Learning Beyond Schools: Nonformal Environmental Education in Taiwan

In the early 1990s, environmental education (EE) was initially launched at all levels of the school settings (K-12) in Taiwan. Since then, EE has become a theme and has been recognized as an influential instrument for environmental concerns by most Taiwanese educators. With such powerful outcomes from EE, it was found that environmental awareness and attitudes held by the public in general were dramatically increased from the past decades. Accordingly, EE with its three-dimension components-formal EE; nonformal EE; and informal EE – have been consciously designed and practiced in order to reach out for a large part of the society. For example, by the year 2001, there were five graduate institutes of environmental education established under the Teacher Normal Universities throughout Taiwan. And, in the context of nonformal EE, educational programs and interpretation at the institutions such as environmental education centers, nature centers, zoos, museums, parks, outdoor-education settings, park & recreation and so on have been implemented and adopted by a broad array of organization practitioners. But, as regards informal EE, namely, “environmental communications,” there had received relatively less attention than formal and nonformal practices during the time. On June 5, 2010, the Legislative Yuan of Taiwan adopted Environmental Education Act, which is a significant expansion of EE in Taiwan. This review article briefly addresses the history and current state of nonformal EE developing in Taiwan. In addition, a dynamic expansion of nonformal EE promoted by Environmental Education Act was explained in the article as well.