness of an environmental education program aiming to familiarize children aged 8-12 with the notion of sustainable consumption by focusing on children’s environmental representations and their intentions to act (decision-making). Findings revealed that the program employed influenced children’s environmental representations into becoming more sustainable ones. In addition, the environmental program provided children with more environmental criteria, allowing children to report their intentions to act as sustainable consumers. Relating children’s environmental representations to their decision-making criteria, findings indicated an emerging relationship between children’s environmental representations, and their intentions to act, as reflected through the decision-making process.

Andreas Ch. Hadjichambis

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  • 18
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  • 25+

How Students’ Values are Intertwined with Decisions in a Socio-scientific Issue

English

Cyprus

Abstract The present study incorporated a scaffolding decision making procedure on an authentic environmental socio-scientific issue and investigated how students’ decisions are intertwined with their values. Computer-based activities provided necessary information and allowed for the consideration of multiple aspects of the issue, the study of the effects of every possible solution and the formulation and balancing of criteria. The optimization strategy for decision making was adopted. Data collection relied on 51 sixth grade students (11-12 years old). Open-ended written tests were given to students before and after the learning intervention with two tasks: application of the optimization strategy and a meta-reflection question explaining their decision. Children incorporated several criteria in the decision making process, however, what guided their decisions were the criteria which were given the greater weight. These criteria were connected with substantive arguments and were based on decisive values. Three value-driven patterns of decision makers were revealed: strong anthropocentric, weak anthropocentric and ecocentric. The ability of assigning weight in conflicting criteria is a cornerstone for the emersion of how values are interrelated with decisions. Values arise when preferences are in conflict and decisions are made by weighting alternatives in comparison to our preferences. In conclusion, students have to learn to develop solutions that represent a compromise between economic, ecological, and socioeconomic dimensions, which include establishing a value hierarchy. The ability to weight decision criteria and to disclose underlying value considerations may be an elaborate way to work with multifaceted socio-scientific issues.

Andreas Ch. Hadjichambis

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  • 18
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  • 25+

Attitudes and behaviours of adolescents towards antibiotics and self-care for respiratory tract infections: a qualitative study

English

Cyprus

Abstract Background To understand attitudes and behaviours of adolescents towards antibiotics, antimicrobial resistance and respiratory tract infections. Design Qualitative approach informed by the Theory of Planned Behaviour. Semi-structured interviews and focus groups were undertaken. We aimed to inform the development of an intervention in an international setting to improve antibiotic use among adolescents; therefore on completion of thematic analysis, findings were triangulated with qualitative data from similar studies in France, Saudi Arabia and Cyprus to elucidate differences in the behaviour change model and adaptation to diverse contexts. Setting 7 educational establishments from the south of England. Participants 53 adolescents (16–18 years) participated in seven focus groups and 21 participated in interviews. Results Most participants had taken antibiotics and likened them to other common medications such as painkillers; they reported that their peers treat antibiotics like a ‘cure-all’ and that they themselves were not interested in antibiotics as a discussion topic. They demonstrated low knowledge of the difference between viral and bacterial infections.Participants self-cared for colds and flu but believed antibiotics are required to treat other RTIs such as tonsillitis, which they perceived as more ‘serious’. Past history of taking antibiotics for RTIs instilled the belief that antibiotics were required for future RTIs. Those who characterised themselves as ‘nonscience students’ were less informed about antibiotics and AMR. Most participants felt that AMR was irrelevant to them and their peers. Some ‘non-science’ students thought resistance was a property of the body, rather than bacteria. Conclusion Addressing adolescents’ misperceptions about antibiotics and the treatment of RTIs using a behaviour change intervention should help improve antibiotic awareness and may break the cycle of patient demand for antibiotics to treat RTIs amongst this group. Schools should consider educating all students in further education about antibiotic usage and AMR, not only those taking science.

Andreas Ch. Hadjichambis

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  • 18
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  • 25+

Promoting RRI and active citizenship in an inquirybased controversial socio-scientific issue: the case of cholesterol regulation with statins

English

Cyprus

Science education is an important dimension of the European Commission’s Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) objectives; however, RRI is not an explicit focus of biology teaching and few biology teachers have experience in integrating RRI in classroom practice. This study examines the impact of a three 80-minute RRI and active citizenship module on 11th grade biology students, based on the SSIBL pedagogical framework. A representative national sample of 11th grade biology students in Cyprus (n = 398) participated. A pre-post research design examined impact in relation to students’ conceptual understanding regarding cholesterol and its regulation, their understanding of the controversy about cholesterol regulation, awareness of RRI components, feeling of responsibility and willingness to act. Analyses indicated statistically significant gains in conceptual understanding and the understanding of the controversy about cholesterol regulation and awareness of RRI components, as well as in students’ socio-scientific accountability (feeling of responsibility and willingness to act). Conceptual understanding showed increased correlations with Controversy understanding and RRI understanding forming the three of them the cognitive elements of individuals understanding. All of the examined variables are deemed, as of great importance for the design, implementation and evaluation of innovative biology RRI and active citizenship modules.

Andreas Ch. Hadjichambis

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  • 18
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  • 25+

Active Citizens: Evaluation of a Community-Based Education Program

English

Czech Republic

This study analyses the Active Citizens program conducted in seven Czech elementary schools in 2017/2018. The data were obtained in a mixed-design research study containing pre/post experimental/control groups (N = 114), eight focus groups with selected students (N = 56), and group interviews with teachers (N = 14). The mean age of the students was 13.8 years. The study focuses on the students’ and the teachers’ perception of the process, the program’s barriers and benefits, and on the impact of the program on the students’ self-efficacy and on perceived democratic school culture. The analysis revealed that while the participants felt empowered because of their experience, they started to perceive their school environment as less democratic than before the program. The program also likely influenced girls more than boys as the latter seem to have been unaffected. Finally, the implications of the findings for the practice are discussed.

Andreas Ch. Hadjichambis

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  • 18
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  • 25+

Environmental citizenship research and the European Network for Environmental Citizenship

English

Cyprus

By way of an introduction to environmental citizenship, it is a very important concept for the protection of the environment and the success of any environmental policies being pursued. This relatively new term comes mainly from the political science arena but has soon entered with claims in other different fields, such as the economy, social sciences and, more recently, education. Therefore, research on environmental citizenship finds applications in all these areas of science and society. Environmental citizenship is related to the pro-environmental behavior of citizens, which should include both individual and collective actions. Until now, there have been many different attempts to define environmental citizenship, resulting in the creation of several definitions focusing and emphasizing different dimensions and priorities of environmental citizenship.

Urban Science

Daniela Conti

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  • 12
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  • 16

Urban Science – Integrated Learning for Smart Cities

Italian

Italy

Yes

Over two-thirds of the European population live in cities. Enabling those cities to deliver services sustainably while keeping their citizens safe, healthy, prosperous and well-informed is amongst the most important challenges in this century. The Urban Science European project is an education response to this, to improve the teaching of scientific inquiry and investigation so that students develop the competences to actively contribute to creating healthy cities. Urban Science works through outdoor inquiry-based learning where urban areas become living-laboratories that help students explore how science can create healthier and sustainable places to live. It is solutions based; placing a strong emphasis on creativity and problem solving to ensure scientific understanding can be applied in a meaningful context.

Urban Science

Richard Dawson

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  • 12
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  • 16

Urban Science

English

United Kingdom