3I: Environment Based Education and Environmental Literacy: Instructional Strategies to Improving the Employability Skills of High School Students

Abstract

The purpose of this quasi-experimental study was to determine which combination of independent variables would have the greatest effect on high school students’ perceived importance of employability skills. A second was to determine which combination of independent variables, would have the greatest effect on the students’ recognition of their own employability skills. A third was to test for a relationship between students’ perceived importance of employability skills and the recognition of those skills in themselves. Experimental Group A (37 students) combined the strategies of natural and human systems with inquiry and decision-making skills, two components of environmental literacy, to complete a group project. Experimental Group B (38 students) combined action skills with personal responsibility, the remaining two components of environmental literacy, to complete a different group project. There were no control groups. In this pre-test/post-test design (N = 75), an analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used to analyze the pre and post-test results in order to answer the first two research questions. A Pearson Correlation was used to answer the third research question. Findings are currently being tabulated.

Keywords: employability skills, high school, environmental literacy, environmental-based education,