Enhancing students’ environmental concern of their cultural landscape heritage through STSE education approach

Science, technology, society, and environment (STSE) education is conducted in a broader context by connecting science curriculum and instruction with aspects of technology, community, and the environment. The major goal of STSE is to develop a scientifically literate and social responsibility when making collective decisions. STSE prepares future citizens to interpret the human and societal dimensions of scientific practice and its consequences. More importantly, it also prepares learners to participate effectively in a technologically-orientated economy (Amirshokoohi, 2010; Lau, 2013; Akcay & Akcay, 2015). STSE "animates students' cultural self-identities, their future contributions to society as citizens, and their interest in making personal utilitarian meaning of scientific and technological knowledge" (Aikenhead, 2005, p. 392). The STSE curriculum has therefore been designed to help students develop skills that will enable them to become responsible citizens who make well-informed decisions (Amirshokoohi, 2010).

Aikenhead (2005) reported that STSE classes significantly improved students' understanding of social issues, attitudes towards science, thinking skills, and social responsibility. STSE helps connect learners' understandings of science and their everyday lives (Kim et al., 2012). It can also help make physics more accessible to everyday students as well as those who wish to continue studying physics at university (MacLeod, 2013, p. 9). However, relatively few studies have examined the connection between STSE education and environmental concerns—particularly in the context of the relationship between global and local issues. Thus, it is imperative to develop an STSE approach and goals compatible with the current situation, students' views, and their local cultural context (Amirshokoohi, 2010). According to Zandvliet (2010), a localized and inclusive ecological framework of learning grounded in the local environment with social and scientific experiences allows students to develop valuable sociocultural and cognitive skills. These abilities are critical in today's teaching and learning situation to produce students who are active, innovative, and creative learners who can face the challenges of the 21st century (Husin et al., 2016).

This paper provides an STSE learning situation for environmental education centered around socio-scientific issues, place-based learning, and local culture. We focus on the most important cultural landscape heritage in Indonesia—the subak (the Balinese farmer organization of paddy field irrigation system). These farmers traditionally believed that water was a gift from a Goddess and thus must be a shared resource (Lansing, 2006). The system was enlisted by UNESCO (2017) as a world cultural heritage site because of its remarkable achievement in sustainable agriculture. Despite this recognition, the subak is still rarely included in the school curriculum today despite its rich variety of STSE resources (Surata et al., 2014). If students do not learn to understand their traditional wisdom, then it will threaten the preservation of the cultural heritage and hamper them from learning from the past (Surata, 2013). Moreover, the subak system has a diverse and extraordinary ancient heritage and is an excellent case of STSE education to involve students' understanding of science in the context of everyday life. This setting can explore environmental problems and solutions, commitment to social service, and contribute to a sustainable society (Marouli, 2002; Sobel, 2005; Meichtry & Smith, 2007; Surata & Vipriyanti, 2018)

Hence, by examining the subak system, we engaged students in interactive and authentic STSE situations to enhance their global and local environmental concern. The new ecological paradigm (NEP) from Dunlap et al. (2000) and its modification—the local ecological paradigm (LEP) (Surata, 2017)—was used to examine students' views. Here, rather than comparing STSE with traditional teaching methods, we only focused on STSE using two digital learning tools: PowerPoint presentation (PP) as conventional digital technology and participatory video (PV) as advanced digital technology.

Aims

The purpose of this survey is to evaluate the effect of authentic STSE learning situations on global and local environmental views of high school students and to compare the ability of PPs and PVs in enhancing the students' pro-environmental positions.

We then set out to answer the following questions:

Is there a significant difference between global and local environmental views of students before and after STSE learning?
Is there a significant difference in environmental views between students who take PP and PV classes?

The New Ecological Paradigm and the Subak Cultural Landscape

The NEP scale has been widely used to measure the effectiveness of environmental education programs (e.g. Manoli et al., 2007; van Heezik et al., 2012; Rideout 2014). It has also been applied to studies of diverse contexts and populations; for example, tourism contexts (Lück, 2003), examining environmental concerns and involvement in voluntary associations (Schuett & Ostergreen, 2003), and assessing the association between environmental concern and fertility (Arnocky et al., 2011).

The NEP was designed to gauge anthropocentrism (also termed egocentrism) in environmental attitudes and values (Dunlap et al. 2000). Theoretically, the NEP originates from the recognition of a dominant social paradigm (DSP). While the DSP upholds human dominance over nature and faith in progress and technology to solve all problems (including an ecological crisis), the NEP is based on both the notion that humans are a part of nature and that there are limitations to growth (Petegem & Blieck, 2006; Sudbury-Riley et al., 2016). The NEP highlights the disruption of ecosystems caused by humans exceeding environmental limits and provides an alternative worldview to the DSP that posits continuous progress and growth (Dunlap & Van Liere, 1978). According to the NEP view, nature is a limited resource—delicately balanced and subject to destructive human interference (Petegem & Blieck, 2006).

Over the past centuries, the activities of more than one thousand subak organizations on the island of Bali, Indonesia have formed the unique landscape of Bali attracting millions of tourists to the island each year. However, the subak is not merely a community unit that manages water irrigation and rice terraces. It is also a complex of religious and egalitarian democratic communities in which autonomous cooperation has remarkably formed sustainable rice farming with optimal results (Lansing, 2006; Fox, 2012).

In summary, the sustainability of the subak, which dates back at least a millennium, highlights environmental worldviews crystallized in the NEP scale. For example, the subak system embodies the ancient Balinese philosophy called Tri Hita Karana (three causes of goodness), which seeks to create harmony between humans and the spiritual realm, between humans and nature, and among humans (Salamanca et al., 2015). The philosophy is closely related to anti-anthropocentrism as well as anti-exemptionalism paradigms that recognize the intrinsic values of nature and human helplessness that are exempt from the constraints of nature.

The existence of water temple networks in managing the agro-ecology of rice terraces through massive ritual activities reflects a complex and adaptive effort of Balinese farmers to address the fragility and uncertainty of nature and to increase the carrying capacity of rice terraces to support a dense population for centuries (Lansing & de Vet, 2012). Meanwhile, without centralistic control of cooperation, Balinese farmers can sustain a productive farming system "in an ecosystem that is rife with water scarcity and the threat of disease and pests" (Lansing & Miller, 2005, p. 13). The existence of co-culture, e.g., cattle-rice or duck-rice, and polyculture, e.g., duck-cattle-rice or duck-fish-rice, (still practiced in the subak and mainly in Asia-Pacific regions) demonstrates the ability of a traditional rice agro-ecosystem to solve globally serious problems—particularly regarding increasing food security and diminishing ecological risk due to the growing impact of fertilizers and pesticides on the environment (Lansing & Kremer, 2011; Xiea et al., 2011). These holistic environmental views and behaviors were reformulated into new environmental terms: limit to growth, nature's balance, and eco-crisis paradigms on the NEP scale (Dunlap et al., 2000).

PowerPoint Presentations and Participatory Video

PPs support learning objectives by designing learning content that can be taught as smaller units of learning. Furthermore, PPs can be potentially reused, can stand alone, and are accessible meaning that they meet the "just enough" and "just-in-time" requirements of learners (Sathiyamurthy & Geetha, 2012, p. 49). According to Hayama & Kunifuji (2012, p. 26-27), Slides are becoming an important part of presentations because visual information can promote a better understanding of the presentation content." Fortunately, several digital media tools such as scanners, digital cameras, and graphics files offer enhanced graphic and video learning materials and can automatically generate slides (Sathiyamurthy & Geetha, 2012, p. 49).

However, Nouri & Sahid (2005) found no conclusive evidence that the use of PP improves short-term or long-term memory although it can improve student attitudes toward the instructor and class presentation. Another study also revealed that PP presentations are less helpful than the lecture method in material comprehension and effectiveness (Sewasew et al., 2015).

Meanwhile, Atkinson and Mayer (2004) stated that the common problem of PP was the overuse of slides containing excess information. Consequently, aside from the audience needing more time to view such slides, they may be unable to accurately grasp the slide content (Hayama & Kunifuji, 2012). Hence, Issa et al. (2013) suggested that educators consider multimedia principles when designing lecture slides and abandon the use of the word- or bullet point-based presentations. Furthermore, Paoletti et al. (2012) suggested, "Concise text—an outline of main points, which summarizes key information—should also be more useful than a redundant text or a presentation that paraphrases the linguistic form of the spoken message."

The PV is an iterative process in the community for documenting ideas or issues affecting one's environment and community (Lunch, 2007). A variety of PV approaches have been developed with video technology being applied in several alternative ways to the development of projects (Huber, 1999). Regardless of the label, most project designers would claim that participation is a central element in their projects (Huber, 1999).

The PV's structural process and the product can "provide avenues for marginalized communities to participate both in the form of self-research and ways of self-representation" (Evans & Foster, 2009, p. 87). PV has helped students to construct their personal identities (Riecken et al., 2006); strengthen capacity and cultural identity (Chiu, 2009); potentially contribute to social-science research, social intervention, participatory culture, and community-based adult education (Yang, 2016); and promote democracy by destabilizing hierarchical power relations and creating spaces with equal social power (Kindon, 2003). Hence, both PV and PP can help learners explore social-science concepts and address issues and problems both critically and creatively.