The effectiveness of the action competence teaching approach in biodiversity education – taking Actions for Insects

Widespread loss of biodiversity is a major environmental issue around the globe. Science education can play a key role in educating about biodiversity loss and conservation, helping to embed the importance of sustaining biodiversity in society. It is critical to measure the effectiveness of teaching approaches focusing on biodiversity conservation to strengthen education in this field. Therefore, this study presents a novel teaching approach to foster students’ action competence for taking real-world conservation actions and assesses its effectiveness. The study focuses on insect conservation specifically, since insects are indispensable for most terrestrial ecosystems and provide key ecosystem services. The teaching approach was implemented in a Swedish lower secondary school context with students from grade 7–8 (aged 12–15). The study assesses participants’ action competence for insect conservation in a mixed-methods pre- and post-study. Both quantitative and qualitative results show that the approach fostered students’ self-perceived action competence in the dimensions knowledge, confidence and willingness to take actions to sustain insect biodiversity. The novel approach presented here resulted in more diversified ideas on potential conservation actions and led to student actions, demonstrating that teaching approaches based on action competence can empower students to deal with biodiversity loss.

全球范围内广泛发生的生物多样性丧失是当前重大环境议题。科学教育在普及生物多样性丧失与保护相关知识、推动全社会树立生物多样性永续发展的理念方面，可发挥关键作用。评估聚焦生物多样性保护的教学方法的有效性，对于强化该领域的教育工作至关重要。据此，本研究提出一种旨在培养学生开展现实保护行动能力的创新教学方法，并对其有效性进行评估。本研究特别聚焦昆虫保护，因为昆虫对绝大多数陆地生态系统不可或缺，且提供关键生态系统服务。该教学方法在瑞典一所初中开展实施，授课对象为7至8年级（12至15岁）的学生。本研究采用混合方法的前后测设计，评估参与者的昆虫保护行动能力。定量与定性分析结果均表明，该教学方法提升了学生在知识储备、行动信心与行动意愿三个维度上的自我感知行动能力，助力其开展维持昆虫生物多样性的相关行动。本研究所提出的创新教学方法不仅催生了更多样化的潜在保护行动思路，还推动学生付诸实际行动，证明基于行动能力培养的教学方法可赋能学生应对生物多样性丧失问题。