Showing papers on "Environmental education published in 2007"
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors review four bodies of research that shed light on how to promote active care for the environment in children and youth: research on sources of proenvironmental behavior, socialization for democratic skills and values, the development of a personal sense of competence, and development of collective competence.
Abstract: This article reviews four bodies of research that shed light on how to promote active care for the environment in children and youth: research on sources of proenvironmental behavior, socialization for democratic skills and values, the development of a personal sense of competence, and the development of collective competence. The article begins with an overview of studies of formative childhood experiences reported by environmental activists and educators, followed by correlational and experimental studies with young people regarding factors associated with their taking action for the environment. Because behaviors with the largest potential benefits for the environment require political engagement, the article also reviews experiences associated with young people’s interest and engagement in public issues. Action for the environment in the home or in public arena like schools and communities requires a personal sense of competence and a sense of collective competence, or confidence in one’s ability to a...
756 citations
TL;DR: A number of authors have observed a pronounced discrepancy between the problem-solving and action-oriented goals associated with the contemporary philosophy of environmental education and an emphasised emphasis on the importance of problem solving as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: A number of authors have observed a pronounced discrepancy between the problem‐solving and action‐oriented goals associated with the contemporary philosophy of environmental education and an emphas...
493 citations
TL;DR: In this article, every phase of education is now being urged to declare its support for education for sustainable developmen, whether we view sustainable development as our greatest challenge or a subversive litany.
Abstract: Whether we view sustainable development as our greatest challenge or a subversive litany, every phase of education is now being urged to declare its support for education for sustainable developmen...
482 citations
TL;DR: This review draws on ecological theory to conceptualize school gardens as systemic interventions with the potential for promoting the health and well-being of individual students in multiple interdependent domains and for strengthening the school environment as a setting for positive youth development.
Abstract: There are thousands of school gardens in the United States, and there is anecdotal evidence that school garden programs can enhance students' learning in academic, social, and health-related domains. There has been little rigorous research, however, on the effects of school gardens or on the factors that promote the sustainability of these programs. This review draws on ecological theory to conceptualize school gardens as systemic interventions with the potential for promoting the health and well-being of individual students in multiple interdependent domains and for strengthening the school environment as a setting for positive youth development. This review (a) summarizes the small literature regarding the impact of school garden curricula on student or school functioning, (b) provides a conceptual framework to guide future inquiry, (c) discusses implications of this conceptualization for practice, and (d) suggests further research needed to better inform practice.
352 citations
TL;DR: Using phenomenological analysis, this article examined the long-term effects of an environmental education school field trip on fourth grade elementary students who visited Great Smoky Mountains National Park and found that one year after the experience, many students remembered what they had seen and heard and had developed a perceived proenvironmental attitude.
Abstract: Using phenomenological analysis, the authors examined the long-term effects of an environmental education school field trip on fourth grade elementary students who visited Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The authors' findings suggest that one year after the experience, many students remembered what they had seen and heard and had developed a perceived proenvironmental attitude. The authors discuss the phenomenological analysis, cite interviews with students, and draw conclusions on the effect of the field trip.
301 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors report the environmental attitudes and knowledge of 765 1st-year students in 3 teacher-training colleges in Israel and examine the relationship between these variables and background factors and their relationship to environmental behavior.
Abstract: The authors report the environmental attitudes and knowledge of 765 1st-year students in 3 teacher-training colleges in Israel and examine the relationship between these variables and background factors and their relationship to environmental behavior. Although the students' environmental knowledge was limited, their overall attitudes toward the environment were positive. The authors found a positive relationship between the environmental knowledge and environmental attitudes of the students and the level of their mothers' education. Students majoring in fields related to the environment were more knowledgeable and had more environment-oriented attitudes in comparison with other students. The authors discuss the relationship between knowledge, attitudes, and behavior and the influence of background factors on the students' environmental literacy.
286 citations
TL;DR: Theoretical and empirical research studies in the United States are reviewed to evaluate the efficacy of educational efforts that seek to encourage adoption of low impact behaviours as discussed by the authors, finding that most of the visitor education efforts evaluated did effectively alter visitor knowledge, behaviour and/or resource and social conditions in the intended direction.
Abstract: Protected area managers, tourism providers, and other organisations commonly employ education programmes to address visitation-related impairment of natural and cultural resources, social conditions, and neighbouring communities. These programmes have different names (Leave No Trace, Codes of Conduct, Environmental Guidelines for Tourists) but share common objectives: to sustain opportunities for high quality visitor experiences while avoiding or minimising associated negative impacts to protected area resources, visitor experiences, and park neighbours. Theoretical and empirical research studies in the United States are reviewed to evaluate the efficacy of educational efforts that seek to encourage adoption of low impact behaviours. Findings reveal that most of the visitor education efforts evaluated did effectively alter visitor knowledge, behaviour and/or resource and social conditions in the intended direction. These findings, including discussions of message content, delivery, audience characteristic...
283 citations
TL;DR: Place-based education as discussed by the authors is an approach to curriculum development and school community relations that draws upon local cultural, environmental, economic and political concerns, and it promises a convergence of the social and environmental that in some places is transforming schools into sites where David Gruenewald's vision of decolonisation and reinhabitation is being enacted.
Abstract: Robert Stevenson identified four behavioural and programmatic regularities that have inhibited the implementation of environmental education as envisioned by the framers of the Belgrade Charter and Tbilisi Declaration. These include the presentation of standardised knowledge associated with established disciplines, reliance on teachers as primary information sources, assessment procedures based on ease of marking and justification, and the control of students. Place‐based education, an approach to curriculum development and school‐community relations that draws upon local cultural, environmental, economic and political concerns, is beginning to challenge these regularities. Although not yet widely practised, it promises a convergence of the social and environmental that in some places is transforming schools into sites where David Gruenewald’s vision of decolonisation and reinhabitation is being enacted.
263 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, two reliable and valid instruments to assess first and second grade children's environmental attitudes and behaviors are presented, based on a series of games derived primarily from video games.
Abstract: Two reliable and valid instruments to assess first- and second-grade children's (N = 100, M = 6.8 years) environmental attitudes and behaviors are presented. A series of games derived primarily fro...
216 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a two-phase evaluation project was conducted in Wales and England from 2002 to 2005 to explore the impacts of forest school on children and this was then used to track changes in 24 children at three case study areas over an 8-month period.
204 citations
TL;DR: The Environments Task was administered to students from 25 different teacher-classrooms as discussed by the authors, and the student responses were first inductively analyzed in order to identify students' mental models of the environment.
Abstract: What are students' mental models of the environment? In what ways, if any, do students' mental models vary by grade level or community setting? These two questions guided the research reported in this article. The Environments Task was administered to students from 25 different teacher-classrooms. The student responses were first inductively analyzed in order to identify students' mental models of the environment. The second phase of analysis involved the statistical testing of the identified mental models. From this analysis four mental models emerged: Model 1, the environment as a place where animals/plants live—a natural place; Model 2, the environment as a place that supports life; Model 3, the environment as a place impacted or modified by human activity; and Model 4, the environment as a place where animals, plants, and humans live. The dominant mental model was Mental Model 1. Yet, a greater frequency of urban students than suburban and rural students held Mental Model 3. The implications to environmental science education are explored. 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 44: 327-348, 2007
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors used an online questionnaire to investigate lecturers' views of sustainable development and its contribution to the higher education curriculum, and found that a fairly high level of support for sustainable development is expressed across different disciplines.
Abstract: Education for sustainable development (ESD) is playing an increasing role in the higher education curriculum. However, little previous research exists on lecturers' understanding of and attitudes towards sustainable development. This study used an online questionnaire to investigate lecturers' views of sustainable development and its contribution to the higher education curriculum. The questionnaire asks lecturers from a variety of different disciplines about their views on appropriate pedagogy for ESD, and gives insights into the potential opportunities for and barriers to the incorporation of ESD into higher education. The findings of this survey reveal a wide range of understandings of sustainable development within this institution—and a high level of critical debate about the concept itself. In common with some previous research, there are indications that many lecturers find the language of ESD inaccessible. Despite this, a fairly high level of support for sustainable development is expressed across...
TL;DR: The gap between policy rhetoric and school practices in environmental education has not only persisted but probably increased over the past twenty years, given the contested advent of education for sustainable development (ESD) as the dominant international policy discourse in this area, and an increased focus in schools on didactic teaching in traditional content areas resulting from narrowly defined accountability measures in many national educational policies.
Abstract: The gap between policy rhetoric and school practices in environmental education has not only persisted but probably increased over the past twenty years, given the contested advent of education for sustainable development (ESD) as the dominant international policy discourse in this area, and an increased focus in schools on didactic teaching in traditional content areas resulting from narrowly defined accountability measures in many national educational policies. After examining changes and continuities in the discourse of environmental education/ESD and the policy contexts of schools over the past twenty years, this article argues for re‐conceptualising the rhetoric–practice gap such that practices in schools are not simply assessed in relation to policy discourse but policy discourse itself is re‐examined in relation to teachers’ practical theories and the contexts shaping their practices. Although the structures and norms of schooling continue to work against inquiry‐based action‐oriented environmental...
TL;DR: This article reviewed and synthesized results from seven studies that sought to answer the question of how to design environmental education (EE) programs in ways that encourage children to influence the environmental knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of adults.
Abstract: How to design environmental education (EE) programs in ways that encourage children to influence the environmental knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of adults has intrigued researchers for more than a decade. The authors review and synthesize results from 7 studies that sought to answer this question. The studies reviewed were conducted between 1992 and 2003 in England, Costa Rica, Australia, Canada, and the United States. All of the studies involved formal K—12 EE programs that ranged from a 1.5-hr program on endangered species to a 1-year program integrating ecological concepts throughout the curriculum. Based on these studies, the authors identify several factors that contribute to intergenerational learning, including actively involving parents in student activities and focusing on local environmental issues.
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12 Oct 2007
TL;DR: In this paper, a case study of participatory learning in and as participation in a health-promoting school in Canada is presented, along with a discussion of the role and challenges of mediating agents.
Abstract: Preface Contributors 1. Introduction Alan Reid, Bjarne B. Jensen, Jutta Nikel, Venka Simovska 2. Stepping back from 'the ladder': reflections on a model of participatory work with children Roger A. Hart 3. Differentiating and evaluating conceptions and examples of participation in environment-related learning Alan Reid and Jutta Nikel 4. Learning in and as participation: a case study from health promoting schools Venka Simovska 5. Environmental learning and categories of interest: exploring modes of participation in a conservation NGO William Scott and Stephen Gough 6. Participation and the ecology of environmental awareness and action Louise Chawla 7. Participation, situated culture and practical reason and situated culture Heila Lotz-Sisitka and Rob O'Donoghue 8. From practice to theory: participation as learning in the context of sustainable development projects Paul Vare 9. Participation and sustainable development: the role and challenges of mediating agents Jeppe. Laessoe 10. Mental ownership and participation for innovation in environmental education and education for sustainable development Soren Breiting 11. Participation, education and democracy: implications for environmental education, health education, and education for sustainable development Karsten Schnack 12. What comes before participation? Searching for meaning in teachers' constructions of participatory learning in environmental education Paul Hart 13. Participatory pedagogy in environmental education: reproduction or disruption? Mary J. Barrett 14. Elusive participation: methodological challenges in researching teaching andparticipatory learning in environmental education Paul Hart 15. Student participation in school ground greening initiatives in Canada: reflections on research design decisions and key findings Janet E. Dyment 16. Researching participation using critical discourse analysis Debbie Heck 17. Youth participation in local environmental action: an avenue for science and civic learning? Tania M. Schusler and Marianne E. Krasny 18. A clash of worlds: children talking about their community experience in relation to the school curriculum Robert Barratt and Elisabeth Barratt Hacking 19. Sustainable education, whole school approaches and communities of action Tony Shallcross and JohnRobinson 20. School councils as an arena for pupils' participation in collaborative environmental education projects Monica Carlsson and Dawn Sanders
TL;DR: The authors reported findings from a 10-day professional development institute on curricular trends involving 19 secondary mathematics and science teachers and administrators from Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Korea, Philippines, United States, and People's Republic of China.
Abstract: This study reports findings from a 10-day professional development institute on curricular trends involving 19 secondary mathematics and science teachers and administrators from Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Korea, Philippines, the United States, and People's Republic of China. Participants explored the roles of culture, place, and personal experience in science education through writings and group discussions. Initially, Asian participants tended to view indigenous knowledge and practices more negatively than U.S. peers. After a presentation on indigenous Hawaiian practices related to place and sustainability, they evaluated indigenous practices more positively and critiqued the absence of locally relevant science and indigenous knowledge in their national curricula. They identified local issues of traffic, air, and water quality they would like to address, and developed lessons addressing prior knowledge, place, and to a lesser extent, culture. These findings suggested critical professional development employing decolonizing methodologies articulated by indigenous researchers Abbott and Smith has the potential to raise teachers' awareness of the connections among personal and place-based experiences, cultural practices and values, and teaching and learning. An implication was the development of a framework for professional development able to shift science instruction toward meaningful, culture, place, and problem- based learning relevant to environmental literacy and sustainability. 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 44: 1247-1268, 2007
TL;DR: The authors locates art education within a critical pedagogy of place as a prelude to describing contemporary art and art education that is engaged with ecological issues, and provides a robust framework for the theory and practice of art education.
Abstract: In contemporary life and education, the local is marginalized in favor of large-scale economies of consumption that are indifferent to ecological concerns. The consequences of neglecting local human and natural communities include a degraded habitat, loss of wilderness, alienation, rootlessness, and lack of connection to communities. Critical place-based pedagogy provides a robust framework for the theory and practice of art education that is concerned with ecological issues. This article locates art education within a critical pedagogy of place as a prelude to describing contemporary art and art education that is engaged with ecological issues.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore a number of issues arising from the papers in this special issue of Environmental Education Research and discuss themes that emerge from their review of the research reported in the special issue, including the engagement of children as environmental stakeholders and their engagement in environmental learning.
Abstract: In this article we explore a number of issues arising from the papers in this special issue of Environmental Education Research. The papers focus on current examples of childhood environment research in the UK together with research reviews from the UK, the US and Australia. In order to provide a framework for considering and contextualizing this research we explore conceptions of childhood and the field of childhood environment research. Reduced opportunities for children's outdoor environmental experience and resulting concerns for children's well‐being are recurring themes in this research field. We also discuss themes that emerge from our review of the research reported in this special issue, including issues around the engagement of children as environmental stakeholders and their engagement in environmental learning. The article ends with reflections on childhood environment research methodologies and an argument for developing participatory research with children. The concept of restorative environ...
TL;DR: This article argued that our present environmental predicament not only provides an exciting opportunity to re-focus education on the issue of our relationship to nature, but positively requires the exploration of this issue for its long term resolution.
Abstract: Much official environmental education policy in the UK and elsewhere makes scant reference to nature as such, and the issue of our underlying attitude towards it is rarely addressed. For the most part such policy is preoccupied with the issue of meeting ‘sustainably’ what are taken to be present and future human needs. This paper considers a range of issues posed by this anthropocentric approach and will explore the view that environmental education -- indeed any education -- worthy of the name needs to bring a range of searching questions concerning nature to the attention of learners, and to encourage them to develop their own on-going responses to them. It is argued that our present environmental predicament not only provides an exciting opportunity to re-focus education on the issue of our relationship to nature, but positively requires the exploration of this issue for its long term resolution. Extensive implications for the curriculum and the culture of the school are raised.
TL;DR: Action competence is defined as the ability to take into consideration the needs of learners as discussed by the authors, i.e., the ability of a learner to consider the concerns of others in the context of sustainable development.
Abstract: A central concept introduced in the Nordic debate on sustainable development is 'action competence'. The concept has been defined as a competence of learners, i.e. the ability to take into consider ...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present the design and validation of an environmental attitudes scale aimed at university students, which is used to measure environmental attitudes of first year and final year students and male and female students.
Abstract: Over the last few decades, environmental work has increased significantly. An important part of this has to do with attitudes. This research presents the design and validation of an environmental attitudes scale aimed at university students. Detailed information on development and validation of the scale is provided. Similarly, it presents the data derived from its application to a specimen group of students. The number of students involved in the whole research is 952. The results of the work show that a certain level of worry exists among the students regarding environmental problems, which is apparent in the need to increase environmental education and research. Some differences in environmental attitudes were also found between first year students and final year students and male and female students. These results lead us to insist on the importance of bringing about changes in the curriculum to increase environmentalism in the university. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Sci. Ed91:988–1009, 2007
TL;DR: In this article, the authors reexamine key principles of environmental education through the multidisciplinary lenses of critical pedagogy, the environmental justice movement, and more recent definitions of place-based education.
Abstract: In response to calls for discourse that builds on the substantive structure of environmental education in efforts to further the scope of the field, this article reexamines key principles of environmental education through the multidisciplinary lenses of critical pedagogy, the environmental justice movement, and more recent definitions of place-based education. Understanding that environmental education's key concepts of environment and environmental literacy are culturally specific—not universal—ideas opens the field for more diverse, locally appropriate, and inclusive pedagogies. By reflecting on environmental education's shortcomings in the field, revisiting its foundational concepts and themes, and integrating multidisciplinary methodologies, the author makes a case for broadening the scope of what is included in environmental education discourse and continuing to challenge the present and future of its theory and practice.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors report on a study undertaken by the Australian Research Institute of Education for Sustainability (ARIES) for the Australian Government Department of the Environment and Heritage, which sought to appraise the models of professional development underpinning a range of initial teacher education initiatives.
Abstract: Initial teacher education provides a strategic opportunity for ensuring that all teachers are ready and able to teach for sustainability when they begin their teaching careers. However, it is widely recognized that this strategy has not been used to its full potential. Efforts in education for sustainable development (ESD) at this level have tended to engage with prospective teachers and teacher educators already interested in this area of learning—preaching mostly to the converted. This paper reports on a study undertaken by the Australian Research Institute of Education for Sustainability (ARIES) for the Australian Government Department of the Environment and Heritage, which sought to appraise the models of professional development underpinning a range of initial teacher education initiatives. Its intention was to learn from these experiences and identify effective models for mainstreaming ESD in pre‐service teacher education. Three main models of professional development were identified: the Collaborat...
TL;DR: The authors used exploratory survey research with a convenience sample of 287 teachers to investigate influences on teachers' decisions to use and their abilities to implement environment-based education, and results suggest that environmental literacy knowledge and skills and environmental sensitivity are important in teachers' decision making.
Abstract: The term environment-based education describes a form of school-based environmental education in which an instructor uses the local environment as a context for integrating subjects and a source of real world learning experiences. Despite the growing body of evidence that supports the educational efficacy of this instructional approach and its foundation of high-quality environmental education, relatively few teachers seem to practice environment-based education (University of Maryland Survey Research Center, 2000). In the context of encouraging more widespread adoption of this formal instructional approach, the author used exploratory survey research with a convenience sample of 287 teachers to investigate influences on teachers' decisions to use and their abilities to implement environment-based education. The author used analysis of variance and discriminant function analyses, and results suggest that environmental literacy knowledge and skills and environmental sensitivity are important in teachers' d...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors report on research concerning Greek in-service primary teachers' perceptions about environmental issues and attitudes towards education for sustainable development, and suggest possible implications arising from supporting teachers to implement environmental programs in schools.
Abstract: This paper reports on research concerning Greek in-service Primary teachers’ perceptions about environmental issues and attitudes towards Education for Sustainable Development. A questionnaire with multiple-choice and open-ended questions was used in order to gain more comprehensive understanding of their thoughts. The analysis of data revealed that teachers hold misunderstandings or misconceptions of the conceptual meaning of the terms “sustainability” and “renewable source of energy”. Furthermore, the implementation rate of environmental programs in schools is relatively low considering teachers’ interest in the issues. This is due to lack of familiarity with new methodological approaches which promote environmental matters. By taking into account these research findings, possible implications arising from supporting teachers to implement environmental programs in schools are discussed and suggestions for overcoming the outlined difficulties are made.
TL;DR: In this paper, the Greek primary school teachers' understanding of three current environmental issues (acid rain, the ozone layer depletion, and the greenhouse effect) as well as the emerging images of nature were examined.
Abstract: In this article, the Greek primary school teachers' understanding of three current environmental issues (acid rain, the ozone layer depletion, and the greenhouse effect) as well as the emerging images of nature were examined. The study revealed that teachers held several environmental knowledge gaps and misconceptions about the three phenomena. Using the media as major environmental information sources, in which environmental issues are constructed as environmental risks, teachers are being environmentally educated in lay and not in scientific terms. Moreover, the image of nature emerging from their ideas about the three environmental issues is that of the romantic archetype, which prevails in postindustrial societies. Such a view, though, gives a conceptualization of nature as balance, under which the greenhouse effect and acid rain are seen as exclusively human-induced “disturbances.” © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Sci Ed91:244–259, 2007
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors consider how outdoor experiential pedagogy might contribute to the sustainable development of higher education institutions by integrating knowledge and skills from a range of discipline areas.
Abstract: UNESCO's challenge to Higher Education institutions to provide educational leadership in sustainable development, provides an impetus to develop innovative, interdisciplinary curricula and pedagogy. Whereas Higher Education curricula in sustainability and sustainable development have tended to come from the environmental sciences, recent studies have highlighted the need for more holistic, experiential, interdisciplinary approaches. As a pedagogical approach, outdoor learning may have something to offer since it lends itself to holistic and experiential learning and enables integration of knowledge and skills from a range of discipline areas. Outdoor and environmental education research suggests that educational experiences in outdoor settings can be significant in developing environmental sensitivity and knowledge. Such knowledge and attitudes are components of ecological literacy and, more recently, sustainability literacy. This paper considers how outdoor experiential pedagogy might contribute to the c...
TL;DR: In this paper, a case illustrates how experiential learning offers an educational experience that most effectively connects the academic with the practice, fosters an effective interdisciplinary curriculum, links students to work experience and job opportunities, and engages and empowers students.
Abstract: Purpose – The primary purpose of this paper is to provide a concrete example of how experiential learning approaches (from internships in global policy institutes to visiting communities in rural Amazonia to meeting with officials from inter‐governmental organizations) can be implemented in order to most effectively meet specific educational goals in international sustainability studies.Design/methodology/approach – Using four key educational goals as the framework for discussion, the author presents a multi‐dimensional international experiential program at American University as an example of how non‐traditional educational approaches can be used to supplement the traditional lecture‐based format.Findings – The case illustrates how experiential learning offers an educational experience that most effectively: connects the academic with the practice, fosters an effective interdisciplinary curriculum, links students to work experience and job opportunities, and engages and empowers students.Research limitat...
TL;DR: The authors explores the problematic tensions between schooling and environmental education in the United States, with a special focus on the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, and describes the impact of achievement and accountability discourse on environmental education.
Abstract: This article explores the problematic tensions between schooling and environmental education in the United States, with a special focus on the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. Today in the United States, this powerful federal legislation dominates the discourse and practice of schooling, and works against the aims of environmental education in many ways. The article is divided into three parts. First, it reviews the recent discourse of achievement and accountability in general education, as exemplified by the No Child Left Behind Act. Second, it describes the impact of achievement and accountability discourse on environmental education by outlining two responses from environmental educators to the general climate of schooling: 1) accommodation or ‘playing the achievement game’; and 2) resistance or ‘changing the rules’. Third, it explores how related tensions between nationalistic federal education policies and the sweeping global challenges suggested by the United Nation’s Decade of Education for Sustai...
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29 Mar 2007
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a thematic study about developing science, mathematics and ICT (SMICT) in secondary education in Sub-Saharan Africa, based on country studies from 10 sub-Saharan African countries.
Abstract: This thematic study is about developing science, mathematics and ICT (SMICT) in secondary education. The study is based on country studies from 10 Sub-Saharan African countries: Botswana, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Uganda, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe, and a literature review. It reveals a number of huge challenges in SMICT education in Sub-Saharan Africa: poorly-resourced schools; large classes; a curriculum hardly relevant to the daily lives of students; a lack of qualified teachers; and inadequate teacher education programs.