Preview Issue - Research Articles

Infusion Confusion: Evaluation of a Malian Environmental Education Program
Orlando Hernandez, Academy for Educational Development
Sekou Diarra, Institut National de Recherche Pedagogique, University du Mali
Reva Schwartz, Chemonics International Inc.

An EE infusion model was adopted for this program that included 90 teachers from 18 schools in three regions. The infusion approach taught teachers to address environmental issues in different subject matters. Three types of schools were represented: schools with official curricula, community schools, and PFIE schools (European Union Training and Information Program for the Environment). Students were tested on environmental knowledge and attitude before and after the infusion implementation to determine the effectiveness of teacher training. The sample included 1,975 third and fourth graders and 1,935 fifth and sixth graders. Teachers established three levels of infusion: no infusion, low infusion, and high infusion. Infusion levels were determined by teacher daily activity reports and student notebooks. Results indicated that when class size and teacher experience were held constant, knowledge and attitude scores increased significantly from the pre-test to the post-test, except for attitudes among third and fourth graders. The knowledge and attitudinal gains were higher than the overall trend among students in classrooms with high-infusion teachers. Third and fourth graders in classrooms with low levels of infusion showed a significant decrease in both knowledge and attitudes. However, their schoolmates in the fifth and sixth grades showed a significant increase in their measurements. Consequently, lower levels of environmental-content infusion affect student knowledge and attitudes differently. Lower levels hinder the performance of students in lower grades, but not students in higher grades. Results also indicate better performance from the pre-test to the post-test among students from community schools. In addition, performance on both knowledge and attitudes tests decreased significantly in third and fourth graders in PFIE schools. This drop was mainly due to the poorer performance of students from PFIE schools in two of the regions visited. Implications for improving both teacher and student performance are discussed.

GreenCOM, the Environmental Education and Communication Project of USAID, provided technical assistance to the Malian Ministry of Education to train teachers in environmental education practices in an effort to improve environmental literacy among third- to sixth-grade students.

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