Environmental education for sustainability (EfS) has a central purpose of developing students’ habits and actions, in a sustainable way. EfS encompasses many values, visions, principles, key competencies and the essential nature of learning areas in the New Zealand Curriculum (NZC) from its core components. The components of environmental EfS are important to achieving the goals of environmental education in the curriculum (Tilbury, 1995).
Relevance
Relevance is the prominent component of environmental EfS (Tilbury, 1995). It is to do with making a link between the student’s everyday lives to their learning in school. A student will be more engaged with the learning content when they can understand the relevant connections between theoretical material and the present local and global issues surrounding them (Tilbury, 1995). The relevance component directly links to the NZC’s principle of community engagement as it incorporates the learners wider lives by bringing positive attitudes towards improving societies environmental issues which they can pass on to their family and community (Ministry of Education, 2007). There is an important place in the curriculum for EfS because many citizens such as students feel a concern about environmental issues and through community engagement they can be exposed to a variety of these issues in their local area (Tilbury, 1995). Including local and global contemporary issues in teaching can intrinsically motivate and develop student knowledge and custom towards sustainability (Nolet, 2009). Individuals will have some knowledge of an issue occurring in their community, country or planet, therefore the content needs to be relatable to students so that they are able to have to knowledge to influence ...
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... human interference (Tilbury, 1995). This EfS component links to Continuity and Change in the Social Sciences learning area in the NZC as learners can identify the change in the gap between the present and the past (Ministry of Education, 2007). Due to the changing ways from the past to present, learner’s can imagine a preferable future as they understand past experiences and events have influenced society today (Ministry of Education, 2007). A future perspective is important to improving the quality of sustainability as individuals are able to envision a better future. This can motivate and alter learner’s choices and values so their imagined future can become a reality. Teaching EfS through continuity and change provides students to critically reflect on their decisions and highlights the obstacles society needs to face before a desired future can become reality.
All teachers have the responsibility to develop skills and qualities in their pupils that are beneficial to their lives and the lives of others. Works Cited Quinn, D (1995), Ishmael, Bantam/Turner Book Publication. United Nations Educational (UNESCO 1995-2009), Scientific and Cultural Education, Education for Sustainable Development. Available at: http://www.unesco.org/en/esd/ (Date accessed 21/12/09).
An integrated holistic approach to teaching and learning should allow children to make connections to the natural world. Practitioners should adapt to children’s ability of learning and their understanding of the natural environment and the connections they have between
The experience of teaching ELL students was very enlightening to me. At the time I was expected to teach this lesson, students were in the middle of their social studies unit of responsibility. They learned about various types of responsibilities, and one of them was responsibility to the environment. The actual lesson I was supposed to teach focused on the importance of making choices that would have a positive impact on students’ close environment. I was also to talk about environmental problems in the students’ neighborhood, and encourage them to devise some solutions to those problems.
Sustainability is becoming a major debate in the united states and in the world as a whole. People are becoming more conscious of their surroundings and want to conserve the environment in order to keep the Earth healthy and to maintain diversity among the environment. In Christian Weisser’s “Sustainability,” he goes on to explain what sustainability truly is. Weisser does a good job in using pathos to persuade a typical college student in the validity of sustainability.
...blems are growing in magnitude and will neither go away nor resolve themselves. They require action by having students be trained and willing to deal with difficult and complex global issues. Students should have a degree of literacy regarding the global problems, issues, concerns, and trends that increasingly impact their lives. Through awareness students will know and understand that global issues and challenges exist and affect their lives. Awareness is a necessary prerequisite to understanding. Students will be aware that their information and knowledge on most global issues are incomplete and that they need to continue seeking information about how global and international issues are formed and influenced. Global education is a lifelong process. New global issues will emerge in the future, and new insights into current global challenges will be generated.
Therefore it is important that individuals, corporations, and nations all start to look at the future impacts of their actions and to plan more. This can give them various profit opportunity as well as giving future generations a chance to sustain themselves in a way that they think is right with the tools that were given to them by the investments made today. As a result, in order to successfully create a sustainable entity, it is important to now only look at the now, but the future as well as the past and learning from previous mistakes, and
Finally, research has shown that basic education is paramount to a nation’s ability to develop and achieve economic development and sustainability targets. Once these targets are identified, a country will need to re-examine its education curricula at all levels, that is, pre-school to tertiary education. Also, as a government develop policies within their countries they should ensure that there is an interconnection between the environment, economy, and social structures and that they become an integral part of formal education, starting with kindergarten and continuing through primary and secondary school and then on through training at the college, university and professional levels.
Withgott, J., & Laposata, M. (2014). Environment: the science behind the stories (5th Ed.). New York, NY: Pearson Education, Inc.
Description: Students will learn the importance to take care of the environment. They will gain knowledge on recycle, reuse, and reduce. They will also learn to be creative and to persuade other people around school and outside school for protecting the environment. Moreover, students will increase their vocabulary and critical thinking.
The learning environment connects the classroom to the community through a democratic approach. This community based learning brings the world into the classroom so students can implement social change and challenge social inequalities. The curriculum focuses on student experience and taking social action on real problems such as hunger, violence, and discrimination. It is important to instruct students to explore in group settings so they can work together to analyze and develop theories that can help each other and make a real different in the world. As a future educator, it is important to not only to teach my students the issues in our world, but how we can work together to find
Sustainability development has three components: environment, society, and economy. If you consider the three to be overlapping circles of the same size, the area of overlap in the center is human well-being. As the environment, society, and economy become more aligned, the area of overlap increases, and so does human well-being. Therefore, education for sustainable development (ESD) is the use of education as a tool to achieve sustainability. Simply put, ESD is a way to make the world a safer, healthier, and more livable place for us and future generations (McKeown, 2002, pgs 7-9).
Thus, it is essential for graduates to understand and to have the capability to cope with various environmental challenges that we are facing today. For university students, most of their knowledge about sustainability is obtained from lectures. Whereas, Winter and Cotton (2012) illustrate that learning solely about sustainability is insufficient and that sustainability literacy must take into consideration students’ attitudes and dispositions in order to develop their strategies for reasoned decision-making. In addition, Winter and Cotton (2012) point out that the limitations posed by academic attitudes and disciplinary silos hinder the embedding of sustainability literacy in the formal curriculum. Therefore, if universities want to cultivate more students with sustainability literacy, then they need to focus on constructing more sustainable
Personal Growth’ relates to being open to new experiences as well as having the constant ability to progress and grow as a person. Personal growth includes activities that improve awareness and individuality. It develops abilities, builds human capital and expedites employability, improve quality of life and supplement to the realization of dreams and aspirations. The individual is constantly working to grow as complete personality. For a fully functioning individual, the internal locus of control is very important. The people who are conscious about personal growth have a feeling of continued development; see themselves as growing and progressing in life. They enjoy new experiences and generally have a sense of realizing their potential.
Environmental philosophers are able to open up a range of different ideas behind our environmental crisis. They do this by not only looking at physical marks left by humans on the earth but also at the very humans themselves. Theories don’t only explain complex dynamics and structures but give us an opportunity to reflect upon our own behaviors and decisions in relation to the environment.
Environmental studies is a paramount field to focus on for both the present day and the future. This field of studies pertains to all people, animals, plants, and biomes around the world. Environmental Studying is important because it is only by understands the environmental processes that we can begin to take the steps necessary to correct the on-going damage that is occurring, and ultimately protect and sustain life on the planet. Unless steps are taken to try and abate and control environmental problems, which are often human-generated or exacerbated, then the environmental that we live in will continue to deteriorate. There is no life without protecting the source that sustains us. Even though I have only been alive for seventeen years, it has been long enough to see many negative environmental changes. Since I was born that population has grown by over one billion people causing deforestation, loss of wildlife, increased pollution to both air and water, and even superbugs. However, I have also been able to see extremely positive results such as an increase in the research and implementation of renewable resources. The reason I am so motivated to study environmental science is because I know that change is possible. Those who study environmental science and study have the ability to help reduce, and possible reserve, some of the damage that has been done to the environment while at the same time, helping to advance the well-being of our fellow humans.