AKO PROJECT H' RASAMIMANANA and ENS Students from 3

1
AKO PROJECTH. RASAMIMANANA and ENS Students from
3 4th years 2008

• Workshop on conservation education at the XXIIth
  IPS Congress
• August 2008 - Edinburgh

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INTRODUCTION

• Conservation education becomes more and more
  urgent since in Madagascar
• Deforestation runs at a very high speed despite
  all the works conducted against it.
• There are 2 purposes of deforestation
• beneficial mining
  not beneficial slash and burn
• Both of them need knowledge of wildlife.
• Much research but it doesnt reach people.

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METHODS

• 2000 Books of Ako the Aiay
• Distributed in two dozens of primary schools in 6
  different areas of Madagascar except the extreme
  North and South.
• Collaboration between ENS and Durrell Wildlife
  Preservation Trust
• Questionnaires for 20 teachers and 400 pupils
• 14 Questions of which 3 open for teachers
• 56 questions of which 7 open for pupils whose
  mean age is 13 years old

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Themes assessed in teachers and pupils answers

• 1. Understanding of environmental conservation
• 2. Objectives of conservation education
• 3. Methods of conservation education
• 4. Conservation attitudes
• 5. Utility of books like Ako the Aye-Aye
• 6. General reading attitudes in children

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RESULTS

• TEACHERS

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UNDERSTANDING OF ENVIRONMENT

• 57 right ? an improvement over a survey from
  20 years ago.
• 43 wrong mention only forest and marsh, not
  socio cultural environment neither their own
  surroundings. Some of them state that it is the
  concern of a group of particular persons and we
  do not know the results so far.

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WHAT ARE CONSEQUENCES OF THE DESTRUCTION OF ALL
ENVIRONMENT? (an open question)

• 66 said Climate change in everyday life ?
  drastic decrease of their land productivity, from
  their own experience of lack of rain and increase
  in hotter summers and colder winters.
• 33 said Species displace and disappear, and do
  not reproduce any longer.
• No-one left the question unanswered

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WHO ARE PERSONS IN CHARGE OF THE CONSERVATION
EDUCATION IN THEIR AREA? (a closed question)

• 44 Tick off all 6 given answers including
  Conservation International who does not work in
  these areas
• 42 Tick off themselves and the VIP of the
  village
• 14 add Durrell WPT

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WHAT ARE METHODS USED FOR ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION?

• 100 reading
• 100 listening to news
• broadcasting
• 100 at school
• The picture shows a
• school library of books still
• tied togethernot actually
• read

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TEACHERS KNOWLEDGE ABOUT ECOPEDAGOGY

• 71 Yes I use it
• 29 No I do not but was trained
• 43 Tick all answers given as its pedagogical
  objectives
• 43Tick all answers except the only one right
• 14 Tick off the right one that students should
  be responsible for their own analysis, decisions
  and actions

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METHOD TO HELP PUPILS WHO DO NOT UNDERSTAND THE
LESSONS

• 100 Give pupils the right answer to make them
  understand
• 100 Give extra paid courses for 2 hours
  everyday after class

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UTILITY OF AKO BOOK FOR TEACHING

• 86 Very useful
• 14 None
• WHY?
• 57 For an eventual english lesson
• 29 No answer

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PUPILS ANSWERS
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READING IN GENERAL

• 55Take time to read
• 9 Do not
• 28 When see one
• 7 No answer
• 1 When obliged
• But 71 take this time when they do not have
  anything to do
• 18 when they want to
• 11 No answer

15
Number of books ever read and received in their
life

• 47 Have read more than 1 but less than10
• 40 More than 10
• 7 Read a book for the first time (Ako)
• 6 No answer
• 43 are already offered more than 1 book
• 27 more than 10 books
• 25 Ako was the first one offered

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KINDS OF BOOKS THEY WANT TO READ

• 47 Textbook
• 19 Religious
• 13 Comics
• 12 Tales
• 7 Newspaper
• 2 Romance Novel

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WOULD YOU LIKE TO LEND YOUR AKO BOOK ?

• 62 Yes
• 35 No
• 3 No answer
• WHY?
• 26 Sharing
• 30 Distrust
• 4 It belongs to the school/government
• 40 No answer

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DO THEY LIKE AKO BOOK?

• 93 Yes
• 7 No
• And the pictures?
• Not clear, not  real pictures .
• But in comparaison with the real picture they are
  cuter in the book, so they like that.

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IS AKO USEFUL FOR YOUR LEARNING?

• 34 Arouses my understanding on animal
  protection
• 18 Improves my reading
• 14 Makes me willing to tell the story to others
• 10 Makes me asking for stories of other animals
• 9 Provides new vocabulary
• 6 Gives new informations about aiay
• 6 Arouses my designers vocation
• 3 No answer
• NOTE STUDENTS SAY IMPROVE UNDERSTANDING OF ANIMAL
  PROTECTION, TEACHERS ONLY SEE AS USEFUL FOR
  ENGLISH TEACHING

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WHY DO AIAY DESTROY COCONUT PLANTATIONS?

• 46 Coconut is their main food
• 27 Forest containing their food is destroyed
• 21 For leisure
• 6 They want to annoy people

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SOLUTIONS FOR THAT AND HOW TO ACHIEVE THEM?

• 37.5 Reforestation
• 37.5 Plant more coconut
• 22 Fence the plantation
• 68 No answer
• 32 Simple answer corresponding to the solution
  ? anthropomorphism, could not use in appropriate
  way the informations from the book ?lack of
  analysis capacity

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IMPORTANCE OF WILDLIFE CONSERVATION

• 44 Provides food and everyday needs to humanity
• 33 Longevity of the earth
• 11 Provides leisure to human
• 11 Inappropriate answer

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CONCLUSIONS

• Teaching means fill up the brain ?very easy
• Educate means modulate the brain? more difficult
• The Teachers asked cannot make the difference
  between these two processes or never think about
  it
• They show many contradictions in their
  assertions, which could be interpreted as lack of
  interest for the subject.
• How could be conservation education taught at
  school since the teachers do not know its
  objectives? All education has the same beginning
  by capacity of analysis, then interpretation
  finally deduction and conclusion.

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CONCLUSIONS (continued)

• Elaboration of questionnaires should be done at
  least in two steps
• Number of questions should be reduced ? one
  reason of teachers lack of interest? ENS
  students spying them?
• On average 20 of No answer ? in every situation
  in Madagascar
• A lot remains to do mainly for colleges of
  EDUCATION such as ENS.