ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Educ.
Sec. Teacher Education
Volume 10 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/feduc.2025.1629969
This article is part of the Research TopicUniversity Education for Sustainable Development: Challenges and OpportunitiesView all 8 articles
Echoes in Memory: The Lasting Imprint of Adult Experiences from
Provisionally accepted
- Kibutzzim College of Education, Tel Aviv, Israel
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The study examines what adults remember from their participation in the program in fifth grade and explores the extent to which these memories and experiences are associated with their environmental values and attitudes in adulthood. A qualitative approach was employed using autobiographical narratives gathered through semi-structured interviews. Participants, aged 30 and above, were recruited via snowball sampling, and thematic analysis identified key patterns in their recollections. Five main themes emerged: experiential learning fosters longterm memories, collaboration enhances engagement, bridging theory and practice strengthens learning, the program cultivated self-efficacy, and environmental values persisted into adulthood. The study highlights the lasting effects of experiential environmental education. Although several participants reported a sustained emotional connection and heightened ecological awareness, few offered concrete examples of long-term proenvironmental behaviors in their adult lives. Findings point to the importance of long-term reinforcement in supporting pro-environmental behaviors, suggesting that structured followups and continued engagement may help strengthen the long-term impact of such programs, although further research is needed to clarify this relationship.
Keywords: Environmental Education, Experiential learning, autobiographical memories, Proenvironmental behavior, long-term educational impact, Lesser kestrel conservation
Received: 30 May 2025; Accepted: 15 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Gal. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Adiv Gal, Kibutzzim College of Education, Tel Aviv, Israel
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