SOCIO-EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT BASED ON MENTAL MODELS OF ENVIRONMENTAL REPRESENTATION

This study's overriding aim is to provide an understanding of the models of perception involving the term Environment, with a view to discovering the types of models that exist in people's minds and the nature of the mechanisms required to advance toward sustainability through Environmental Education. An interpretative and inferential analysis has been conducted. Each individual in a total sample of 351 people has used a drawing to depict the concept they have of the term environment. The drawings have been studied to reveal the absence or presence of the features corresponding to 16 categories established through a data collection matrix. The results have provided six representative models. We conclude that for the majority of the population the term environment is mainly biological and includes natural aspects, while for a significantly lower percentage it is a term that incorporates biotic, social and technological aspects. These conclusions suggest that Environmental education should go beyond the ecological and aesthetic aspects and principles specific to an environmentalist and/or naturalist perspective of the environment, seeking also social and cultural approaches, informed by human beings' development and life requirements.