What it is
Environmental education has in the past been considered an additional or elective subject in the K-12 curriculum. It has historically taken the form of science enrichment curriculum, natural history field trips, community service projects,
and ecology or science clubs. These forums all attempt to increase awareness, provide new perspectives, values, knowledge, and skills, and to change behavior to support more sustainable behavior. Environmental education often is placed in simply science and geography, ignoring the interdisciplinary nature of environmental education that include areas of public policy, electoral politics, architecture, and economics. This has caused some to use the term
\"education for sustainability\" to put an emphasis on this. The North American Association for Environmental Education has established the following
\"Guidelines for Excellence\" for environmental education:
- Fairness and Accuracy: EE materials should be fair and accurate in describing problems, issues, and conditions, and in the diversity of perspectives on them. This includes factual accuracy, balanced presentation of differing viewpoints and theories, openness to inquiry, and reflection of diversity.
- Depth: EE materials should foster an awareness of the natural and built environment, an understanding of environmental concepts, conditions, and issues, and an awareness of the feelings, values, attitudes, and perceptions at the heart of environmental issues. This involves developing an awareness of all of these levels of depth and paying attention to the different scales they must be presented at given a student's developmental level.
- Emphasis on Skills Building: EE materials should build lifelong skills such as critical and creative thinking skills and a means to apply those skills to environmental issues.
- Action Orientation: EE materials should promote civic responsibility, encouraging learners to use their knowledge, skills, and assessments of environmental issues to take action and solve environmental problems. EE must instill a sense of personal stake and responsibility in environmental solutions.
- Instructional Soundness: EE Materials should rely on instructional techniques that are proven to create an effective learning environment. EE can not forget the basics of any educational program, which must include learner-centered instruction, different ways of learning, connection to learners' everyday lives, appropriateness for your audience, goals and objectives, and assessment.
- Usability: EE materials should be well designed and easy to use.
Below are some more
principles of Environmental Education from other sources:
- Environmental Education must involve everyone, the government, industry, media, educational institutions, community groups, and individuals.
- Environmental Education must be lifelong because the circumstances will always be changing and new and better solutions will always need to be produced.
- Environmental Education must be holistic and about connections between different disciplines, as was hinted at above. The problems and solutions are going to be interdisciplinary and are going to involve people from different backgrounds working together. Similarly, better lines of communication between people of different educational backgrounds must be formed and this will start with educational programs that are interdisciplinary in nature.
- Environmental Education must be practical so that affects can be seen and behaviors positively reinforced.
Below are some
components of environmental education and are adapted from Teaching for a Sustainable World, edited by John Fien, 1996:
Add this as an actual citation - Awareness Raising: \"Does it matter to me?\"
- EE must connect with people where they are currently in their lives. It must be viewed as relevant and legitimate before its possible to get anyone to take interest in learning more about environmental issues.
- Shaping of Values: \"Should I do something about it?\"
- Respect for and appreciation of the interdependence of all life forms and the resilience, fragility, and aesthetic qualities of the natural environment
- Appreciation of the dependence of human life on the finite resources of the Earth
- Appreciation of the role of human ingenuity and creativity in ensuring survival and in the search for appropriate and sustainable progress
- A sense of balance and fairness to all in deciding among conflicting priorities
- An appreciation of the importance and value of individual responsibility and action
- Developing Knowledge and Skills: \"How can I do something about it?\"
There are a number of general types of knowledge and skills that are necessary for environmental education and must be in some way included in any comprehensive program. Examples of areas of knowledge: Needs to be reformatted into our own words - the planet earth as a finite system
- the resources of the earth, particularly air, soil, water, minerals, their distribution and their role in supporting living organisms
- the nature of ecosystems, their health and interdependence within the biosphere
- the dependence of humans on the environmental resources for life and sustenance
- sustainable relationships within the environment
- the implications of resource distribution in determining the nature of societies and the rate and character of economic development
- the role and values of science and technology in the development of societies and the impact of technologies on the environment
- the interconnectedness of present political, economic, environmental and social issues, and
- processes of planning, policy-making and acting to solve problems.
Examples of skills: Needs to be reformatted into our own words - define and explain fundamental concepts such as environment, ecological systems, community, development and technology and being able to apply them to specific situations using a range of relevant resources and technologies
- analyze problems, and frame and investigate relevant questions
- assess and evaluate differing points of view
- develop hypotheses based on balanced and accurate information, engage in critical analysis and careful synthesis, and test new information and personal beliefs, explorations and experiences against these hypotheses
- communicate information and points of view effectively
- develop partnerships and the foundation for cooperative and consensual action
- develop strategies for action, including locating appropriate resources, and means for their implementation.
Making Decisions and Taking Action: \"What will I do?\" - Environmental education must include means for students of all types to apply their new levels of awareness, knowledge, and skill in a meaningful way that is easy to see and will positively reinforce new behaviors.
Antecedents and Trends
Environmental Education derived from things like nature studies, conservation education, and school camping. These educational systems involved exploring nature, being comfortable in nature, and understanding the proper use of natural resources. Over the last few decades, there has been a movement from learning about what nature can do for us and how to survive and be comfortable in nature towards how to live sustainably within the means of our surrounding natural environments.
Importance
The 1997 UNESCO Statement \"Educating for a Sustainable Future: A tansdisciplinary vision for concerted action\" states that \"It is widely agreed that education is the most effective means that society possesses for confronting the challenges of the future. Indeed, education will shape the world of tomorrow.\" Sustainable management of the environment is going to be one of the most important concerns of the next few decades and will involve new technologies that are changing all the time. Not only will we need to understand what is going on around us, but we will need people capable of developing new technologies, researching environmental systems, climate, habitats. Sustainable living will involve needing to revamp even the most simple of things that we take for granted, the way we build our homes, the way we get around, the way we get our electricity and operate our homes, all of these things will need a change in the education of each person affected by these changes. Currently, however, there is a huge environmental literacy gap and its only getting worse. 2/3 of the public fail even a basic environmental quiz and 88% of the public fair a basic energy quiz. According to one study, 45 million Americans think the ocean is a source of fresh water and 130 million believe that hydropower is America's top energy source. There are four major arguments that support Environmental Education besides the general \"it's important\" argument. - EE increases student engagement in science in general due to the fact that it connects scientific ideas with the real world. Given the current focus on math and science skills, Environmental Education should be getting more funding in schools, not less.
- It also, when integrated into the core curricula of a school, has a positive impact on student achievement in reading, math, and social studies. One study even found that using the environment as an integrating context for core curricula reduced discipline and classroom management problems, increased engagement and enthusiasm for learning, and produced greater student pride and ownership in accomplishments. The National Science Board of the National Science Foundation confirmed the importance of environmental education to student learning in their 2000 report, Environmental Science and Engineering for the 21st Century: \"The twin goals of learning are to acquire knowledge and gain skills such as problem solving, consensus building, information management, communication, and critical and creative thinking. Environmental issues offer excellent vehicles for developing and exercising many of these skills using a systems approachâ¦changes should be made in the formal educational system to help all students, educators, and educational administrators learn about the environment, the economy, and social equity as they relate to all academic disciplines and their daily lives.\" Similarly, the 2005 Report to Congress submitted by the National Environmental Education Advisory Council on the status of environmental education in the United States finds that \"environmental education â with its emphasis on critical thinking, interdisciplinary teaching, and learner achievement â is also helping to meet educational reform goals.\"
- Environmental Education also provides critical tools for the 21st century workforce that will need to understand complex and changing environmental issues to accomplish their jobs. Environmental literacy is something that employers are placing increasing value on with the final goal usually being improved efficiency and knowledge of the fact that the cost of polluting is increasing.
- Finally, Environmental Education helps address the issue of \"nature deficit disorder\". A recent study found that children today spend an average of 6 hours each day in front of the computer and TV, but less than 4 minutes a day of unstructured outdoor play. Time outside has been shown to be extremely beneficial for cognitive functioning, reduced symptoms of ADD, and increased self-discipline and emotional well-being, especially in the very young.
Despite this importance, high stakes testing are pushing environmental education out of the classroom and combined with budget deficits, field trips to nature centers, parks, and museums are being cut at an alarming rate. Without Environmental Education, there can't be an understanding of the way environmental issues and policy issues are connected, there can't be a coherent action on any environmental issue. If information is lacking, we can't asses current policies and practices and know where they need reform and where new policies need to be instituted. Without Environmental Education, it is easy to look only at short term problems, not on the medium and long-term major environmental problems that are more difficult to understand.
http://www.ncascades.org/more_info/news/detail.html?news_id=2067 (160) has great speech on importance of environmental education
Providers of Environmental Education
- Formal Education:
- Early Childhood Learning
- Childcare and kindergartens are increasingly focused on life skills, which could include environmental appreciation and concern. The modeling of environmentally responsible behavior by those in authority positions of children at this age can have a large effect, as can incorporating sustainability into all aspects of the school, from products used to lifestyle lived.
- School Education
- Environmental Education within core curriculums can have a number of positive benefits, as described above. It is important to include discussion of Environmental Education in curriculum design and mandates. Schools are uniquely situated to be able to ensure that Environmental Education is cross-disciplinary and set to a proper standard. In addition to designing Environmental Education into the core curriculum, there are a number of environmentally focussed support programs to complement any core curricula.
- School education can also be a method of reaching adults via their children. The \"Reduce, Reuse, Recycle\" program has been particularly effective in this manner. There have also been a number of examples of students helping teachers to introduce environmental programs.
- Higher Education
- Universities and colleges have the opportunity to train the next generation of green workers and to increase the research base of environmental issues. The current approach is very fragmented, with a number of programs and classes existing simply because a professor is interested in it as a side project. Comprehensive interdisciplinary departments that deal solely with environmental issues need to be the way of the future, to ensure both comprehensive education and efficient research.
- Vocational Training and Education
- Vocational training and education typically see students who are looking to enter trade industries who have been out of school for some time. It is crucial for these programs to include Environmental Education to help jumpstart \"green-collar\" jobs to take the place of lost blue-collar ones. All areas of our workforce will need to be schooled in environmental issues and how to most sustainably accomplish their trades.
- Non-Formal Education Settings:
- Business and Industry
- Businesses and industries have to provide Environmental Education to their staff to comply with environmental regulations and to cut corporate costs. There is also the fact that many companies are looking to push a green image and so are involved in sponsoring environmental projects and public awareness campaigns, as well as ventures such as this website.
- Trade Groups
- Trade groups are able to act as educators of environmental issues by promoting more sustainable practices that general show long-term and sometimes even short-term benefits for individuals financially and the group as a whole with regards to public image. This education can take the form of workshops, mailings, training programs, and conferences.
- The Media
- The media, like it or not, has a huge influence on the level of environmental literacy in a population. It is important for the media to understand their role in Environmental Education and the responsibilities associated with it, namely being fair and objective in their education. Viewing the environmental impact of the stories that are being covered in addition to the usual angles will help the general public learn to think more in that manner and a heavier focus on the environment will cause the general public to become more interested and engaged in environmental issues.
- Environmental Interest Groups
- These groups include a large number of organizations, typically referred to as NGOs for short, which work through advertising, publications, and participation in public debate to raise awareness for their particular issues. Unfortunately, many of these groups have a very narrow scope and refuse to work or cooperate outside of this scope, making broad environmental education more difficult, especially when the messages are at times seemingly at odds with other groups. Some of these groups also have reputations for being radical and may alienate other groups and individuals.
- Other:
- Community Organizations
- Youth groups, church groups, service groups, and cultural organizations have the possibility of getting a large number of people from a diverse background working on a range of environmental issues. By fostering a concern for local natural and cultural heritage, they may bring a diverse group of strongly believing people into projects that help the environment Find a better way of saying \"These people are crazy so lets get them being crazy for us\"
- The Home
- It is easy to overlook the importance of the home in environmental education. The home is the first place of education for children and the most consistently influential educational influence on children. A parent's consumer and living habits are very easily passed onto children. The reverse also can occur, where the technological and environmental awareness of children can pass onto the parents. Nearly every household decision is an opportunity for environmental education.