Showing papers on "Environmental education published in 2020"

Education for the future? Critical evaluation of education for sustainable development goals

Abstract: Building on the Millennium Development Goals, Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and Education for Sustainable Development Goals (ESDG) were established. Despite the willingness of many ed...

Eco-Anxiety and Environmental Education

Abstract: Anxiety and distress about the ecological crisis seems to be a rapidly growing phenomenon. This article analyzes the challenges and possibilities posed by such “eco-anxiety” for environmental education. Variations of eco-anxiety are analyzed, and it is argued that educators should be aware of the multiple forms that the phenomenon has. Eco-anxiety is found to be closely connected with many difficult emotions, such as grief, guilt, anger, and despair. However, anxiety also has an adaptive dimension, which can be called “practical anxiety”. Anxiety is connected with expectation, motivation, and hopes. Previous research about eco-anxiety and ecological emotions in various disciplines is discussed, and related studies from various fields of education are brought together. Based on this extensive literature review, theoretical analyses are made, using a philosophical method. It is argued that environmental educators need organizational and peer support both in relation to their own difficult emotions and in order to develop emotional skills in their work. Educators should first practice self-reflection about eco-anxiety, after which they have many possibilities to help their audiences to develop emotional resilience. Potential practical activities related to eco-anxiety are discussed, drawing from various fields of education. These include validation of eco-anxiety and ecological emotions, providing safe spaces to discuss them, and, if possible, providing embodied and creative activities to more fully deliberate on them.

Education for sustainability: Fostering a more conscious society and transformation towards sustainability

Abstract: Purpose: Current approaches to sustainability science and education focus on (assessing and addressing) the external world of ecosystems, wider socio-economic structures, technology and governance dynamics. A major shortcoming of such approaches is the neglect of inner dimensions and capacities (which constrains education for sustainability as an end), and a limited capacity to facilitate reflection on the cognitive and socio-emotional processes underpinning people’s learning, everyday life choices and decision-taking (which constrains education for sustainability as a means). More integral approaches and pedagogies are urgently needed. The purpose of this paper is to advance related knowledge. Design/methodology/approach: This paper provides a reflexive case study of the development of an innovative course on “Sustainability and Inner Transformation” and associated interventions in the form of a practice lab and weekly councils. Findings: The paper elaborates on the connections between sustainability and inner transformation in education, offers insights into the process of adapting contemplative interventions to sustainability education and concludes with some reflections on challenges, lessons learnt and future work needed to support more integral approaches. The findings show that inner dimensions and transformation can be a vehicle for critical, improved education for sustainability and how this can be achieved in practice. Originality/value: It is only recently that the concept of the inner or personal (sphere of) transformation has received growing attention in sustainability science and education. Despite this interest, such new conceptualizations and heuristics have, to date, not been systematically connected to education for sustainability (neither as an end nor means). The paper presents a critical, reflexive case, which advances related knowledge. It sets a precedent, which other universities/training institutions could follow or learn from. (Less)

Competencies in Education for Sustainable Development: Emerging Teaching and Research Developments

Abstract: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development clearly reflects the urgency to embed the principles of education for sustainable development (ESD) into all levels of education. ESD, understood as an integral part of quality education and all educational institutions, from preschool to higher education and in nonformal and informal education, can and should foster the development of sustainability competencies. This Special Issue entitled “Competencies in Education for Sustainable Development” responds to this urgency and the papers presented deliver recent developments in the field of ESD competencies. They focus on various perspectives: systematic literature reviews; curriculum developments; meta-analysis of the interrelation between sustainability content, competencies developed and pedagogical approaches used; testing and validation of evaluation tools and processes for sustainability competencies; and the development of conceptual models focused on different subject areas and educational levels (higher education, primary education, rural schools, external support services to schools, and extracurricular activities). The contributions indicate how the field of ESD competencies in the area of sustainability has become a major focus in recent years. Further research efforts need to be put into operationalizing sustainability competencies and developing tools to measure and evaluate students’ and educators’ competencies development.

Synergizing education, research, campus operations, and community engagements towards sustainability in higher education: a literature review

Abstract: The UN proclamation of 2005–2014 as the decade of education for sustainable development has been instrumental in creating awareness and driving higher education institutions (HEIs) in integrating sustainability into their system. The purpose of this paper is to explore and encapsulate practices adopted by universities and colleges across the globe in integrating sustainability in education (here refers to curriculum and pedagogy), research, campus operations and outreach programs.,The review analyzed 229 peer-reviewed research studies in the time period 2005–2018 selected from 44 journals. The literature review was done in phases. The first phase was the selection of the database, the second phase was refining the database by eliminating irrelevant studies and the last phase was distributing selected studies on the basis of the journal, year and country of publication, research paradigm, sustainability integration in higher education, teaching techniques adopted by HEIs and research focus in publications.,This study contributes to the literature review of sustainability in higher education. From the literature review, it is evident that sustainability has made inroads into HEIs, but only a few universities have been successful in implementing it holistically, integrating all the triple bottom line dimensions in balance.,The study has practical implications for HEIs planning to integrate sustainability into teaching and learning and other aspects of educational practices. The findings and the examples of successful implementation of sustainable education by institutions around the world would help universities and colleges in formulating policies, strategies and practices that would promote sustainability on campuses.,The literature reviews on sustainability in higher education so far have focused either on curricula, pedagogical approaches, assessment and reporting or barriers and solutions. This study attempts to offer a comprehensive view of the initiatives adopted by the institutions in incorporating sustainability in education, research, campus operations and outreach programs.

Low Carbon Education: A Review and Bibliometric Analysis.

Abstract: The concept of low carbon education is one solution to provide knowledge to students related to low carbon behavior. The purpose of this paper is providing an extensive bibliometric literature review on 'low carbon education'. Articles found by Publishing or Perish (PoP) software with the Google Scholar database. There were 55 out of 97 articles found from Google Scholar data base ranging from 2014 to 2019 analyzed in this study. The chosen references were then managed using a referencing manager software namely Zotero. After managing the database, this study classified and visualized it using VOSviewer software. Overall, this review provides an appropriate reference point for further research on 'low carbon education'.

What future/s for outdoor and environmental education in a world that has contended with COVID-19?

Abstract: This is an unusual article in that it brings together the perspectives of many on this journal’s editorial board, around the issue of contending with COVID-19. Twenty statements showcase a range of thoughts and experiences, highlighting the differences and similarities in the way the pandemic is impacting on the educational practice of outdoor and environmental education. The future is not yet written, of course, so it is worth thinking about how the current moment may impact on the months and years to come. The aim of this article is to influence and support such thinking.

Teaching contributions from secondary school subject areas to education for sustainable development – a comparative study of science, social science and language teachers

Abstract: In many countries’ policy documents and curricula, teachers in the subject areas of science, social science and language are encouraged to collaborate on cross-curricular issues such as sustainable...

The Impact of Environmental Education on Environmental and Renewable Energy Technology Awareness: Empirical Evidence from Colombia

Abstract: This paper empirically investigates to what extent environmental education (EE) at school can explain variation in environmental literacy of 15-year-olds in Colombia, while controlling for several other student- and school-level confounding factors. We use a two-level nested model, where the individual observations are nested within schools. Based on the maximum likelihood estimation method, we estimate a linear mixed model which contains both fixed effects and random effects. Our empirical results only provide weak evidence that environmental education can promote a higher level of environmental awareness. The relationship between environmental education and awareness of renewable energy technologies (RETs) is even weaker. Our findings therefore suggest that environmental education should not be considered a magic bullet in promoting environmental literacy among students. Additionally, we find more reliable predictors for environmental awareness than for awareness of RETs. Overall, the socio-economic status, stronger student science abilities, parent characteristics, and a few school-level characteristics such as quality of education resources and school ownership (public versus private) seem to be decisive factors for varying levels of environmental literacy among students in Colombia.

Ecopedagogy: teaching critical literacies of ‘development’, ‘sustainability’, and ‘sustainable development’

Abstract: Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) largely emerged from Environmental Education (EE) models to teach how actions for ‘development’ positively and negatively affects our societies and the r...

Increasing Nature Connection in Children: A Mini Review of Interventions.

Abstract: Half of the world's population live in the urban environment. Lifestyle changes in the 20th century have led to spending more time indoors and less in nature. Due to safety concerns, longer hours in formal education, as well as lack of suitable outdoor environments, children in particular have been found to spend very little time outdoors. We have an opportunity, both timely and unique to have our children (re)connect with nature. Nature connection is a subjective state and trait that encompasses affective, cognitive, and experiential aspects in addition to being positively associated with wellbeing, and strong predictor of pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors. This mini-review brings together recent studies that report on interventions to increase nature connection in children. Fourteen studies were identified through electronic searches of Web of Science, Scopus, PsychInfo, ERIC, and Google Scholar. The review aims to offer an overview of the interventions identified, provide a snapshot of the current state of the literature, briefly present themes and trends in the studies identified in relation to nature connection in young people, and propose potential guidelines for future work.

Climate change education in the humanities classroom: a case study of the Lowell school curriculum pilot

Abstract: Climate change as an instructional topic in K-12 schools is most frequently taught in the science classroom. However, it is a human issue requiring social as well as technological and scientific so...

Influence of the Natural Setting on Environmental Education Outcomes.

Abstract: Environmental education (EE) typically occurs in natural settings, which research suggests may enhance learning outcomes. Although field trips are commonly used to teach EE, few studies have isolat...

The Role of Eco-School Program (Adiwiyata) towards Environmental Literacy of High School Students

Abstract: This study was intended to display the role of eco-school program (Adiwiyata) towards environtmental literacy (EL) of high school students by analyzing, (a) EL of students in Adiwiyata and non-Adiwiyata high schools, and (b) EL of students in Grade X and XI, Adiwiya and non-Adiwiyata high schools in Malang-East Java, Indonesia. The survey involved 275 students. The respondents were from four state high school i.e. SMAN 1, SMAN 3, SMAN 4, and SMAN 7. Data were taken via MSELS questionnaire that was modified and filled online. Aspects of EL include ecological knowledge, environmental affect, cognitive skills, and behavior. The results of multivariate analysis showed that the level of students’ EL was significantly influenced by school type and grade. However, the interaction both of them had no significant effect on their EL. Univariate results on school type factor informed that significant differences occured in all aspects of EL, where the lower identified level of students in Adiwiyata schools compared to NonAdiwiyata was only in the environmental affect. On the other hand, the significant influence of grade level only occurred in cognitive skills aspect. Broadly speaking, all data analyzes concluded that the application of the Adiwiyata program was able to bring a positive impact on the level of students’ EL. There was also a tendency that the higher the student's grade, the better their EL level.

HOTSEP: Revised Anderson's taxonomy in environmental learning of COVID-19

Abstract: Environmental learning in the 21st century requires a high level of thinking ability, especially to solve environmental problems when COVID-19 pandemic This was to develop a new level of thinking, namely Higher Order Thinking Skills of Environmental Problem (HOTSEP) which is a revision of Anderson's Taxonomy The purpose of this study was to measure students HOTSEP in the context of environmental problems related to COVID-19 The research method used in this research was descriptive The sample used 277 university students from several cities in Indonesia The instrument used HOTSEP which has 3 categories of thinking level start from develop innovation about environment (C6), solve environmental problem (C5), criticize environmental problem (C4) The results showed that students HOTSEP were still in the very low category (33 64) This study concludes that the HOTSEP of students was still low and needs to be improved to the understanding of COVID-19 concept in environmental learning Suggestion for further research was HOTSEP need to implement in school or university for several environmental learning topics in many subjects/courses start from Natural Science, Social Science, Engineering, and others relevant subject HOTSEP can be measured not only in school or university, HOTSEP can be implement in community and public © 2020 The Author(s) Open Access - This article is under the CC BY license (https://creativecommons org/licenses/by/4 0/)

Re-assembling environmental and sustainability education: orientations from New Materialism

Abstract: A growing number of scholars call for the use of New Materialist frameworks for research across social and natural sciences. In general, however, there is little rigorous, in-depth or detailed advi...

A Garden-Based Approach to Teaching Life Science Produces Shifts in Students' Attitudes toward the Environment.

Abstract: A one-hour guided discourse was designed to support developing the outreach communication skills of physics experts with middle school students. The participants consisted of 12 physics researchers...

Developing students' action competence for a sustainable future: A review of educational research

Abstract: The goal of education for sustainable development is to develop future citizens who can make informed decision and take responsible action to solve the problem. The concept of action competence proposed by Jensen and Schnack in 1997, which emerges as a critical thought from traditional environmental education, gradually attracts the attention with the maturing on the idea of sustainability. This research aims to systematically analyse the peer-reviewed studies published between 1997 and 2017 that embraced the concept of action competence as the instructional approach. After coding 170 articles from two quality databases, some patterns emerge from the year of publication in the resulting 34 empirical studies. Findings on the research design, pathway of intervention, instructional setting, and learning outcome increase our understanding of action competence applied in the authentic context. There is a sharp increase on the inter-disciplinary topic of sustainable development. It reflects the influence of the intergovernmental agreement and the resilience of action competence from environmental education to education for sustainable development. Reviewed studies indicate that action-oriented and transformative pedagogy cultivate students to be active participants, empower their capability of deliberating the causes and effects, and construct their visions for finding strategies toward the problems.

Toward critical environmental education: a standpoint analysis of race in the American environmental context

Abstract: In this article, I advocate for critical environmental education that is responsive to power inequities and use standpoint theory to help explain why environmental education has been slow to become...

Implementation Supplementary Book of Green Consumerism: Improving Students HOTS in Environmental Learning.

Abstract: Environmental learning in the 21st-century must be contextual and require the ability of Higher-Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) to solve environmental problems such as green consumerism. The purpose of this study was to implement an Android-based Supplementary Book of Green Consumerism (SBGC) to improve 8th-grade students' HOTS in environmental learning. The method used experiment with a sample of 144 students in 8th grade. This research design was a pre-post test with the control group. The treatment given was in the form of using SBGC in the experimental classes. The instrument used 12 items with HOTS questions (analyzing, evaluating, and creating) that contain a green consumerism problem. Analysis of the data used the normality test, homogeneity and continued with the t-test. The results showed that the students HOTS score increased significantly in the pre-test and post-test in the experimental class or compared to the control class. Increased in the experimental classes from a score 15.7 (very low) to 32.73 (low). Meanwhile, comparison between the experimental classes with a score 32.73 (low) and control classes with a score 25.25 (very low). This showed that SBGC is easy to understand and have instruction to solve environmental learning in SBGC menu. SBGC is also interesting so that makes students become active in learning. The conclusion of this study was that SBGC can increased students' HOTS in environmental learning.

Escape rooms as tools for climate change education: an exploration of initiatives

Abstract: In the last years we have observed a growing interest in the use of gamification approaches for climate change education. While most practices are related to digital gaming, there is a new trend wh...

Educator Competences in Sustainability Education: A Systematic Review of Frameworks

Abstract: The design and use of competence frameworks and models for educators in Sustainability 3iEducation is a growing field of study that seeks to guide their professional development while identifying, examining, and assessing the competences they need. In this article we conduct a systematic review of the frameworks and models of sustainability competences addressed to teachers and other educators to shed light on (a) the backgrounds of the analyzed frameworks, (b) the conceptual and pedagogical approaches towards sustainability and competences behind them, (c) the different types of educators’ competences included and particularly those addressed to promote transformational perspectives, and (d) the pedagogical strategies applied to develop them. We analyzed 14 papers out of an initial sample of 437. Findings show that all are developed in Europe. Most of them rely on the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) framework and its guiding approach of Education for Sustainable Development. A few others critically approach sustainability and recognize its contradictions even though they subscribe within this broad sustainability approach. The most common competences are Critical Thinking, Participation in Community, and Connections, which have been identified as those that educators need to face current sustainability challenges from a critical and transformative perspective. However, other competences significantly associated with transformational education such as Emotions Management, Futures and Achieving Transformation are less addressed and receive less attention in terms of the pedagogical strategies needed to promote them. We discuss how the different ways of understanding and operationalizing sustainability and competences behind these frameworks can shape educators’ transformational capacities in Sustainability Education. Further research should address the identified challenges and provide educators with practical and suitable tools for transformative education.

Teaching social studies amid ecological crisis

Abstract: We live in ecological crisis. While understanding the human-made crisis requires scientific expertise, addressing it requires active, informed citizens. Thus, the crisis is a matter for the field o...