Tening Rahel N, Harder Marie K
Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Fudan University, 2205, Songhu Rd., Shanghai, 200438, China.
Values & Sustainability Research Group, School of Architecture, Technology and Engineering, University of Brighton, UK.
Heliyon. 2023 Jul 26;9(8):e18689. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e18689. eCollection 2023 Aug.
Reduction of environmental problems needs durable transformative changes in behaviour, and developments in Transformative Learning are increasingly called for, to achieve them. Only recently has a method been demonstrated to routinely produce transformations in behaviour - a significant step forward - but they are not focused in specific thematic directions, and rarely environmental, which leaves the research need still unanswered. Here, we present an exploration of the use of that method (which involved values-crystallization of groups) with prior Nudging, with the aim of increasing the environmentally-themed transformed behaviours. The Nudging used was one open question about the environment in participants' current roles, plus a short questionnaire about current environmental behaviours, which also provided baseline data. Comparison with 3-4-days post-event interviews revealed most of the reported transformative behaviours , such as waste sorting, water and electricity conservation, found retained via further 14-56-days post-event interviews. These results, from two separate groups of participants, suggest that the Nudging_Plus_Values-crystallization approach may be useful for pro-environmental practitioners in sustainability. Furthermore, the process involved of influencing choice spaces via Nudging, in values-crystallization events, deserves further studies to confirm causation and understand linkages between Nudging, reflection, values-crystallization, and Transformative Learning because it is likely that the process can be easily transferred to many different types of behaviour change programs, which will be of interest to a wide range of researchers and practitioners.
减少环境问题需要行为上持久的变革性改变，因此越来越需要开展变革性学习来实现这些改变。直到最近才证明有一种方法能够常规性地促成行为转变——这是向前迈出的重要一步——但这些转变并非集中在特定的主题方向，而且很少涉及环境方面，这使得研究需求仍未得到满足。在此，我们展示了对该方法（涉及群体价值观的明确）与预先推动相结合的应用探索，目的是增加以环境为主题的转变行为。所采用的推动方式是提出一个关于参与者当前角色下环境的开放性问题，再加上一份关于当前环境行为的简短问卷，该问卷也提供了基线数据。与活动后3 - 4天的访谈相比，通过活动后进一步14 - 56天的访谈发现，大多数报告的转变行为，如垃圾分类、节水节电等都得以保留。来自两组不同参与者的这些结果表明，推动加价值观明确的方法可能对可持续发展领域的环保从业者有用。此外，在价值观明确活动中通过推动来影响选择空间的过程，值得进一步研究以确认因果关系，并理解推动、反思、价值观明确和变革性学习之间的联系，因为这个过程很可能可以轻松应用于许多不同类型的行为改变项目，这将引起广泛的研究人员和从业者的兴趣。
