NAAEE and its partners across North America have been conducting comprehensive literature reviews to explore the impact of environmental education on key outcome areas, and developing communication tools based on these reviews. Its first outcome is finished – eeWORKS: From Anecdotes to Evidence: Demonstrating the Impact of Environmental Education
Stanford University’s analysis suggests that environmental education provides a wide array of benefits for school students with environmental knowledge just the tip of the iceberg. Experts at Stanford University systematically searched the academic literature and analyzed 119 peer-reviewed studies published over a 20-year period that measured the impacts of environmental education for K-12 students. The review found clear evidence that environmental education programs provide a variety of benefits. Not surprisingly, the studies clearly showed that students taking part in environmental education programming gained knowledge about the environment. But learning about the environment is just the tip of the iceberg. Studies in the review demonstrated that environmental education has led to a number of positive impacts, from improving academic performance, to enhancing critical thinking skills, to developing personal growth and life-building skills including confidence, autonomy, and leadership. In addition, a number of the studies showed that environmental education increased civic engagement and positive environmental behaviors
You can download the key findings here. See if you can find an explanation as to why the picture of the iceberg does not show things as they really are “in nature”.