Keywords

1 Introduction

1.1 Marine Conservation, Protection and Environmental Sustainability

Ocean covers over 70% of the Earth’s surface. Marine ecosystems in the ocean and associating coastal areas account for the provision of numerous important ecosystem goods and services to the mankind, including the provision of food, climate regulation, supporting nutrient cycling and supporting non-commercial uses by human (Worm et al., 2006). A recent study estimated that the total value of ecosystem services provided by the marine biome was US$49.7 trillion in 2011, equivalent to approximately 66% of the world’s gross domestic production of the same year (Costanza et al., 2014). The bloom of human population in the last century, however, has posed various threats to global biological diversity and life-support systems (Rands et al., 2010). Marine ecosystems are increasingly impacted by the loss of biological diversity due to anthropogenic exploitation and activities that consequently altered the regular functioning of the systems (Worm et al., 2006). Such degradations of ecosystem services are often manifested as environmental issues chanted in the mass media, which are usually detrimental to human societies. The modern ecological paradigm, as a result, emphasizes the concept of sustainable development. And it is suggested that environmental sustainability in particular should become one of the core values in contemporary communities (Goodland, 1995). Obviously, this cannot be achieved by repression, but only be accomplished by touching awareness, especially of young people. And education represents one of the major and most important channels to mainstream this core value in our society.

1.2 Environmental Education and Related Pedagogy

Despite the recent discussion on the terminological replacement of environmental education (EE; see Kopnina, 2014), EE has long been recognized as an important discipline “to develop a world population that is aware of and concerned about the environment and its associated problem” (Barry, 1976). The objectives of EE are to enhance awareness, knowledge, attitude, skill, evaluation ability and participation of communities on environmental issues. The development of pro-environmental behaviour (PEB), which is “the behaviour that consciously seeks to minimize the negative impact of one’s actions on the natural and built world” (Kollmuss & Agyeman, 2002), is the benchmark for assessing the effectiveness of EE. The conventional school-based approach, however, has been criticized as inefficient in the promotion of PEB (Barrett, 2007).

The early model of how PEB is acquired highlighted the role of one’s pro-environmental attitudes as a mediator between the environmental knowledge and actual PEB. But this linear model received considerable amount of criticisms, and many studies failed to find a link between pro-environmental attitude and behaviour (Kollmuss & Agyeman, 2002). Instead of merely advocating a change in human behaviour, Jensen & Schnack (1997) suggested that EE should rather orient towards acquisition of one’s action competence. According to Jensen (2002), an “action” refers to a change of lifestyle in every circumstance in the community. While the term “action competence” should be distinguished from behavioural modification or change commonly found in EE studies (Mogensen & Schnack, 2010). The main difference is that “action” is solely associated with an intention, while behavioural modification can be influenced by peer pressure or other factors. Thus, the consequences of one’s action must be thoroughly realized (Jensen, 2002). Jensen & Schnack (1997) have also pointed out the positive relationship between experience accumulation and action competence. This implies that the acquisition process of action competence is highly learner-oriented and experience based.

Stimulated by the Dewey’s call for “learning by doing”, experiential approach to education emphasizes the predominant role of experience in the learning process. Kolb (1984) provided a learning cycle framework which involves the four basic steps, namely act, reflect, conceptualize and apply. This approach has, in fact, provided the theoretical background and the promising pathway for the development of action competence of a person (Georgopoulos, Birbili, & Dimitriou, 2011).

As one type of experiential learning, field-based education is an effective pedagogy for experience accumulation of learners. This approach has been proven to be more effective, in particular, in the teaching and learning of biological and environmental subjects than conventional classroom approach (e.g. Zoldosova & Prokop, 2006; Easton & Gilburn, 2012; Sukhontapatipak & Srikosamatara, 2012). This is so effective because the field provides students authentic experiences in the natural environment, allowing them to witness the reality rather than studying from secondary information sources such as textbooks and museums. This experience can actually maximize students’ affective learning outcomes that are emotional in nature and long-lasting (Easton & Gilburn, 2012). Moreover, field exercises can deepen participant’s understanding of various complex scientific concepts and enhance content-related problem solving ability (Manzanal, Rodríguez Barreiro, & Casal Jiménez, 1999).

Similar to field-based approach, service learning approach emphases on providing authentic learning opportunities to learners through community services (Zlotkowski, 1998). It has been commonly adopted in higher education of academic fields such as health sciences, social work and marketing (Petkus, 2000; Dorsey, 2001). Silcox (1993) reported the first environmental monitoring service provided by a group of American students to a Russian city, Novgorod. Johnson-Pynn and Johnson (2005) conducted a study on two explorative service learning-based EE programmes in East African countries, and they found that not only the conservation knowledge but also the community awareness of the local participants has been greatly improved. Since then, more and more similar programmes have been implemented around the world, elucidating the role of service learning in EE (Johnson, Johnson-Pynn, & Pynn, 2007; Schneller, 2008; Al Barwani, Al-Mekhlafi, & Nagaratnam, 2013).

Although action-based, experiential, field-based and service-based learning approaches were proven to be effective pedagogies in EE, most of the teaching and learning activities of these approaches are conducted in terrestrial environments (cf. Bogner, 1998; Johnson-Pynn & Johnson, 2005; Easton & Gilburn, 2012; Sukhontapatipak & Srikosamatara, 2012). The field-based learning activities for EE on marine environments, in contrast, are relatively scarce (e.g. Lisowski & Disinger, 1991; Erickson, 1994; O’Connor & Sharp, 2014). These had prompted the authors to develop an EE module in this area.

1.3 Scholarship of Learning and Teaching (SoLT) and the Education Programme “Courier MS EdU”

An important issue in higher education is to create significant learning experience for students (Fink, 2003), which should be cross-disciplinary in nature (McKinney, 2013) and be sustained lifelong (Boyer, 1990). Enhancing students’ learning experience is one of the core themes in the framework of SoLT discussed in chapter one (Fig. 1.1). The essence of various pedagogies discussed so far, in fact, is to enrich students’ learning experience in environmental education. The field-based and service-based approaches adopted in the current study could allow students to expose themselves to various learning experiences. The action-based pedagogy, on the other hand, could strengthen students’ self-initiative to learn, and bring a student-focus element into the pedagogy (Trigwell, Martin, Benjamin, & Prosser, 2000). Through practicing critical thinking and logical reasoning, students’ pro-environmental behaviours can be enhanced and sustained.

Aiming to promote marine protection and conservation in Hong Kong, Department of Science and Environmental Studies and Centre for Education in Environmental Sustainability (CEES), of The Education University of Hong Kong (EdUHK) organized an education programme entitled Courier for Marine Stewardship of the EdUHK (Courier MS EdU) in 2015. This 6-month programme aims to train a diving team of undergraduates of the institution through action-based, field-based and service-based learning pedagogies. After the training, the participants are required to transfer their knowledge related to the local marine environment, the threats and approaches for conservation to local schools and the public. The participants assumed a dual role as a learner as well as an educator, and they were expected to acquire relevant knowledge and skills, a positive attitude and action competence related to the marine conservation.

2 The Research Question and Methodology

The objective of this paper is determine whether self-contained underwater breathing apparatus (scuba) diving, in association with relevant training on marine conservation, is an effective teaching intervention for environmental education, through reporting the participants’ self-conceived changes in knowledge, skill and attitude towards marine conservation, and an objective assessment on their action competence upon completion of the education programme “Courier MS EdU”. This study is to test the hypotheses that awareness of participants on the need of protecting and conserving our marine ecosystem, and thus, their action competence towards a sustainable world, would be strengthened through acquisition of first-hand unconventional learning experience.

2.1 Overview of “Courier MS EdU”

A team of seven undergraduates were openly recruited in the EdUHK. They are all certified open water scuba divers. One of the criticisms of the field-based learning approach involves the overemphasis of the affective, over the cognitive learning outcomes (Lisowski & Disinger, 1991). In the light of this, background knowledge on marine protection and conservation were delivered by conventional means to the participants in the beginning of the programme (Fig. 10.1).

Fig. 10.1
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Illustration of the education programme “Courier MS EdU” with the three main phases

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There were several specific learning outcomes of the programme. Cognitively, the team members were expected to understand the ecological importance of hard corals and coral reef; and what kinds of ecosystem functions were provided by them. It was anticipated that the members could master the skill of scuba diving, in situ identification of marine lives and be able to share their experience and present in front of a crowd of students. Most importantly, they could adopt a more environmental-friendly attitude towards the marine environment, realizing what kind of behaviour would be harmful to the marine environment and the reasons underneath.

To achieve the aforementioned outcomes, the programme was divided into three phases. In Phase 1, programme objectives and background knowledge in the local marine conservation were introduced in a workshop, which covered topics related to marine ecology of Hong Kong, basic identification of marine lives, anthropogenic threats faced by these organisms, the current status of marine conservation and protection in Hong Kong and methods of underwater ecological survey. This was followed by a scuba diving course focused on skills involved in undertaking an ecological study in an underwater environment (Fig. 10.2a, b).

Fig. 10.2
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Team members (a) receiving scuba diving training in the pool session and (b) attending the training lecture and workshop; (c) Team member conducting underwater ecological survey for Reef Check 2015; (d) Diving team having the field practical for seabed garbage collection. Experience sharing of the team in (e) a local secondary school and (f) the International Conference on Underwater Science, Technology and Education 2015

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Upon completion of the training, the team took part in community services in Phase 2. One major community services that the students have joined is the Hong Kong Reef Check 2015, which was organized by the Reef Check Foundation and the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) of the Hong Kong SAR Government. Reef Check Hong Kong, being a subordinate event of Reef Check Worldwide (http://www.reefcheck.org/), is an annual event which recruits volunteer teams from local universities, consultancy firms, commercial diving clubs and government departments to conduct standard ecological survey in assigned locations (Fig. 10.2c). The ecological data set collected from the coral community in Hong Kong waters would be sent to Reef Check Worldwide, which manages a global database as an effort to monitor deterioration of the coral reef around the world. Besides Reef Check, the team members have carried out seabed cleanup in one of the famous diving site in Sai Kung, Hong Kong (Fig. 10.2d). The garbage collected was sent to a laboratory in the EdUHK for further chemical analysis and scientific researches.

In Phase 3, the team transferred their knowledge and experience through delivering educational talk and experience sharing in local schools. On top of the general overview of the Hong Kong marine environment, the team members introduced and discussed the concept and importance of marine biodiversity conservation in Hong Kong to the local secondary students (Fig. 10.2e). To allow further exposure and accumulation of more experience on public speech, the team members joined the International Conference on Underwater Science, Technology and Education 2015 which was held in the City University of Hong Kong on 20 August 2015. In this event, the team shared what they have learnt in the programme (Fig. 10.2f).

2.2 Research Instrument and Analysis

Qualitative approach was adopted in the current study to investigate the effectiveness of the Courier MS EdU programme. Semi-structured individual interviews of about 30–40 min each were conducted on all the diving team members. Written consents were obtained before commencement of the interviews, in which audio recordings were conducted and transcribed.

The interview questions were designed to assess the perceived changes on knowledge (and skill), attitude and behaviour (KAB) of the team members after the programme. Motivation of the students to the programme was investigated. The responses about field experience, impression with scuba diving and community service were particularly collected in order to determine the effectiveness of this programme.

To evaluate the action competence of the participants objectively, the participants were asked to read the marine park visitors’ code and codes for scuba divers and snorkellers to visit the coral sites (AFCD, Table 10.1; last accessed on 14 August 2015, available at.

Table 10.1 The codes of conduct for the marine park visitors
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https://www.afcd.gov.hk/english/country/cou_vis/cou_vis_mar/cou_vis_mar_mpvs/cou_vis_mar_mpvs_act.html) during the interviews. The codes of conduct were not given to the students before this evaluation exercise, and yet the theoretical information related to the codes has been introduced during the lectures and workshops in Phase 1. After reading a total of 18 visitor codes, the members were requested to indicate their willingness to follow the codes, and, more importantly, to explain the theoretical background of the codes underneath. The number of codes that the participants indicated to follow with valid justifications was regarded as a measure of action competence with regard to protection and conservation of the marine environment.

Content analysis (Neuendorf, 2002) was used to summarize the team members’ response to the questions (data set) collected. The data set were coded and reduced according to the key messages expressed (Miles & Huberman, 1994), and they were categorized into knowledge, attitude and behavioural domains. For the analysis of action competence, descriptive statistic was adopted to show the number of activities codes that would be followed by the participants with valid justification.

3 Results

3.1 Reasons for Joining the Programme and the Most Impactful Experience

All the participants completed the interview. They have diverse backgrounds: four of them were pursuing bachelor’s degree in environmental-studies-related programmes, and the other three were studying physical education or sports sciences. The reasons why they took part in the programme included the attraction of the scuba diving, the desire to learn new knowledge, the curiosity about the ocean and the drive to put environmental knowledge learned into practices. Some participants indicated that scuba diving is a professional sport, and the rarity of scuba diver among their peers motivated them to join the programme. Regarding the adventure nature of scuba diving as an attraction to the participants, only one diving team member suggested that scuba diving is an adventure to him. One member, who has frequently carried out water sports, indicated that scuba diving has not possessed much adventurous impression to him.

Four members reflected that scuba diving experience is the most impactful experience provided by the education programme. Among those four, one particularly pointed out that the underwater world has inspired her so much. One member referred to her strong sense of self-achievement after completing the challenging scuba diving training course. Besides, one member mentioned that his experience in knowledge transfer activities was wonderful, as he could assist in motivating more teenagers from local school to join the scuba diving sport and spread conservation messages to others.

3.2 Improvement on Knowledge, Attitude and Behaviour (KAB)

All members perceived that they have significant improvement on every aspect of the KAB about marine protection and conservation after joining the programme (Table 10.2), except one candidate who perceived no attitudinal change. Four out of seven members agreed that their knowledge foundation has been consolidated due to the authentic experience gained from the underwater world. Much more knowledge, in particular those regarding technical details, was acquired due to the operational need of diving. The diverse information source of the programme, such as the seminar of Reef Check and the lectures on theory of scuba diving, provided them opportunities to learn knowledge from different perspectives and multiple disciplines (such as knowledge on physics). The diverse knowledge acquired was applied in Phase 2.

Table 10.2 Perceived changes of team members on knowledge, skill, attitude and behaviour after completing the “Courier MS EdU” education programme
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Specifically, as hypothesized, the knowledge and skill of scuba diving, the KAB on the marine environmental conservation and protection of the students have been promoted (Table 10.2). It is worth noting that other generic attributes of the members, such as being considerate, obtaining sense of achievement, acquiring the positive learning attitude, were also enhanced after completed the programme.

3.3 Visitor Codes and Action Competence

Compared to the self-reported data, the test on the action competence would be more objective. The results of the visitor codes indicated a strong action competence of the team members towards PEB. Most of the team members noted that they would follow almost all the visitor codes without reservation (15.86 out of 17 codes). One member thought that she would attempt to follow M4 and M9 (Table 10.1); however, she was not certain whether she could do it due to the poor buoyancy control during diving. One member provided condition for obeying M3 (Table 10.1) that he would fish outside the marine protected area for food. Another member denied following M7 (Table 10.1), since he would use sunscreen to avoid sunburn during water sport. He further supplemented that he would purchase sunscreen that would cause less harmful effect to the marine environment. These reflections upon one’s ability to execute a code in reality are actually illustrative to the fact that observance rate of the codes is indeed a good measure of action competence.

On the theoretical background of the codes underneath, an average of 12.29 (±2.75) out of 17 codes was explained correctly by the team members (Fig. 10.3). Misconceptions about the codes of conduct were identified. On average, one incorrect answer was recorded per member (Fig. 10.3). One misconception that a member has given in the incorrect answer is that he failed to point out—directly the damage of corals as a source of the harm to the fish in “No anchoring area”. This knowledge, however, was well discussed during the training workshop of Phase 1. Another member made a major misconception that only fish in small size should be fished so as to protect the fisheries resource inside the marine protected area. One member also claimed that the marine organisms would escape from the polluted water. This claim was, perhaps, not supported by any scientific evidences.

Fig. 10.3
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The average number of items (codes of conducts for the marine park visitors) that were explained by all the team members in different correctness

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Most of the results of this objective action competence test demonstrated that the specific learning outcomes of the programmes have largely been achieved. The correct explanation of some codes, such as M9, M10 and D2, indicated that the team members understand the consequences of their diving behaviour in harming the marine environment whereas the correctly explained codes such as M1, M2 and M6 implied an understanding of the ecosystem function of coral reef in providing habitat and food to the marine lives. In particular for codes M8 “Respect our marine environment”, two members highlighted that the anthropogenic adverse effect on the ocean could be irreversible, and the other two members pointed out that mankind should not be just selfish and should have the responsibility to conserve the marine environment.

3.4 Effectiveness of Field-Based and Service-Based Learning

Most of the team members emphasized the role of scuba diving played on their change of KAB. While two members suggested having equal knowledge gain if they were participating in a conventional programme without the scuba diving activities of similar nature; four members agreed that the experience in scuba diving did assist in substantiating their understandings on the knowledge content through memory refreshment. One of the four further pointed out that the diving activities provided him a chance to learn from the mistakes made in the field practical.

Almost all members agreed that the diving experience could create visual impact to them which affected their pro-environmental attitude and behaviour. Three of them emphasized the direct observation (evidence) on the consequences of human impacts to the environment. For instance, underwater debris and living organisms trapped in ghost nets. They did self-reflections as well, on how their daily action could degrade the marine ecosystem in a similar manner. The only candidate, who is a part-time water sport instructor claiming to have no attitudinal change after taking the programme, admitted that diving experience enriched his environmental knowledge and he could deliver to his students practicing various water sports in the future.

There were mainly two major comments about the community service component of the programme. Firstly, a general learning initiative was enhanced among participants due to the need for a strong academic background to conduct authentic duties such as the Reef Check. Secondly, the students felt that they contributed to the community through the programme and their efforts were meaningful.

3.5 Difficulties Faced by the Team Members

The most common problem that participants came across is the mastering of scuba diving techniques. Three members found it difficult to control their buoyancy underwater, and they wished to have more chances for practices. Two members complained that they need to memorize too much information in a very tight and intensive training period (Phase 1 lasted for less than two months), especially for those who do not have an academic background on environment-related subjects. One member, in particular, pointed out the difficulties in picking up the skills of the marine species identification. One participant also expressed his concern on conducting speech in front of the public, as he thought that it would be a big challenge to him. This demonstrates that the programme had in fact trained the student some soft skills unintendedly.

4 Discussion

4.1 Action Competence of the Students

As stated by the diving team members, the unconventional experience of scuba diving had significant impact on them, altering their pro-environmental attitude and behaviour. One may have query on whether our programme genuinely raised their action competence, since most of the data collected were self-reported and the conclusion was not supported by a longitudinal observation. Indeed, some of the participants did not provide correct explanations on all the codes of conducts and there were misconceptions as well. However, the detail codes of conducts were not explained to the participants in the training sections. The ability of the participants to provide correct explanations on the codes is illustrative of knowledge assimilation, integration and application. The results of action competence test also suggested the accomplishment of specific learning outcomes of the programme. In addition, Jensen and Schnack (1997) have categorized two types of environmental actions, namely direct action addressing problem directly and indirect action engaging others to solve the problem. Without any guidance and encouragement in the training session to spread the pro-environmental message, the members have indeed been involved in indirect actions, such as reminding others not to disturb marine lives, spreading the information of the marine conservation and protection to other friends and inviting other friends to learn scuba diving (Table 10.2). All these findings suggested that the team members have critically thought about the environmental knowledge and theories that they have acquired in the training, integrated the experience gained in the field practical and applied it holistically in their daily lives.

4.2 Scuba Diving as a Tool for Field-Based Learning

Scuba diving is an effective tool for experiential learning and field-based learning. The visual impacts from scuba diving emphasized by various team members constitute an important part of their experience, which have probably altered their pro-environmental attitude. As suggested by one participant, he can learn from mistake during the actual practice in scuba diving, indicating that he made self-reflections and may have potentially adopted the learning model of Kolb (1984). The articulation of the diving experience with the diving and ecological knowledge in most of the member reflects that diving experience indeed would facilitate the cognitive learning outcome of the learner.

The findings of this study echoed well with similar studies adopting a field-based approach. For example, the interest of pupils on scientific subject was boosted up after their participation in a 5-day lasting field trips at a field centre in Slovakia (Zoldosova & Prokop, 2006). Easton and Gilburn (2012) observed a significant improvement in cognitive learning of the final-year biology undergraduates after attending a 10-day residential field course in Portugal. Similar to the present study, they also identified secondary learning outcome from the students, which is the strengthening of the integrative learning ability across academic disciplines of the undergraduate due to the intensive and holistic training of the field course. The authentic experience gained by the undergraduates in campus wetlands of Mahidol University, Thailand, altered the attitude of the students, enabling them to value the importance of wetlands and how the wetlands are related to their own livelihoods (Sukhontapatipak & Srikosamatara, 2012).

One of the explanations on why field-based education is so effective is its positive influence on the affective, on top of the cognitive domain of the learner. Affection is found to exert a longer-lasting effect on knowledge acquisition (Easton & Gilburn, 2012). Pupils were able to recall their memory on the animals encountered during an informal fieldwork five months ago (Scott & Boyd, 2014). A large portion (96%) of 128 candidates, ranging from fourth-grade, eighth-grade pupils and adults, could recall the field trips that they have attended during their early schooling years (Dierking & Falk, 1997).

Orion and Hofstein (1994) listed out various factors that affect the quality of learning through field-based education. Direct contact to the physical environment is suggested to be one of the most significant. In addition, Li and Chen (2015) revealed that the natural experience is one of the most significant experiences to the formulation of environmental action in Chinese students. Compared to other field experience, we argued that the adventure nature of scuba diving will augment this affective effect on the learning process of the students.

4.3 Scuba Diving for the Service Education

Knowledge, compassion (ethics), and action are the three reciprocally influential factors of the service learning model (Al Barwani et al., 2013). The “Courier MS EdU” programme has included all these three crucial factors: the knowledge and ethics about the Reef Check and seabed cleanup activities were explained in detail both in the training workshop in Phase 1 or in the seminar conducted by the Reef Check 2015; the diving activities of the programme, which was regarded as the most attractive part of the programme by the members, are the action taken. Other than the Reef Check and seabed cleanup, the team members referred the knowledge transfer activities in local schools as a kind of community services. Majority of the team expressed that the activities of community services are very meaningful which triggered them to further study on the environment. The service component of the programme, obviously, has strengthened the members’ learning initiatives that have in turn enhanced the cognitive learning outcome. This finding is concurred with the other EE programmes that involve pupils in protecting sea-turtle poaching in Mexico (Schneller, 2008), and establishing tree nurseries or planting for prevention of soil erosion in Tanzania (Johnson-Pynn & Johnson, 2005).

4.4 Limitation and Difficulties in Implementing the Programme

Employing scuba diving for the field-based education strategy is quite different from the other terrestrial-based learning activities. Based on the experience in organizing the “Courier MS EdU” programme, we summarized some limitations and difficulties that educator would probably come across when adopting scuba diving as the tool of field-based education. They are namely the resource implication, the risk of diving and the deviation of the expected learning outcome.

As stated by Lonergan and Andresen (1988), field trips are labour- and capital-intensive activities compared to the normal classroom-oriented teaching and learning. The involvement of scuba diving has escalated the resource demands of the programme. The major expenditures associate with scuba diving includes the transportation fee of both land transport and the vessel charter, the instalment fee (or rental charge) of diving gears, the fee for insurance coverage (depends on the legal requirement of the country) and the arrangement of the storage space for the gears. They costed ~USD$1,300 per member in the programme. These financial and logistic requirements are generally not a favourable attraction and even create hurdles, to most educators with limited resources. Institutions with relatively easy access to seashore and those conducting regular underwater researches have apparent advantages. Choosing a relatively accessible field site and substituting scuba diving by snorkelling could be the means to reduce expenses. Along with the trend of the cost reduction in purchasing diving-related equipment, we believe that the budge and resource in which the educators need to throw is reasonably low and manageable from the perspectives of the departmental capacity or individual funding support.

Scuba diving is regarded as a “risky” activity in the community. In fact, it is a well-developed sport. The nowadays views on scuba diving have employed the concept of risk assessment and management (Wilks & Davis, 2000). Provided that the diver strictly obeys all the rules and guidelines, the chance of accident will be minimal. The repeated emphasis on the safety awareness by the participants shown in the data set (Table 10.2) demonstrated that they were successfully equipped with the concept of safety. Nevertheless, safety is the prime concern of the whole project. To manage the risks of having accident, all the students were requested to complete a standard diving training before they were allowed to conduct any underwater survey. Basic body check-up and a swimming test were included in the diving training, in order to assure the suitability of the students for diving. The underwater surveys were conducted in coral community located in the shallow water (<8 m). Under the supervision of the lecturer (certified diving master), no dangerous action or action beyond the students’ certified qualification was allowed. Emergency protocol, first aider and tender boat were all provided in the field practical. With the caution of the potential risk and a good self-discipline, scuba diving would be a safe and cost-effective field-based activity.

With regard to learning outcome, the adventure nature of scuba diving may lead to a leisurely expectation of the students, which may diminish the cognitive outcome of a field-based activity (Orion & Hofstein, 1994). Students tend to enjoy the “leisure” trip and ignore the learning objectives, especially on the cognitive aspects. While a focused knowledge foundation was demonstrated to promote the positive PEB (Ajzen, 1991), the marine-based knowledge of the scuba divers, in particular, correlated well with the PEB during diving (Thapa et al., 2005). Thus, the current programme focused on the theoretical construction of the team members on the marine protection and conservation issues during the training period. We carried out briefing and debriefing in every field practical, which was shown to be of significant importance to knowledge consolidation of a programme (Lonergan & Andresen, 1988).

4.5 SoLT and the Programme

While the conventional scope of SoLT mainly focused on the setting of a formal classroom, the current study adopting field-based approach in enhancing students’ learning experience in environmental education undoubtedly broadened the conceptualization of learning in SoLT. As shown in the interview data, the first-hand underwater experience of the members, especially the visual impact in the marine environment, indeed strengthened students’ initiative to enthusiastically learn and critically think about marine conservation. It is obvious that an embracement of more diverse learning experience of the students would widen the scope of SoLT and further facilitate the learning of students.

The role of the institution to recognize and support practice of SoLT is also important. As illustrated in the difficulties of implementing the education programme, the support in any forms from the institution, for example, the financial and logistic supports, is crucial. Furthermore, the institution could facilitate the sharing of good practice of SoLT within, or even outside, the institution, by creating the atmosphere for SoLT. The detail of the current programme was introduced and discussed with colleagues in an in-house knowledge transfer seminar. The seminar, which was organized by the institution, has provided a platform for the exchange of SoLT experience and practice among colleagues, which would definitely contribute to the continual improvement of learning and teaching of the programme.

5 Conclusion

As shown in the current study, the scuba diving in association with relevant training on marine conservation is an effective teaching intervention for environmental education. By creating visual impact and first-hand experience, the participants reported changes in knowledge, skill and attitude towards marine conservation. The awareness of participants on the need of protecting and conserving our marine ecosystem and, thus, their action competence towards a sustainable world, were strengthened.