Patterns of Environmental Problem-Solving Among Lower Secondary Students in an Emancipatory Environmental Learning Project

Environmental problem-solving (EPS) is often assessed after instruction, limiting insight into how students demonstrate it during project work. This interpretive qualitative study examined EPS patterns among 35 Grade 8 students in a Thai secondary school during a 20-week project organized around the characteristics of an emancipatory approach. Three reflective journals provided primary evidence, while group worksheets and final presentations contextualized and corroborated students’ accounts. Hybrid deductive–inductive content analysis used five EPS components as initial codes while allowing patterns to emerge inductively. An end-of-project situational assessment provided complementary descriptive evidence without determining pattern assignment. Three overlapping patterns emerged: evidence-informed, action-oriented, and social change-oriented patterns. Students in the same course, and sometimes working on the same project, placed different recurring emphases on evidence, action, reflection, and participation. The patterns represented neither stable types nor competence levels. Assessment scores fell mainly within the 31–45 range (n = 29); six students scored 16–30, and none scored 0–15. Without a baseline, this distribution describes end-of-project performance, not improvement. The patterns provide a context-sensitive lens for examining individual variation that overall scores and group-level accounts may obscure and for investigating how EPS emphases emerge, overlap, and change across contexts and over time.