Reducing Barriers to Environmental Education

The slow progress of environmental education in public schools can be attributed to a set of common barriers that inhibits teachers from conducting environmental education. An in-service workshop was designed and implemented specifically to reduce these barriers and to increase the number of teachers conducting environmental education. The workshop consisted of a variety of presentations and hands-on activities. Evaluation of the workshop objectives was accomplished through comparison of pre-test and post-test surveys completed by workshop participants. Results indicated that the workshop was able to reduce some, but not all, of the barriers to EE. Additionally, the workshop did lead to a greater number of teachers conducting environmental education. Suggestions for future workshops and for future research are given.