Anthropocentric and ecocentric worldviews: Student resilience, fear, and optimal experience in an undergraduate course

Abstract

Individual worldviews provide a lens through which people interpret and operationalize their perspectives about the natural world. The goal of this research was to better understand student experiences in a university course that examined worldviews using film. This study explored three factors, including optimal experience, resilience, and fear, in an undergraduate film course. An event‐contingent survey sampling approach provided students an opportunity to amplify if they (a) have perceived levels of skill and associated challenges to a particular activity; (b) developed ways to cope with learning experiences; and (c) have experiences that quantify fear associated with worldview‐specific content. The purpose of this research was to determine if there were relationships between the three factors of worldviews of films, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, and the course modality of undergraduate learners. Students did indicate high frequencies of optimal experience during online anthropocentric films (30.3%). Levels of fear for ecocentric modality online students were higher ( M  = 7.7, SD  = 3.24) than those for in‐person students in the course ( M  = 7.3, SD  = 3.40). This positive statistical correlation may reinforce human perceptions associated with an inability to solve challenges of the world that are beyond human control (e.g., climate‐related catastrophes). The authors recommend further research in other courses that support innovative instructional practices and differing worldview film narratives. This research amplified further opportunities where measuring optimal experience, resilience, and fear can help instructors gain insights into student learning.