UNIVERSITY OF TURKU
Faculty, Department
Faculty of Education Department of Teacher Education in Rauma
Author
Toukomies, Tatu
Title
Attitude to forests, technical craft and nature conservation among visitors to the “Forest and me” exhibition at Heureka
Subject
Education
Level
M.A.Thesis
Month and year
December 1999
Number of pages
91 p. (6 app.)
Abstract
The purpose of the study was to discover current attitudes to forests, technical craft and nature conservation of those who visited the woodwork classroom at the “Forest and me” exhibition at Heureka. A further goal was to find out whether a visitor’s roots, e.g. their childhood residence, have an influence on their attitude.
The theory of attitudes of Rosenberg and Hovland (1960) was used as an hypothesis for the study. According to the aforementioned theory, an attitude consists of three components: the cognitive, the affective and the behavioral component. Science centre education is informative and interactive, which is why exhibition units are made to be touched (“hans-on”). This way the science centre wishes to create interaction between the units and the visitors.
For this study, ten families were chosen as test subjects through accidental sampling. The two criteria used were an interest shown in the woodwork classroom, and fitting a predetermined family model. The study was carried out in May 1998, which was the last month of the “Forest and me” exhibition in Finland.
Research data was gathered using four different methods: questionnaire on background information, thematic interview, observation, and video recording of the time spent in the woodwork classroom.
The research results showed clearly that the general attitude of the test subjects to forests, technical craft and nature conservation was positive. Nine out of ten had a rural background of some kind, only one being distinctly urban. The majority had acquired their earliest experiences of technical craft as children, doing woodwork together with their father. One factor shared by nearly everyone was an attitude to nature conservation which, together with recycling was considered important. Nearly everyone thought, felt bad not doing enough about recycling.
Keywords
Attitude, handicraft training, nature conservation, forests, technical craft, science centre education
Where deposited
The Library of the Faculty of Education (also available at Heureka, the Finnish Science Centre)
