Jensen Eric
Department of Sociology, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, United Kingdom.
Conserv Biol. 2014 Aug;28(4):1004-11. doi: 10.1111/cobi.12263. Epub 2014 Mar 29.
Millions of children visit zoos every year with parents or schools to encounter wildlife firsthand. Public conservation education is a requirement for membership in professional zoo associations. However, in recent years zoos have been criticized for failing to educate the public on conservation issues and related biological concepts, such as animal adaptation to habitats. I used matched pre- and postvisit mixed methods questionnaires to investigate the educational value of zoo visits for children aged 7-15 years. The questionnaires gathered qualitative data from these individuals, including zoo-related thoughts and an annotated drawing of a habitat. A content analysis of these qualitative data produced the quantitative data reported in this article. I evaluated the relative learning outcomes of educator-guided and unguided zoo visits at London Zoo, both in terms of learning about conservation biology (measured by annotated drawings) and changing attitudes toward wildlife conservation (measured using thought-listing data). Forty-one percent of educator-guided visits and 34% of unguided visits resulted in conservation biology-related learning. Negative changes in children's understanding of animals and their habitats were more prevalent in unguided zoo visits. Overall, my results show the potential educational value of visiting zoos for children. However, they also suggest that zoos' standard unguided interpretive materials are insufficient for achieving the best outcomes for visiting children. These results support a theoretical model of conservation biology learning that frames conservation educators as toolmakers who develop conceptual resources to enhance children's understanding of science.
每年都有数百万儿童与父母或学校一起参观动物园，以便亲身体验野生动物。公众保护教育是专业动物园协会会员资格的一项要求。然而，近年来，动物园因未能就保护问题及相关生物学概念（如动物对栖息地的适应）对公众进行教育而受到批评。我使用了配对的参观前后混合方法问卷，来调查动物园参观对7至15岁儿童的教育价值。这些问卷收集了这些个体的定性数据，包括与动物园相关的想法以及一幅栖息地的带注释图画。对这些定性数据的内容分析得出了本文所报告的定量数据。我评估了伦敦动物园有教育工作者引导和无引导的动物园参观的相对学习成果，包括对保护生物学的了解（通过带注释的图画来衡量）以及对野生动物保护态度的转变（使用列出想法的数据来衡量）。在有教育工作者引导的参观中，41%的参观带来了与保护生物学相关的学习；在无引导的参观中，这一比例为34%。在无引导的动物园参观中，孩子们对动物及其栖息地的理解出现负面变化的情况更为普遍。总体而言，我的研究结果显示了动物园参观对儿童的潜在教育价值。然而，这些结果也表明，动物园标准的无引导解说材料不足以让参观的儿童取得最佳学习成果。这些结果支持了保护生物学学习的一个理论模型，该模型将保护教育工作者视为工具制造者，他们开发概念资源以增强儿童对科学的理解。
