Journal Article Critique: Environmental Outcomes of Wilderness-Based Programs of Different Lengths

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Environmental Outcomes of Wilderness-Based Programs of Different Lengths

Part I- About the Article

            This timely article assesses the impact of wilderness experiences on environmental attitudes. Environmental education and increasing environmental attitudes are a common goal of wilderness experiences, so this was an excellent problem to investigate for the benefit of the field. The results of this article certainly contribute to the knowledge of the field of Outdoor Education as a whole and point the way to new avenues of research.

            This was likely a quantitative quasi-experimental study. The experimental design is not given in great detail, but it appears that a convenience sample of university students was used. It’s also likely that the students were assigned randomly to conditions, making the case for a quasi-experimental design stronger. The two groups were given two different treatments, no control group was used.

Part II- The Critique

            The literature review of this article discusses “existing research into the importance of direct experience with nature for the development of environmental attitudes.” It also discusses the gaps in the existing research when it comes to evaluating outcomes according to program length. This brief background is enough to make it clear that nobody has researched into this exact question before.

            The sampling technique is not given, but it appears to have been a convenience sample of university students. This knowledge is not easily generalized without more information about the participants and the sampling technique. The sampling could have been improved by simply including more information about the participants and how they were selected, or by randomly selecting individuals to participate, perhaps as part of a freshman orientation.

            The researcher used three likert-type written instruments to collect data; the Environmental Awareness Questionairre, the Wilderness Issues Questionairre, and the Revised New Environmental Paradigm Scale. The instruments were administered before and after the treatment. The scales appear to be appropriate measures of the research problem, change in environmental attitudes.

            The treatment was either a three-week wilderness experience, or a five-day wilderness experience. The treatment was a good choice for the research question since it represents a common outdoor activity that is often used in part to try and create a change in attitudes towards the natural environment. Selection is a major threat to internal validity since it is not known how the groups were assigned. Maturation and history are concerns given the length of the study and the experiences the participants must have had during the duration. Treatment replications is an issue since there was only one group of each condition. Experimenter effects are another possible cause of differences in the results, it is possible the trip leaders somehow helped to create the differences in attitudes.

            The data was analyzed using  ANOVAs and t test procedures. The researcher reported the t score and probabilities for statistically significant findings. The findings of a stepwise regression are also discussed, although the practical significance of these results is low.

            The researcher found that in this case a longer experience led to decreased environmental feelings, and a shorter experience led to increased wilderness attitude. The researcher explains these results by suggesting that the participants may have either been exhausted, or simply tired of nature by the end of the long experience. The researcher concludes from the stepwise regression data that individual characteristics can have unpredictable effects on environmental attitudes, and they are not easily generalized.  These conclusions are ambitious to draw from the data presented in this report. They are possible explanations, but the experiment was not developed to address the issues that the researcher is bringing into the conclusions. The conclusions would better be phrased as possible avenues for future research.

Part III- My Reflections

            This study is strong for investigating a common variable with regards to a common outcome for a common technique. The statistical analysis is sophisticated and appears to have been well carried out. However, there is not enough information given about the sample and sampling technique used. The conclusions are also over-ambitious. I take the results of this report as an indication that future research is needed into the effect of program length on program effect. I would not change the length of any of my programs based solely on this report, but if other research were to affirm the trends reported in this article, I would consider trip length more carefully depending on the outcome I was trying to achieve with the group.

 Reference

Yoshino, A. (2005). Environmental outcomes of wilderness-based programs of different lengths. The Journal of Experiential Education, 27(3), 314-317.