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Outreach that Makes a Difference! Target Audiences for Water Education — A Research Meta-Analysis
The purpose of this study was to identify and promote best education practices for educating specialized audiences about water. This involves identifying, finding, and reviewing the appropriate literature, developing procedures for organizing the relevant literature into useful categories, and drafting a summary of the results. The full report is available as a PDF, Outreach that Makes a Difference! Target Audiences for Water Education — A Research Meta-Analysis and Meta-Analysis Appendix D.
For a quick look, see the discussion below:
Table 1. Specialized Audiences Targeted by BEP Project Literature Search
Table 2 . Relevant literature searched in the Phase I of the BEP Project Literature Search
Table 4. Concepts and Key Words Used in Phase II of Our Literature Search
Table 5. References Returned and Reviewed in Second Phase of Literature Search
The selected targeted audiences
The audiences selected for the literature search were identified from multiple sources. Some were listed in the original proposal for this project based on previously identified needs, others were suggested by members of the advisory team, and the rest were identified in our study of provider needs and subsequent reviews of literature on water outreach and education. Each was included because few education practices have been identified and tested for their relative effectiveness with these specialized audiences.
Table 1. Specialized Audiences Targeted by BEP Project Literature Search |
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| Agricultural commodity groups | Local decision and policy makers |
| Aquaculture producers | Loggers |
| Environmental/conservation NGOs | Neighborhood organizations |
| Farmers | Recreational water users |
| Government agencies | Retailers of water recreation equipment |
| Households | Service clubs |
| Homeowners | Soil and water conservation districts |
| Industrial water users | Specific ethnic groups |
| Landowners | Water-related recreational businesses |
| Land development businesses | Youth and college students |
| Youth and college educators | |
Table 2 lists the relevant literature sources used in the first phase of our search.
Our search for relevant literature can be divided into two-phases. The first phase was a learning phase in which we developed search techniques of increasing power and sophistication, identified the more relevant and productive electronic databases, and refined and expanded the key words used in our searches.
Table 2 . Relevant literature searched in the Phase I of the BEP Project Literature Search |
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• References included in relevant books, book chapters, and journal articles • Ten years of table of contents from environmental education, Extension, and natural resource management journals • Proceedings from conferences on groundwater, watershed, water resource, water quality, and non-point source pollution. • Electronic journal databases available on the UW-Madison electronic library system using both single and developing multi-level key word search techniques. • Reference recommended by our project advisory team and water resource and education colleagues and associates in Wisconsin and around the country. |
Table 3 lists the databases used in the two phases of our search.
We concentrated our second-phase search efforts on the databases that proved most productive in the first phase using the now matured, multi-level key word search techniques. We also continued to welcome personal recommendations of specific references.
Table 3 . Lists of UW-Madison Electronic Library Databases Used in the Two Phases of Our Literature Search |
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|
Phase I (Winter 2002/2003 and Summer 2003) |
Phase II (Fall 2003 – Winter 2003/2004) |
| Cambridge Scientific Abstracts | Cambridge Scientific Abstracts |
| — Aquatic Sciences & Fisheries Abstracts (ASFA) (1992-2003) | — Aquatic Sciences & Fisheries Abstracts (ASFA) (1992-2004) |
| — ASFA 3: Aquatic Pollution and Environmental Quality (ASFA subfile) | — ASFA 3: Aquatic Pollution and Environmental Quality (ASFA subfile) (1992-2004) |
| — Pollution Abstracts | — Pollution Abstracts (1992-2004) |
| — Water Resources Abstracts | — Water Resources Abstracts (1992-2004) |
| OVID – Current Contents (1993-2003) | OVID – Current Contents (1993-2004) |
| WebSPIRS | WebSPIRS |
| — AGRICOLA (1992-2002) | — AGRICOLA (1992-2003) |
| — Agris (1991-2003) | — Agris (1991-2003) |
| — Biological Abstracts (1992-2002) | — ERIC (1992-2003(6)) |
| — Biological Abstracts/RRM (1992-2002) | |
| — CAB Abstracts (1992-2003) | |
| — ERIC (1992-2002) | |
| — Zoological Record (1993-2002) | |
| BiblioLine | |
| — Fish and Fisheries Worldwide (1992-2002) | |
| — Wildlife World (1992-2002) | |
| EBSCOhost – Academic Search Elite (1984-2002) | |
| ISI Web, Web of Knowledge ( 1992-2003) | |
Table 4 lists the search terms used in the second phase of the literature search.
The key words listed in Table 4 combine the search terms recommend by our advisory team with key words refined from the responses of natural resource professionals contacted in our study of provider needs.
Table 4. Concepts and Key Words Used in Phase II of Our Literature Search |
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Key words used in the second phase of our literature search, grouped by category. The “*” is a wildcard designator in most of the databases we searched.
Adding key words to a list using the Boolean “OR” broadened the scope of the search. Combining the concept lists using the Boolean “AND” narrowed the scope or made it a more selective search. A typical search would use these in combination. We searched databases listed in Phase II of Attachment 1 using no less than twelve combinations of these key-word groups. The most restrictive search combined all six concepts as follows: (water* or river* or lake* or riparian or groundwater* or stream or streams) AND (educat* or outreach or instruct* or environmental educat* or pedagog* or technolog* transfer) AND (participation or citizen participation or public participation or social movement or civic engagement or civic empowerment or emancipation or emancipatory education or liberation theology or social responsibility) AND (best practice* or success* or effective*) AND (adult* or landown* or farm* or agricultur* or industr* or small industr* or small business* or retail* business* or industr* water user* or recreation* water user* or decision maker* or homeowner* or household*) AND (evaluat* or assess* or study or studi*) The least restrictive combined only two concepts, for example, Water AND Education: (water* or river* or lake* or riparian or groundwater* or stream or streams) AND (educat* or outreach or instruct* or environmental educat* or pedagog* or technolog* transfer) |
Table 5 shows the total number of references and abstracts identified and reviewed in the second phase our search and a breakdown of the total by database.
The databases in the second-phase searches returned a total of 89,738 references and abstracts (counting duplicate returns). We reviewed 15,082 of these references and abstracts (when abstracts were provided) to determine if the referenced literature met our selection criteria.
We filtered the literature in two stages. We first selected the references that appeared to be topically relevant to our project. From this subset, we selected the references that appeared to report on research that either evaluated education practices in a single case or compared two or more cases to identify one practice as better than the other(s).
Most of the references reviewed did not meet either criterion. The following is one of the rejected abstracts; it provides an example of why we rejected so many given the specificity of our search terms.
Abstract: Presents news briefs related to community colleges in the U.S. as of April 14, 2003. Arrest of Rafael Diaz, vice president at Brookhaven College in Farmers Branch, Texas, for conspiracy to money laundering; Participation of Chief Warrant Officer David S. Williams in the Army reserves; Resignation of Clyde W. Johnson as director of equal employment at Salt Lake Community College in Utah.
From the 15,082 references and abstracts we reviewed, we identified 526 (duplicates removed) that were topically relevant to our project. Ninety-five of the 526 provided at least a minimal level of case evaluation and critical reflection. These 95 articles are the sources from which we will identify and promote best education practices for educating specialized audiences about water.
Table 5. References Returned and Reviewed in Second Phase of Literature Search |
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|
Database |
Number of (counting duplicate returns) |
Number of Returns Reviewed To Determine if Topically Relevant to Project (counting duplicate returns) |
| AGRICOLA |
2,469 |
1,379 |
| Agris |
11,837 |
3,554 |
| Aquatic Science and Fisheries Abstracts (ASFA) |
7,679 |
2,701 |
| ASFA 3: Aquatic Pollution and Environmental Quality |
2,109 |
1,281 |
| Current Contents |
52, 213 |
2,050 |
| ERIC |
7,218 |
1,096 |
| Pollution Abstracts |
2,086 |
1,131 |
| Water Resources Abstracts |
4127 |
1,890 |
|
TOTAL |
89,738 |
15,082 |
Meta-analysis methodologies
Along with identifying target audience research, we considered various meta-analysis methodologies for organizing and discriminating the reviewed literature in useful ways. We drew from established literature in education theory and practice and from the expertise of our advisory committee to develop two detailed matrices. One matrix would organize the literature on education practice by general bodies of education knowledge and discriminate it by frame of reference, components of learning, and learning management. A second matrix would organize the literature by audience and discriminate it by the practice and application of education programs from planning and implementation through assessment/evaluation. Our Advisory Committee recommended a simpler approach. We eventually found and decided to use the framework employed in Holsman (2001) both for its relative simplicity and record of successful use.
A BEP project review of thousands of papers,through an extensive search of multiple education, environmental, resource, and resource management journals and journal databases, identified studies of adult outreach and education that could claim to identify best education practices for specific audiences.
Listed below are the audiences that are discussed in the list of Target Audience Research Bibliography (PDF, 231 KB). The numbers correlate to the numbers of references and abstracts in the list for a particular audience.
| Agricultural commodity groups |
1 |
Loggers |
2 |
| Aquaculture producers |
1 |
Neighborhood organizations |
0 |
| Environmental/conservation NGOs |
2 |
Recreational water users |
6 |
| Farmers |
38 |
Retailers of water recreation equipment |
0 |
| Government agency professionals |
4 |
Service clubs |
0 |
| Homeowners |
8 |
Soil and water conservation districts |
0 |
| Households |
11 |
Specific ethnic groups |
0 |
| Industrial water users |
4 |
Water-related recreational businesses |
0 |
| Landowners |
9 |
Youth and college educators |
8 |
| Land development businesses |
0 |
Youth and college students |
15 |
| Local decision and policy makers |
3 |
TOTAL |
112 |
