Environmental Education: A Mismatch Between Theory and Practice

1992 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 147-166 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helen Spork
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Environmental Education ◽  
Social Transformation ◽  
Environmental Ethic ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Participatory Process ◽  
Environment Education ◽  
Ethical Change ◽  
Awareness Raising

Environmental education has received widespread recognition over many years as being an important process in the preservation and improvement of the world's environment (Lucas, 1979; UNESCO-UNEP, 1988). Environmental education assumes this importance through its potential to involve people at local, national and global levels in a socially active, problem solving, critical and participatory process (Greenall, 1987, 1990; Robottom, 1987) to ultimately develop environmentally literate, responsible and active citizens (Hines, Hungerford and Tomera, 1986/87; Stapp, 1969). Obviously then, environmental education is much more than just a process of knowledge transmission about the environment and awareness raising of specific environmental problems. Rather, environmental education is described by many (e.g. Greenall, 1987; Huckle, 1983; Lucas, 1979; Robottom, 1987) as a process that facilitates the challenging of dominant environmental attitudes and behaviour patterns of individuals, groups and entire societies to bring about positive social transformation and the development of a new environmental ethic.For environmental education to fulfil this role of social and ethical change, it is internationally recognised that environmental education must address knowledge, awareness, skill, attitude and participation objectives (UNESCO-UNEP, 1976, 1978, 1988). Much of the literature on environmental education encapsulates this range of objectives into three broad categories or forms - education in the environment, education about the environment and education for the environment. Education in and about the environment is intended to develop the knowledge, awareness, attitude and skill objectives, while education for the environment has its focus on the values, ethics, problem solving and action objectives.

scholarly journals Preparation of Teachers for Ecological Education of Preschoolers Taking Into Account the Natural and Sociocultural Environment of the Kindergarten

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 122-131
Author(s):  
Lavrentyeva Nina G. ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Environmental Education ◽  
Professional Training ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Ecological Education ◽  
Sociocultural Environment ◽  
Ecological Responsibility ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
The Future

A teacher is a key figure in ecological education of preschoolers for their safe and happy future life. Intensiveness of preschooler’s development, dependence of his life from grown-ups, direction of development to future life requires to raise social ecological responsibility of teachers before the future generation. The purpose of the article is to show the specific character of teachers’ training as the organizational and pedagogical condition of ecological education of preschoolers in the conditions of natural and sociocultural environment of a kindergarten. Analysis of theoretical sources and teaching practice allows you to identify the most valuable content lines and technological mechanisms of professional training of preschool students and practicing teachers for environmental education of children. The research methods are the analysis of the theory and practice of environmental education of preschoolers, professional training of teachers, generalization, and correlation of the analysis results with the goals of sustainable development, comparison, systematization, questioning of teachers of preschool educational organizations. Achieving the goals of sustainable development of society makes it necessary to focus the content and technologies of organizing environmental education for children on the knowledge of the consistency of the structure and functioning of the natural and sociocultural world, the allocation of ecosystems of different levels in it. In this case, the semantic needs of the future will be reflected in the pedagogical design of the present. Determination of the system-forming role of environmental education will optimize professional training and comprehend the unity of natural science and humanitarian knowledge. Strengthening the personal orientation of education by taking into account the level of training, individual interests, preferred styles of information processing, increases cognitive activity and creative self-realization of each student. The use of project activities and interactive forms and methods of designing environmental education for children create conditions for improving the professional qualities of teachers, increase the value of training. Thus, the directed specificity of the content of vocational education of kindergarten teachers from the perspective of the future increases their social and environmental responsibility to future generations and the effectiveness of the results of environmental education of preschoolers in the process of professional implementation. Keywords: professional training, ecological education of preschoolers, natural and sociocultural environment, system-forming role of ecological education, social ecological responsibility

The role of social anarchism and geography in constructing a radical agenda

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 263-273
Author(s):  
Martha Ackelsberg ◽  
Myrna Margulies Breitbart
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Social Transformation ◽  
Spanish Civil War ◽  
Theory And Practice

David Harvey’s response to Simon Springer (2014) raises important questions about the places from which to draw ideas for a radical geography agenda. Nevertheless, Harvey ignores critical contributions that social anarchists (including social geographers) have made to understanding both the theory and practice of social transformation. We draw on studies of the anarchist movement in Spain before and during the Spanish Civil War to explore some of what social anarchism has to contribute to geography and contemporary struggles for a more equitable society.

scholarly journals EDUCAÇÃO AMBIENTAL CRÍTICA E A PEDAGOGIA HISTÓRICO-CRÍTICA: REFLEXÕES A PARTIR DO GRUPO DE PESQUISA EM EDUCAÇÃO AMBIENTAL – GPEA/UNESP

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (17) ◽  
pp. 52-66
Author(s):  
Daniele Cristina de Souza
Keyword(s):  
Science Education ◽  
Environmental Education ◽  
Curriculum Design ◽  
Social Transformation ◽  
Historical Materialism ◽  
School Context ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
The Core ◽  
Human Formation

In view of the concern with the insertion of critical environmental education in school, we seek theoretical-methodological contributions in critical historical pedagogy. In this sense, this article will address theoretical reflections that are born within the “Grupo de Pesquisa em Educação Ambiental” - Unesp-Bauru and that were issued during the 1st Symposium on Dialectical Historical Materialism and Research on Science Education and Environmental Education. Thus, we approach the question of the content of critical environmental education from the curriculum design of critical historical pedagogy. Despite the question of the content and form of Environmental Education being present since its origins, we understand that the indepth debate on what should be its content in the school context is still absent. In this sense, assuming the school insertion of critical Environmental Education as the core of the curriculum is a way to overcome its limitations in theory and practice for the human formation necessary for social transformation.

Social Transformation in Response to the Environment Crisis: The Role of Education and Research

1994 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 1-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eureta Janse van Rensburg
Keyword(s):  
Science Education ◽  
Environmental Education ◽  
Empirical Study ◽  
Southern Africa ◽  
Social Transformation ◽  
Social Research ◽  
Epistemological Shifts ◽  
Do So

In this paper I examine two activities which are often attributed with a role to play in social transformation, namely environmental education and research, for their potential to contribute to collective change. I do so by drawing on the results of a recent empirical study in southern Africa, in which I distinguished four orientations to research in/and environmental education. In exploring the transformatory roles of research and environmental education, as conceptualised in these four orientations, I conclude that the most prevalent orientations reveal modernistic assumptions which limit their potential to contribute to social transformation.The decision to interpret the results by focusing on social transformation grew out of what I regarded as the most significant dimensions of the context of the study. These are the global and regional calls for social transformation in response to the environment crisis, the dramatic political changes in parts of southern Africa, the need to improve education in the region, and finally, less obvious global epistemological shifts in the conceptualisation of science, education and social research.

Improving the questions we ask, with Psychology and Cognitive Conflict.

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brett Buttliere
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Scientific Method ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Cognitive Conflict ◽  
Empirical Literature ◽  
Present Evidence ◽  
Scientific Papers ◽  
Science In Society

Over the last decade, there have been many suggestions to improve how scientists answer their questions, but far fewer attempt to improve the questions scientists are asking in the first place. The goal of the paper is then to examine and summarize synthesize the evidence on how to ask the best questions possible. First is a brief review of the philosophical and empirical literature on how the best science is done, which implicitly but not explicitly mentions the role of psychology and especially cognitive conflict. Then we more closely focus on the psychology of the scientist, finding that they are humans, engaged in a meaning making process, and that cognitive conflict is a necessary input for any learning or change in the system. The scientific method is, of course, a specialized meaning making process. We present evidence for this central role of cognitive conflict in science by examining the most discussed scientific papers between 2013 and 2017, which are, in general, controversial and about big problems (e.g., whether vaccines cause autism, how often doctors kill us with their mistakes). Toward the end we discuss the role of science in society, suggesting science itself is an uncertainty reducing and problem solving enterprise. From this basis we encourage scientists to take riskier stances on bigger topics, for the good of themselves and society generally.

The Science of Wisdom in a Polarized World: Knowns and Unknowns

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Igor Grossmann ◽  
Nic M. Weststrate ◽  
Monika Ardelt ◽  
Justin Peter Brienza ◽  
Mengxi Dong ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Problem Solving ◽  
Best Practices ◽  
Cognitive Sciences ◽  
Methodological Challenges ◽  
The Common ◽  
Empirical Approaches ◽  
And Training ◽  
Contextual Differences

Interest in wisdom in the cognitive sciences, psychology, and education has been paralleled by conceptual confusions about its nature and assessment. To clarify these issues and promote consensus in the field, wisdom researchers met in Toronto in July of 2019, resolving disputes through discussion. Guided by a survey of scientists who study wisdom-related constructs, we established a common wisdom model, observing that empirical approaches to wisdom converge on the morally-grounded application of metacognition to reasoning and problem-solving. After outlining the function of relevant metacognitive and moral processes, we critically evaluate existing empirical approaches to measurement and offer recommendations for best practices. In the subsequent sections, we use the common wisdom model to selectively review evidence about the role of individual differences for development and manifestation of wisdom, approaches to wisdom development and training, as well as cultural, subcultural, and social-contextual differences. We conclude by discussing wisdom’s conceptual overlap with a host of other constructs and outline unresolved conceptual and methodological challenges.

The problem of reflection in German philosophy of the XVIII - XIX centuries

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (152) ◽  
pp. 141-145
Author(s):  
L. A. Checal ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Human Development ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Conceptual Representation ◽  
German Philosophy ◽  
Historical Aspect ◽  
Theoretical Significance ◽  
Self Knowledge

This study focuses on a conceptual representation of the metaphysical and non-classical context of reflection in its subjective dichotomous understanding. The author successively reviews the specifics of reflection, as well as the features of methodology of cognition and self-knowledge in the context of determining the values and priorities of human development and consciousness. The article also includes an overview of the main categories of reflection through a breakdown of theoretical relationships and the most important conceptual discourses. The theoretical significance of the problem of cognition and self-knowledge is determined by the central role of man in society and history. The analysis shows that the methodology of cognition and self-knowledge should be based on the principles of axiological disengagement, a combination of logical and historical aspect, as well as on the coherence of theory and practice.

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