Conference:
ECER 2009
Format:
Paper
Session Information
SES G4, Pre Conf Parallel Session
Time:
2009-09-26
11:00-12:30
Room:
HG, HS 28
Chair:
Neda Forghani-Arani
Contribution
Environment is defined as the total aggregate of conditions, factors and components with which creatures, including man, react in the confines of a certain space and which influence the biological operations that such creatures perform (EAC, 1999). As human beings, we strictly rely on the resources available in the environment. Environment is viable for us. However, on the way of making use of the environment, we caused many environmental problems with serious effects and some threatening consequences.
In the recent years, the social and economic aspects of environmental problems are widely studied. Starting from 1970s, several conferences like United Nations Conference on Human Environment, 1972; Our Common Nature, 1987; Rio Declaration, 1992; Thessaloniki Declaration, 1997; World Summit on Sustainable Development, 2002; were carried out and they formed the agenda about environment.
The increasing number of such conferences and declarations shows the need to discuss the problems and take actions about environment. We need to take regional, national and international actions. However, it is not possible to solve the environmental problems just by biological or technological advances (Newhouse, 1990), so one basic action can be arousing environmental awareness. As human beings, we have the ability to learn, so we should learn to understand environment. Here, the importance of environmental education arouses.
In 1970s, environmental education models were mainly based on the ways to prevent pollution, however in 1980s, with the emergence of social and economic aspects, there was a change in the models concerning consumption patterns, individual responsibilities, sustainable use of resources and today environmental attitudes and values (Palmer, 1998).
The most appropriate place to arouse environmental awareness is the school. Growing up environmentally educated individuals will result in long-term solutions. However, do we have knowledgeable teachers to grow educated students? Environmentally educated teachers are described as ‘priority of priorities’ in UNESCO-UNEP (1990). Whatever they know or they do affect the students they are educating. Emerging from this point, this study aims to investigate teachers’ understandings about and approaches to environmental education.
The study, more specifically aimed to obtain information about teachers’:
- knowledge of ‘environmental education’ concept
- perceptions about the objectives of environmental education
- recommendations about the content of environmental education
- practices about environmental education in their classes
- ways of following the developments on environmental education
- opinions about the sources needed for environmental education
- views about the problems about environmental education
Method
The design of the study is descriptive research. In the study, a phenomenon (environmental education) will be investigated without any manipulation of participants or treatments.
The sample of the study is the teachers of a high school in Turkey. They are selected by convenient sampling method. The teachers from every area are invited to participate in the study. No specific area is selected.
Data is collected through the questionnaire “Teachers’ Approaches to Environmental Education” which was developed by the researcher. The questionnaire has two sections. The first section sought to obtain demographic data like gender, area of specialization, teaching experience, age, joining environmental activities, and interests about environmental problems. And, the second section includes open-item questions that evaluate teachers’ understandings and ideas about environmental education.
Data collected from the open-item questionnaire will be analyzed based on qualitative coding techniques to reveal the themes and patterns of participants about environmental education.
Expected Outcomes
The findings of the study will reveal information about the frequency of teachers’ participation to environmental activities like camping, fishing, hunting, and jogging. Teachers’ concerns about environmental problems will also be shown. Whether they are interested in (or not) the problems about environment will be investigated. Their recommendations about the solutions to these problems will be looked into.
With the open-item questions on the questionnaire, teachers’ definitions of environmental education, their opinions about the objectives and the desired content of environmental education will be investigated. How teachers implement environmental education in their lessons, and how they follow the issues about environment are also concerns of this study.
Teachers necessarily need some resources for a better implementation of environmental education. In this study, teachers’ opinions about the already existing resources will be examined. Teachers are also asked to offer some ways for a better implementation of environmental education.
References
Draft project for the preparation of a National Strategy for Environmental Education, Awareness and Communication, Amman, 1999. Newhouse, N. (1990). Implications of attitude and behaviour research for environmental conservation. Journal of Environmental Education, 22,26-32. Palmer J.A., 1998. Environmental Education in the 21st century, Routledge, NY. UNESCO-UNEP (1990) Environmentally educated teachers: priority of priorities, Connect xv(l), pp. 1-3.
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