Monitoring and assessment of pedagogical competence development among bachelors majoring in Ecology

The paper is devoted to the problem of environmental education implementation in modern conditions through formation of ecological consciousness and ecological culture of students personality within the educational process and outside. To solve this problem it is necessary to develop new approaches to the training of prospective environmental educators and their professional competence development. Its also necessary to control and evaluate all the main components of professional competence. In the structure of the teachers professional competence the authors of the paper include a set of theoretical knowledge and their application in various pedagogical situations, as well as value orientations and a set of indicators of the teachers culture: speech, communication style, attitude to himself/herself and his/her activities and to other fields of knowledge, etc. At the same time, the system of professional education of modern teachers consists of subject training as well as psychological, pedagogical and methodological training, the purpose of which is to form the ability to organize the educational process on principles of personality-oriented interaction. In the structure of professional and pedagogical competence of bachelors majoring in Ecology, it is possible to distinguish meaningful, value-motivational and operational-activity components. The authors also consider possible ways of monitoring and assessment of pedagogical competence development among bachelors majoring in Ecology for pedagogical activity, their professional competence and training.

Τhe Impact of Training Environmental Educators: Environmental Perceptions and Attitudes of Pre-Primary and Primary School Teachers in Greece

Environmental education is an important tool for managing environmental problems, with a view to protecting the environment. Several significant factors, however, impede its implementation. Educators’ lack of knowledge and appropriate training on environmental topics results in difficulties in implementing environmental education programs. Nevertheless, environmental literacy is expected to lead to the manifestation of pro-environmental behavior. The aim of the present study was to examine the impacts of environmental training on pre-primary and primary school educators, and its influence on the formation of their environmental perceptions and attitudes. We investigated whether training triggers the implementation of environmental education programs, and its possible metacognitive effects on educators. Simple random sampling was used as a sampling method. A structured questionnaire was administered to 154 pre-primary and primary school teachers, and the data collection took place through the use of face-to-face interviews. The research findings indicated that educators were interested in environmental issues, and mainly used the media to obtain information about environmental issues. Gender and age were important characteristics influencing the performance and attitudes of environmental educators. It also became apparent that there are significant deficiencies in the capacity building of educators, and in the organization of environmental education in pre-primary and primary education, that negatively affect the implementation of environmental programs in schools.

Extension in popular environmental education: chores in the work community

This article is the result of doctoral research in Education, which sought to understand the Popular Extension in Environmental Education, experienced by a Work Community, in the city of Uberaba, Minas Gerais, Brazil. It aims to present the educational processes linked to what to do in popular environmental education. Data collection took place through participant observation and data were analyzed based on content analysis. It was possible to understand that all the people involved and committed to the transformation of that reality experienced in and by the work community, become environmental educators, through their most varied what to do. Thus, an environmental educator is a mediator of the understanding of the relations that the community (s) in which she is inserted with the environment, so that Popular Environmental Education is in tune with the spirit of a popular extension of character. educational and transformative, based on a participatory methodology that allows the development of a practice in which the people involved seek the construction and systematization of knowledge that lead them to consciously focus on reality.

Helping Children Discover Meaning through Environmental Education: A Sample Review of the Literature

Social interaction, freedom of choice, and hands-on activities can make the difference in helping children make meaning of the world around them. This sample review of existing literature looks at three studies that explore what factors most influenced children’s ability to make meaning through participation in environmental education programs. Articles were selected based on their relevance to the topics of making meaning and environmental education programming. The studies concluded that factors critical to children’s engagement and ability to make meaning from their experiences included their opportunities for informal social interaction, freedom of personal choice, and extent of hands-on learning activities. The studies affirmed that, for maximum benefit, environmental educators can and should challenge and inspire students to pursue their own learning. Similar research should be undertaken in more environmental settings, across wider age-ranges of children, and over longer periods of time. Future studies should also explore how best to overcome the learning barriers often present in outdoor environments. As educators, the more we know about what works well, and why, the more we can tailor meaningful, impactful experiences that best fuel the curiosity, engagement and learning of our students.

Educators’ experiences and strategies for responding to ecological distress

Research is increasingly identifying the issues of ecological distress, eco-anxiety and climate grief. These painful experiences arise from heightened ecological knowledge and concern, which are commonly considered to be de facto aims of environmental education. Yet little research investigates the issues of climate change anxiety in educational spaces, nor how educators seek to respond to or prevent such emotional experiences. This study surveyed environmental educators in eastern Australia about their experiences and strategies for responding to their learners’ ecological distress. Educators reported that their students commonly experienced feeling overwhelmed, hopeless, anxious, angry, sad and frustrated when engaging with ecological crises. Educators’ strategies for responding to their learners’ needs included encouraging students to engage with their emotions, validating those emotions, supporting students to navigate and respond to those emotions and empowering them to take climate action. Educators felt that supporting their students to face and respond to ecological crises was an extremely challenging task, one which was hindered by time limitations, their own emotional distress, professional expectations, society-wide climate denial and a lack of guidance on what works.

Eco-Anxiety and Environmental Education

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.

Thinking with a landscape: the Australian Alps, horses and pedagogical considerations

This paper proposes some possibilities for thinking with a landscape as a pedagogical concept, inspired by posthuman theory. The idea of thinking with a landscape is enacted in the Australian Alps (AA), concentrating on the contentious environmental dilemma involving introduced horses and their management in this bio-geographical location. The topic of horses is of pedagogical relevance for place-responsive outdoor environmental educators as both a location-specific problem and an example of a troubling issue. The paper has two objectives for employing posthuman thinking. Firstly, it experiments with the alternative methodological possibilities that posthuman theory affords for outdoor environmental education, including new ways of conducting educational research. Secondly, it explores how thinking with a landscape as a pedagogical concept may help open ways of considering the dilemma that horses pose. The pedagogical concept is enacted through some empirical events which sketch human–horse encounters from the AA. These sketches depict some of the pedagogical conversations and discursive pathways that encounters can provoke. Such encounters and conversations are ways of constructing knowledge of the landscape, covering multiple species, perspectives and discursive opportunities. For these reasons, this paper may be of relevance for outdoor environmental educators, those interested in the AA or posthuman theorists.