Envisioning how photographs might address vexing educational challenges

Gehlbach, H., Mu, N., Arcot, R. R., Chuter, C., Cornwall, K., Nehring, L., Robinson, C. D., & Vriesema, C. C. (2022). Envisioning how photographs might address vexing educational challenges. Contemporary Educational Psychology. doi: 10.1016/j.cedpsych.2022.102096

As an educational problem, the accelerating loss of biodiversity—one of the planet’s most pressing issues—represents a particularly intriguing challenge. First, although biodiversity loss unfolds around us on a daily basis, many individuals struggle to see, comprehend, and care about it. In addition, educators addressing biodiversity loss must attend to multiple outcomes simultaneously—i.e., students’ emotions, motivation, and behaviors as well as their understanding of key concepts. Focusing on the valuing component of expectancy-value theory, we evaluated the potential of photographs to affect participants’ emotional reactions, valuing of biodiversity, pro-environmental behaviors, and content-relevant learning. Through a preliminary, exploratory experiment (N = 399 adults) and a preregistered, confirmatory experiment (N = 1870 secondary school students), we found broadly consistent evidence that strategically selected photographs induced negative emotions, increased participants’ valuing of biodiversity, and motivated pro-environmental behavior. Meanwhile, we saw no evidence of deleterious (or positive) effects on participants’ learning when the photographs accompanied an informational text. We conclude by discussing how costs are conceptualized within expectancy-value theory, as well as the potential of photographs as a useful pedagogical strategy for a range of environmental educators.