The effect of using level-3 interactive videodisc on the environmental knowledge and attitude of teacher education students

Pre-service teacher education students were used as subjects to test the effectiveness of level-3 interactive videodisc (IVD) versus printed materials in environmental knowledge acquisition. The correlation of the amount of acquired knowledge to the degree of change in the environmental attitude of the subjects was also examined. Results of the experiment show no significant difference between the effectiveness of the instructional tools in knowledge acquisition as was measured by an instrument specifically designed for this experiment. Also, there was no significant correlation between knowledge gain and environmental attitude change. Initial and final attitude for each subject was assessed using an existing attitude test. It is proposed that the results of this experiment were not significant for two reasons. Information regarding the environment is presently very popular and one is considered to be "politically correct" if he or she is literate in environmental concerns. It is proposed that any method of environmental information presentation would attract some attention of the students. Also, the instrument used to measure environmental attitude examined general environmental attitude rather than attitude toward specific issues addressed in the instruction. It is proposed that no significant correlation between knowledge gain and attitude change was found since the specific issues addressed in the experiment were not measured by the attitude instrument. Future studies will involve content other than that of environmental issues and will utilize attitude tests developed with regard to the specific content offered in instruction.