Environmental Education Function of Urban Forest Park
and Efficiency Evaluation
Q W Fang
1
and Z Q Luan
2,*
1 International College Beijing, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, P.R.
China
2 Corresponding author, International College Beijing, China Agricultural University,
Beijing 100083, P.R. China
Abstract. This research presents a case study of how vising urban forest park will influence
people’s environmental literacy. Beijing Olympic park is being evaluated from multiple
aspects and its score is compared to testee’s knowledge level of environment using a s urvey.
The assumption of the research is that urban forest park is efficient and convenient for city
people to learn about nature and environment. After statistical analysis, the hypothesis was
partly rejected. The efficiency of its education function need to be improved by increasing
creativity education facilities, adding more family convenient elements and doing further
visitor based researches.
1. The background of the research
Nowadays, it is very common to see a “beware of the grass” notice board standing in the middle of a
green belt. People are so used to it that few of them would think about it deeply. What is the purpose
of having such a notice board all around the city? What task is it actually performing? How does it
influence people’s lives? When we think thoroughly about this little notice board, we will
surprisingly find out that how important this facility can be to our city. Behind this board, it is the
necessity for urban people to raise up environmental awareness. It is also the reflection of relatively
low environmental education level. More importantly, it is a reminder of action to make up for the
environment under our rapid urbanization development.
2. Key concepts
2.1. Environmental education
Even though environmental education is a new brunch of comprehensive education that appeared in
China mainland no more than 20 years, it has been a hot topic in western countries for decades. The
history of environmental education can be traced back to 20th century. At the beginning of 1960s,
due to the increasing population and the followed demand for natural resources, many scientists
started to argue that in order to deal with the environment problem, technology and science is far not
42
Fang, Q. and Luan, Z.
Environmental Education Function of Urban Forest Park and Efficiency Evaluation.
In Proceedings of the International Workshop on Environmental Management, Science and Engineering (IWEMSE 2018), pages 42-50
ISBN: 978-989-758-344-5
Copyright © 2018 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved

enough [1]. Since then, scientists started viewing education as a fundamental way to provide the
public with more information and raise the awareness of environment issue [2].
Proof by fact, the combination of education and environment problems resulted in an awareness
booming at early 1970s. Countless environmental education conferences were held since then,
including the 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm and the U.S.
Tbilisi Conference in 1977. In these conferences, scientists developed the definition of environmental
education from multiple aspects.
Most of the definitions focus on the purpose of it. According to the UN Conference on
Environment and Development, environmental education was “Education which is critical for
promoting sustainable development and improving the capacity of people to address environment and
development issues” [3]. The definition indicates that the essence of environmental education is to
sustain human life with scarce natural resource [4]. This result is further verified by another
conference. In 1991, caring for the Earth: a strategy for sustainable living came out. It emphasizes the
sustainable lifestyle behind environmental education. This document also asserted that “education
programs reflect the importance of an ethic for living sustainably” [5]. In other words, education
environment was expected to aim at optimizing human life patterns in a most eco-friendly way.
2.2. Urban forrest park
Visiting forest parks is a great way for people to interact with and learn from nature. This
approaching become especially significant for the urban population since they have limited resources
to access to the nature. In 2007, the urban share of China’s population was almost 44 percent [6].
With this increasing demand, urban forest parks were built all over China.
In 2005, a group of South Korea researchers gave the definition of such parks as “the parks provide
opportunities for active outdoor recreation as well as for quiet relaxation and escape from daily urban
stress.” Wonsop later in 2013 [7], Zhang explained urban forest parks in a different point of view as
“is protected from urbanization, serves as a site of biodiversity preservation and is termed the “green
lungs” of the urban agglomeration” [8].
As the easiest way to connect with nature, urban forest parks not only take the responsibility of
bringing beautiful views to people but also provide environmental education functions to the public.
China is not the only country that try to apply environmental education on tourists. Early in 1997, an
Australian researcher conducted a research about turning tourists into greenies through environment
education. Later in Sweden, a group of researchers conducted a research on urban forest gardens.
Their purpose is to provide “new opportunities for urban children to understand and develop
relationships with other organisms” [9]. But successful cases about utilizing the same system in urban
forest parks are relatively limited. By using means of planting, observation and interacting. Based on
their data, they concluded that children between six and twelve years developed values of humanistic,
symbolic, aesthetic and scientific rapidly [10]. Meanwhile, teenagers between thirteen and seventeen
are benefited from “a significant expansion in moralistic, naturalistic, and ecological components of
the scientific values of nature” [11].
3. Methodology
3.1. Research goal
Under this big background, it is natural for researchers to wonder the inner connect between the
satisfaction degree of a specific environmental education system and its efficiency. To be more
specific, it is necessary to dig deeper in to the root of an urban forest park, which is Beijing Olympic
Park in this case. The main goal of this is research is to evaluate the satisfaction degree of the
environmental education system of Beijing Olympic Park and the efficiency of this system.
Meanwhile, I will devote into searching for the probable improvements of this system. As a result,
Environmental Education Function of Urban Forest Park and Efficiency Evaluation
43

not only satisfaction degree can be improved through this research, but also education efficiency will
be greatly enhanced.
3.2. Research methods
In this research, I use two research methods. The first one is literature research. Through reviewing
literatures in the past 50 years, I gained a basic understand of environmental education both in the
Europe and in Asia. Based on what I learned, I generated a questionnaire to test the education system
in Beijing Olympic Forest Park. After careful selection, there were 279 valid surveys. In order to
make sure the validity of my survey, I followed very strict generation and selection process. First, I
generated a sample survey and handed it out. After I receive approximately 50 samples, I did an
efficiency analysis. This analysis is to test outliers, which maybe the confusing question itself or
inappropriate asking way. I ruled out several outlier questions and did a careful revision on those
questions who did not show an obvious normal distribution. After all these revisions, I eventually
handed them out and started collecting data.
The questionnaire also shows a clear structure. In the first part, test takers are required to provide
some basic information including age, gender, family member and education level. This part is to
gain a basic understanding of the person thus a further evaluation on how their living background
influence their ability to receive the education can be done. Then the questionnaire comes to the
efficiency evaluation part. This part asks question about if people notice a specific education facility
and how they are satisfied about it. To be more specific, the efficiency evaluation includes audio
guide efficiency, notice board efficiency, explanation board efficiency, creativity facility efficiency,
comprehensive efficiency and environmental literacy evaluation. After this part has finished, the
questionnaire will accomplish its duty and help me understand the way that how satisfaction and
efficiency are influenced by each other.
4. Data analysis
4.1. Education level & environmental literacy
Table 1. Descriptive Statistics.
Mean
Std.
N
V5-Question 4. Educational background
1. Primary school
2. Junior high school
3. Senior high school
4. Bachelor degree
5. Master degree or above
3.93
.649
200
Score of environmental literacy
22.9900
1.99997
200
X ± Z s/√n , 95% Confidence Interval: 3.93 ± 0.09
In this paper, environmental literacy is designed to be a key evaluation to measure the relationship
between one’s behavior and one’s knowledge level about environmental and science. This term was
originally used to describe “the capacity to perceive and interpret the relative health of environmental
systems and take appropriate action to maintain, restore, or improve the health of those systems”
(Roth, 1992). In recent researches, environmental literacy is usually used to measure the outcome of
environmental education. Researchers also believe that environmental literacy will greatly influence
person’s behavior facing environment related issues. For instance, a group of Israeli researcher
attempted to evaluate an Israeli school students’ environmental literacy. “Blum conducted the first
survey of environmental knowledge [12] and attitudes among school students in Israel in the early
1980s by using a model based on the British National Survey of Environmental Knowledge and
IWEMSE 2018 - International Workshop on Environmental Management, Science and Engineering
44

Attitudes of Fifth Year Pupils in England” [13]. Later, several researchers have been modified on the
survey to makes sure its efficiency and accuracy. In order to make sure the reliability of this paper,
the survey used to evaluate test taker’s environmental literacy contains questions that were randomly
selected from the final version of the survey. The environmental literacy score presented in the
following data is expected to be a valid reflection of taker’s environmental knowledge level.
We are 95% confident that the true mean of education background is between the range of (3.84,
4.02). This is being said, most of the testees have a college degree. The following environmental
literacy is evaluated based on this level.
Table 2. Correlations.
Score of environmental literacy
Education background
Pearson Correlation
.123
Sig. (2-tailed)
.082
N
200
N
200
Then the research used Pearson correlation to evaluate the relation between education background
and their score of environmental literacy. The initial assumption is that with higher education level,
one may receive more sufficient environmental education, thus a higher score of environmental
literacy should be presented.
The Pearson Correlation between education background score and environmental literacy score is
0.123, which is positive but very close to 0, there is a weak positive linear relationship between the
two variables.
In conclusion, there is a very small relation between education level and environmental literacy,
which violates the initial assumption. So it is common to ask another question: Is it because
education itself cannot improve environmental literacy or just the education we receive fail to
improve our environmental literacy?
4.2. Visiting frequency & environmental literacy
Table 3. Correlations.
V6 – Question 5
Score of
environmental literacy
V6 – Question 5
Pearson Correlation
1
.132
Sig. (2-tailed)
.062
N
200
200
Score of
environmental
literacy
Pearson Correlation
.132
1
Sig. (2-tailed)
.062
N
200
200
(Qestion 5. How many times do you go to Olympic forrest part in recent year? 1. Everyday
2. Several times a week 3. Several times a month 4. Several times every three months 5.
Several times semi-annually 6. several times per year)
Environmental Education Function of Urban Forest Park and Efficiency Evaluation
45

Since education is not the only variable that may influence one’s environmental literacy, it is
necessary to turn to other variables. As previously mentioned, urban forest parks take the
responsibility of using its green resource to provide city people a chance to know and learn about
environmental. Take Beijing Olympic Forrest Park as an example, notice signs, notice boards and
environmental reminder audio systems are distributed around the park. The initial assumption is that
once visitors entered the park, environmental education should followed him/her gradually without
being noticed. Thus how often he/she interact with the nature may influence their environmental
literacy score.
This part of data tested the relation between vising frequency and environmental literacy. It turns
out that there is no strong relation between visiting frequency and environmental literacy. However,
an efficient education function will educate visitors more effectively with the increase visiting times.
But Beijing Olympic Forest Park failed to accomplish this task. So generally speaking, the
educational function of Beijing Olympic Forest Park has a long way to go. This makes the research
more important since it concerns everyone in this city and the next generation.
Later, we specific this education in to environmental education. In this case, the amount of time
that people receive environmental education in the park. Since the two variable have weak
correlation, the frequency of vising Beijing Olympic Forest Park does not strongly improve the grade
of environmental literacy.
4.3. Comprehensive Satisfaction Degree& Environmental Literacy
Table 4. Correlations.
Synthesizing
Score of
environmental literacy
Synthesizing
Pearson Correlation
1
.308
Sig. (2-tailed)
.000
N
200
200
Score of
environmental
literacy
Pearson Correlation
.308
1
Sig. (2-tailed)
.000
N
200
200
**, Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
Satisfaction degree correlates to environmental literacy. The Pearson relation here is 0.308. With
such high correlation, it is easy to draw a conclusion that even though it is hard to identify the
specific relation between each satisfaction degree with environmental literacy, but a general higher
comprehensive satisfaction degree will result in a higher score in environmental literacy. As a result,
how to build a highly satisfied park for visitors is one of the top questions for environmental
educators.
4.4. Satisfaction degree with other factors
In order to improve the satisfaction degree, it is essential to discovered the essence of it. Satisfaction
degree is a relatively objective term, it may be influenced by a very small indicator that is irrelevant
to this test. To eliminate these factors, a background test was run for the survey as followed.
IWEMSE 2018 - International Workshop on Environmental Management, Science and Engineering
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In addition to education background, other factors turned out to be also important. Based on the
data, people who are 50-60 years old or older showed more interests in vising urban forest park
compared to other ages. Besides, people who are single prefer to enjoy their spare times in the park
but not that interested in parks after they get married or have children. Even though people who have
more than one children have increasing interest in parks compared to single child family, the
popularity among single person may reflect questions. Further test of how many family-convenient
facilities were installed in the park, such as sufficient parking lot, family restrooms or rest area for
children and parents should also be done.
Table 5. Coefficient.
Unstandardized
coefficient
Standardized
coefficient
t
Sig.
B
Std. Error
Beta
Std. Error
(constant)
16.862
3.200
5.270
.000
V2-Questions 1. Your gender?
-.224
.414
-.063
.116
-.541
.590
V3-Question 2. Your age?
-.026
.425
-.008
.129
-.060
.952
V4-Question 3. Have lived in
Beijing more than one year?
-1.368
.992
-.179
.130
-1.379
.173
V5-Question 4. Educational
background
.144
.370
.049
.125
.390
.698
V6- Question 5. How many times
do you go to Olympic forrest part
in recent year?
.226
.185
.162
.133
1.218
.228
V7-Questions 6. Your family
members? 1. yourself
-.446
.516
-.123
.142
-.865
.391
V8-Question 6. Your family
members? 2. You and your spouse
.652
.482
.169
.125
1.352
.182
V9-Question 6. Your family
members? 3. One child
-.618
.495
-.170
.136
-1.248
.217
V10-Question 6. Your family
members? 4. Two children
-.880
.839
-.131
.124
-1.050
.298
V11-Question 6. Your family
members? 4. With your parents
1.005
.452
.271
.122
2.224
.030
V12-Questions 7. Have you been
involved in environment-related
activities?
-.198
.893
-.025
.112
-.222
.825
4.5. Satisfaction degree with various education systems
Table 6. Correlations.
Audio system
Score of environmental literacy
Audio system
Pearson Correlation
1
.283**
Sig. (2-tailed)
.006
N
93
93
Score of
environmental
literacy
Pearson Correlation
.283**
1
Sig. (2-tailed)
.006
N
93
200
**, Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
Environmental Education Function of Urban Forest Park and Efficiency Evaluation
47

Table 7. Correlations.
Explanation Board
Score of
environmental literacy
Explanation Board
Pearson Correlation
1
.286**
Sig. (2-tailed)
.001
N
143
143
Score of
environmental
literacy
Pearson Correlation
.286**
1
Sig. (2-tailed)
.001
N
143
200
**, Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
Table 8. Correlations.
Direction
Board
Score of environmental literacy
Direction
Board
Pearson
Correlation
1
.271**
Sig. (2-tailed)
.000
N
185
185
Score of
environmental
literacy
Pearson
Correlation
.271**
1
Sig. (2-tailed)
.000
N
185
200
**, Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
Table 9. Correlations.
Creativity
Score of environmental
literacy
Creativity
Pearson Correlation
1
.388**
Sig. (2-tailed)
.000
N
200
200
Score of
environmental
literacy
Pearson Correlation
.388**
1
Sig. (2-tailed)
.000
N
1200
200
**, Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
The correlation coefficient is around 0.27 for audio system, explanation board, notice boardd and
direction board except for creativity facilities. The correlation coefficient between creativity facilities
and environmental literacy score rapidly increases to 0.388. This means the creativity of
environmental literacy will greatly improve how people perceived knowledge during the education
process. These creativity facilities include music players hiding in the grass and cartoon-like dustbins.
5. Conclusions
Based on what was found in this research, creativity facilities are crucial for urban forest parks to
educate the public effectively. The creativity that these facilities presented are only the tip of the
iceberg. What hide behind the high satisfaction degree of interacting with creative education facilities
is the strong willingness of tourism to participate in the environment protection. So in the near future,
environmental education systems may try to engage visitors, turn them into participants in the
IWEMSE 2018 - International Workshop on Environmental Management, Science and Engineering
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environment. Thus, not only the environmental education will be more efficient, the visitors
themselves will also gain a higher satisfied experience.
In addition to the environmental education system in parks, the data above also showed that our
general education lacks environmental education, and it has already shown its influence on our young
generation through their behaviors.
As a result, it is necessary and urgent to advocate the generation of a systematic and functional
environmental education system. This system will not only influence the public in parks solely but
also plays it important role in schools. Only by this mean, the future generation will be a generation
of high environmental awareness.
Beijing Olympic Forest Park was originally built for the Olympic games. Due to its rare size and
convenient location in Beijing city, it quickly becomes one of the most popular parks in Beijing. And
also because of its recently designed park system, it can be viewed as one of the most modern and
recent parks in Beijing. As a result, the problems in Beijing Olympic Forest Park can be a problem in
the entire park environmental education system since it already represents the highest level of park
design in China. More and more city started borrow the idea of building urban green areas, if
problems in Beijing Olympic Parks have not been fixed, there will on be more and more “fail parks”
in environmental education.
It is urgent for people to notice and research about these parks, raising questions about them is
helping other similar parks to improve.
Even though the situation now may seem not optimistic, the data also showed more and more
families started to realize the importance of environmental education. With this awareness as powers,
the society further pushes us to improve the education systems of these parks.
This paper only discussed the efficiency of environmental education system by sorting the
facilities by their content, results may be different in other methods. As environment becomes more
and more important in the development of a country, evaluate the existing efficient environmental
education system or how to build one becomes increasingly significant. It is worthy to do further
research in this area.
Acknowledgement
We would like to thank the Undergraduate Research Program in China Agricultural University to
give guidance in designing accurate and efficient survey. The advisors from this program commented
on earlier versions that greatly improved the manuscript.
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