Michaela Zint
Michaela Zint teaches courses on environmental education and communication as well as on how the social sciences can help us understand and address environmental challenges. Her research focuses on how environmental education can best encourage individuals and groups to act in ways that will contribute to environmental quality and thus, to our quality of life.
Zint is particularly interested in evaluating environmental education programs because these evaluations can provide insight into the effectiveness of environmental education in specific applied settings. She has conducted a number of evaluations and helped environmental education organizations develop evaluation systems for both program accountability and improvements purposes. Her research draws on a range of qualitative and quantitative methods but she is particularly interested in structural equation modeling. Zint’s work has been published in a variety of journals including Conservation Biology, Environmental Education Research, Environmental Science & Technology, Fisheries, Journal of Applied Environmental Education & Communication, Journal of Environmental Health, Journal of Research in Science Teaching, Journal of Environmental Education, and Risk Analysis; and she has prepared a synthesis chapter on environmental education program evaluation to be published in the forthcoming International Handbook of Research in Environmental Education.
Michaela Zint received her PhD from Michigan State University.
Selected Publications
"Advancing environmental education programs: Insights from a review of behavioral outcome evaluations."
Zint, M. 2012. In Brody, M, Dillon, J., Stephenson, B., and Wals, A. (eds.), International Handbook of Research in Environmental Education. Routledge, New York, NY.
"Evaluating education for sustainable development programs."
Zint, M. 2011. In Leal Filho, W. (ed.), World trends on education for sustainable development, 329-348. Peter Lang, Frankfurt.
"Insights from an Evaluability Assessment of the U.S. Forest Service More Kids in the Woods Initiative."
Zint, M, B. Covitt, and P. Dowd. 2011.Journal of Environmental Education 42(4): 255-271.
"Enhancing environmental educators’ evaluation competencies: Insights from an examination of the effectiveness of the My Environmental Education Evaluation Resource Assistant (MEERA) web site."
Zint, M., Dowd, P. and B. Covitt. 2011. Environmental Education Research 17(4): 471-497.
"Elementary teachers’ beliefs about, perceived competencies for, and reported use of scientific inquiry to promote student learning about and for the environment."
Forbes, C. and M. Zint. 2011. Journal of Environmental Education 42(1): 30-42.
"An introduction to My Environmental Education Evaluation Resource Assistant (MEERA), a web-based resource for self-directed learning about environmental education program evaluation."
Zint, M. 2010. Evaluation and Program Planning 33(2): 178-179
"A review of research on the effectiveness of environmental education in promoting intergenerational learning."
Duvall, J. and M. Zint. 2007. Journal of Environmental Education 38(4): 14-24.
"An evaluation of the risk education module Exploring Environmental Issues: Focus on Risk."
Covitt, B., Gomez-Schmidt, C., & Zint, M. 2005. Journal of Environmental Education 36(2): 3-13.
"Comparing three attitude-behavior theories for predicting science teachers’ intentions."
Zint, M. 2002. Journal of Research in Science Teaching 39(9): 819-844.
"Evaluation of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation's conservation education programs."
Zint, M., Kraemer A., Northway, H. and M. Lim. 2002. Conservation Biology 16(3): 641-650.