Pedagogical Innovation: Towards Conservation Psychology and Sustainability

Pedagogical innovation is one of the solutions to the challenges facing the educational system; it is a mediator for change and adaptation. The objective of education is to go more than rationality and involve creativity; the development of creativity is increasingly considered in the teaching-learning processes. The objective of the research was to compare the perception of university students about theater as a pedagogical tool with the scientific evidence and its contribution to the conservation of natural resources, at the Universidad Estatal Amazónica (Ecuadorian Amazon Region); four plays were performed during the academic periods: 1) 2018 - 2019, 2) 2019 - 2019 y 3) 2019 - 2020. Four didactic phases were developed in each period; a survey with four closed questions based on the Likert scale was applied to 247 students. It was evident that more than 50% and 31% students totally agree that theater is a new pedagogical tool and can be used as a learning mechanism, respectively; the 7% of students on average consider that theater is probably related to conservation psychology, despite the fact that there is evidence of its potential for forest care and management. The 62% totally agree that the theater promotes the sustainability of natural resources. Therefore, theater is considered to be effective in raising awareness and educating on natural resource issues and breaking down misconceptions about their conservation.