Outcomes of environmental education

What are desired outcomes of environmental education? Many believe that the main goal of environmental education is to develop knowledge and attitudes that contribute to pro-environmental behavior. However, educators also mention many other potential outcomes of environmental education beyond behavior. Last semester, I taught (along with Marianne Krasny as a guest instructor) a professional development online course for environmental educators. The course entitled “Measuring Environmental Education Outcomes” was part of the EECapacity project. The syllabus is available here (PDF): 2012-MEEO-Syllabus.pdf.

Below are some of environmental education outcomes that were mentioned by the course participants from all over the U.S., as well as other desired outcomes that I learned from some urban environmental education programs in New York City and from the literature. For example, some educators suggest that participation in environmental stewardship or nature experiences per se are legitimate outcomes (or even goals) of environmental education. Now, what are desired outcomes of your environmental education program? Do you see them listed below, or are they different?

Some desired outcomes of environmental education (click to enlarge):