Use of national parks for outdoor environmental education: An Australian case study

The need for environmental education through outdoor education experiences is becoming increasingly evident in outdoor education theory and practice. In Australia, this environmental focus is reflected in recent outdoor education curriculum documents, particularly in the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE). For many outdoor education teachers who do not have expertise in environmental education, this curriculum development presents a challenge. Outdoor education teachers frequently use National Parks to help them address this challenge.

The study examined the educational objectives and roles of teachers and park staff involved in environmental education through outdoor education in National Parks in Victoria, Australia. This paper discusses findings related to the teachers' educational objectives and roles while those of the park staff are examined in a separate paper. The findings indicate that the teachers often lack the environmental knowledge and skills needed to teach some aspects of the curriculum thus making the role of the park ranger or education officer particularly significant in educating teachers as well as students. Issues are raised about the training of outdoor education teachers and of park rangers to meet the environmental education needs of outdoor education students. Questions are also raised about the appropriateness of using National Parks for outdoor education purposes.     

The construction and production of youth ‘at risk’

Following the Commonwealth Government funding cuts in 1986, a hiatus has developed in in‐service teacher education in Australia. Recent curriculum innovations and expanding stresses in the educational environment have generated in‐service education needs which are possibly greater than at any other time in the recent past. The trend in other industrialized countries has been to encourage or even require teachers in primary and secondary education to achieve postgraduate qualifications. Similar pressures are currently mounting in Australia. The combination of the stresses and new emphasis, calls for a rethinking of existing approaches and policies. The restructuring of the education system in a number of States, the difficulties which have become apparent in solution‐centred in‐service programmes and the continuing unsatisfactory ad hoc arrangements for the design and delivery of such programmes across Australia indicate that the need for different policies and provisions in teacher professional development is acute. After analysing the state of the art of in‐service training in Australia, this paper provides possible rationales for such policies and programmes and suggests the development of a multiprogramme policy package which could assist the teachers to ensure a better quality and cost‐effective educational service.     

A national scheme to develop and accredit university teachers

Abstract

In 1991 the UK Staff and Educational Development Association (SEDA) developed and launched a national scheme for the training and qualification of teachers in higher education. Teachers are accredited if they demonstrate eight specified objectives underpinned by seven specified values. Programmes of staff development which assess teachers’ attainment of these objectives and values are recognized by SEDA. By the start of November 1996, SEDA had recognized 30 programmes and a similar number of programmes were at various stages of preparation for recognition. More than seven hundred teachers are undertaking recognized programmes or are already accredited. The paper describes the development and operation of the scheme; starts to locate the scheme in a wider framework of competence, preparation and accreditation of all staff who teach in higher education; and explores some of the operational, educational and philosophical issues faced by the scheme.     

基础教育课程改革与师范院校外语教学观念转变刍议

我国基础教育课程改革正在稳步推进，但在师资配套建设方面还比较薄弱。高校师资培养在教育目标、教育方式特别是教育观念更新方面普遍滞后于基础教育改革与发展的需要已是不争的现实。这一点，师范院校外语教育教学也不例外。故我们需要站在理论建构的高度对适应基础教育课程改革相关的外语教师教育的目标建设、教师的素质结构、教师教育需求特别是教育观念转变进行研究，以提高师范院校外语教师教育工作的科学性与实效性。     

Engaged environmental science for underserved youth

Abstract

The National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences has called for targeted efforts to engage underserved youth in environmental education programs that support environmental literacy and contribute to the development of a diverse workforce pipeline for environmental science-related occupations. Evidence suggests that career knowledge among low income and minority youth is more likely to be incompatible with post-secondary educational opportunities than other racial and ethnic groups. One approach to attenuating discordant college and career expectations among underserved youth is building networks for information sharing between secondary and post-secondary students. The purpose of this commentary is to describe the development and implementation of a high school curriculum on environmental science and environmental justice by Texas A&M University in collaboration with community engagement partners, students, and teachers at Furr High School, an innovative XQ Super School in Houston, Texas.     

Mentors for beginning teachers as middle leaders: the messy work of recontextualising

ABSTRACT

Mentors for beginning teachers in schools are often unacknowledged middle leaders in their schools. Through their work with beginning teachers, they not only provide local leadership in their contexts, they influence and shape the work of the next generation of teachers. Government-funded mentor training for the purpose of supporting beginning teachers in Education Queensland schools commenced in 2014 (Queensland Government. [2017]. Mentoring Beginning Teachers. http://education.qld.gov.au/staff/development/employee/teachers/mentoring.html). In Queensland, Australia, over 3000 experienced teachers have completed a two-day professional learning Mentoring Beginning Teacher (MBT) programme. Upon completion, mentors were expected to design and enact a mentoring programme that met the beginning teachers’ needs in their context, using the dialogic mentoring principles they had learned to fulfil the policy goals of increasing the number of beginning teachers transitioning to full registration. This article draws on Bernstein’s ([2000]. Pedagogy, Symbolic Control, and Identity: Theory, Research, Critique. Revised ed. Rowman & Littlefield) concepts of recontextualisation, and horizontal and vertical discourses of knowledge to understand how mentor teachers negotiated and enacted their roles as middle leaders in schools in diverse schooling contexts.     

Assessing wellbeing at school entry using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire: professional perspectives

Emotional and behavioural disorders in early childhood are related to poorer academic attainment and school engagement, and difficulties already evident at the point of starting school can affect a child’s later social and academic development. Successful transfer from pre-school settings to primary education is helped by communication between pre-school staff and primary school teachers. Typically, in Scotland, pre-school establishments prepare individual profiles of children before they start school around the age of five years, highlighting their strengths and development needs, for transfer to primary schools. There is, however, no consistent approach to the identification of potential social, emotional and behavioural problems. In 2010, in one local authority area in Scotland, the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) was introduced for children about to start school as a routine, structured, component of the transition process to help teachers plan support arrangements for classes and individual children. The SDQ assesses emotional, conduct, hyperactivity/ inattention and peer-relationship problems as well as pro-social behaviour. In order to be an effective means of communicating social and emotional functioning, the use of instruments such as the SDQ needs to be practicable. Finding out the views of pre-school education staff with experience of assessing children using the SDQ was, therefore, essential to establish its future utility.

Aim

The purpose of this study was to explore the views of pre-school education staff about assessing social and emotional wellbeing of children at school entry using the SDQ. The objectives were to examine the opinions of pre-school workers about completing the SDQ and to elicit their thoughts on the value of doing this and their perceptions of the usefulness of the information collected.

Method

Pre-school establishments were approached using a purposive sampling strategy in order to achieve a mix of local authority (n=14) and ‘partnership’ establishments (n=8) as well as different socio-economic areas. Semi-structured interviews (n=25) were conducted with pre-school head teachers (n=14) and child development officers (n=11) in order to explore the process of completing the SDQ along with perceptions of its value. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed thematically.

Results

In general, staff in pre-school establishments viewed the use of the SDQ positively. It was seen as a chance to highlight the social and emotional development of children rather than just their academic or educational ability. Most felt that the SDQ had not identified anything they did not already know about a child. A minority, nevertheless, suggested that a previously unrecognised potential difficulty was brought to light, most commonly emotional problems. Completing the SDQ was felt to be relatively straightforward even though the staff felt under pressure from competing priorities. Concerns were, however, raised about the potential of labelling a child at an early stage of formal education.

Conclusion

The findings from this small scale study suggest that, from the point of view of pre-school education staff, it is feasible to assess children systematically for social and behavioural problems as part of the routine transition process at school entry.     

The reconceptualisation of outdoor education in the primary school classroom in Aotearoa New Zealand: how might we do it?

The powerful learning that occurs outdoors has been well documented in this journal, as has an array of barriers teachers typically face in providing outdoor learning experiences. This paper draws on findings from a collaborative, practice-based research project examining the reconceptualisation of outdoor education in two Year 4 classes in a primary school in Aotearoa New Zealand. Teachers note four factors to be integral to supporting the transformation of curriculum and pedagogical practice. The first two, (Re)establishing what we stand for and a willingness to let go of control, underscore the importance of teachers’ ongoing critical analysis of their philosophies and of the impact adopting inquiry approaches had on establishing and sustaining pedagogical change. The third, local places matter points to the significance of the innovation itself of adopting place-responsive approaches to sustaining change. The final factor, a climate of support, examines the key roles that senior teachers, colleagues, and students’ families have in supporting teachers’ endeavours to transform practice.     

挑战与回应:研究性学习环境下高师教育改革的思考

研究性学习的试行和推广,给教师素质提出了巨大挑战。高师院校作为培养基础教育教师的“工作母机”,面对挑战,应采取相应的措施:转变教育观念,调整培养目标;完善课程体系,调整课程设置;加强教师队伍建设,完善评价体系;鼓励学生参与科研活动,培养科研能力。     

Environment in the science curriculum: The politics of change in the Pan-Canadian science curriculum development process

This paper draws on the experience of the Pan-Canadian science curriculum development process as an instance of the more general problem of integrating science and environmental education. It problematizes the issue of incorporation of social and environmental dimensions within the science curriculum in terms of both policy and practice. The agenda of environmental education, as eco-philosophical and eco-political, provides a radically different base from which to explore the impact of change on science teachers and schools. Thus, the very idea of environmental education as an educational policy goal must be examined in light of conflicting agendas of science and environmental education. This paper argues that transforming structures and processes of school science to enable different teacher and student roles involves closing the gap between curriculum (policy) development and professional development as well as reconceptualizing science education, but from more overtly open moral value and political perspectives than have been considered in the literature of science education.     

Changes in outdoor learning in primary schools in England, 1995 and 2017: lessons for good practice

ABSTRACT

Outdoor learning provides memorably relevant learning and authentic, contextualised opportunities to extend classroom-based education. This research draws on empirical data from surveys involving teachers in primary schools in England in 1995 and 2017 (n=61 and n=40 respectively). The evidence illustrates that schools are continuing to use their playgrounds and day visits as locations for practice. Teacher expertise had decreased by 2017 but the major challenges and barriers to implementation of time and expense remain similar in both years. Teachers no longer see outdoor ‘education’ as a subject in its own right but within the physical education curriculum although Early Years Foundation Stage practitioners report an enabling curriculum for outdoor learning. The research identifies the strength of teachers’ values and beliefs, an open approach to curriculum interpretation, the importance of suitable locations, a culture of risk benefit and positive initiatives as key ingredients for successful outdoor learning in primary schools.     

Environmentalization of the physical education curriculum in Brazilian universities: culturally comparative lessons from critical outdoor education in Australia

‘Environmentalizing’ curriculum in Brazil is a worthy goal of global educational reform for sustainability but is challenging given the limits to rational change thesis already argued in critical social science and post-structural deconstructionism. The federal government mandate to environmentalize undergraduate physical education programs poses the question of which aspects of physical education are conducive to change. ‘Nature’ sports, or outdoor/adventure activity education, is the most likely candidate. In Australia over the past three decades, the environmentalization of ‘old’ physical education outdoor activities has led to the development of ‘new’ discourse practices that integrate environmental studies and outdoor education and are designed for ecological responsibility and social sustainability. In this culturally comparative light about the possibilities for curriculum change in environmental, outdoor and physical education, we examine the potential for change in Brazilian approaches to physical and sport education by critiquing broader ‘environmentalizing’ issues as they have occurred historically within the Australian outdoor education context in the university and secondary schooling sectors.     

Sexuality education for young people: a theoretically integrated approach from Australia

Background: Teachers of sexuality education can often be uncertain about what theoretical basis and pedagogical strategies to use in their teaching. Sexuality educational programmes designed by teachers can often show few evident theoretical principles that have been applied in its construction. Thus, there seems to be a dearth of evidence of ways in which teachers can use appropriate theoretical foundations in their planning and teaching in sexuality education.

Purpose: This paper aims to suggest a way of providing such an appropriate theoretical framework for sexuality education teachers of young people aged 7–15 years of age.

Analysis: Age-appropriate primary and middle school pedagogies based on two integrated educational theories, namely Anderson and Krathwohl's theoretical framework of learning and teaching, with Verbal Linguistic Intelligence from Gardner's Multiple Intelligences, were analysed and evaluated. Key considerations were the earlier maturing of girls and boys, findings from relevant literature about children and young people's cognitive capacities, as well as the relevance of curriculum content for upper primary and middle school students, and the concomitant need for better and earlier sexuality education.

Conclusion: This approach, integrating Anderson and Krathwohl's theoretical framework of learning and teaching, with Gardner's Multiple Verbal Linguistic Intelligence, may be useful to assist health and sexuality education teachers in identifying and anchoring pedagogies in a more theoretically structured manner, thereby enhancing the quality of their sexuality education planning and teaching.     

Books,Teachers, and Committees‐‐a Comparative Essay on Authority in Science Education

Summaries

English

In this essay, Professor Peter Fensham examines the respective roles of books, teachers and committees as source and authority of scientific information in the context of school science education. In his comparative analysis of recent curriculum development trends in the USA, England and Australia, he detects significant differences in what is accepted in the different countries as ‘authority about science knowledge’ and argues that these differences emerge from the different historical, political and economic development of the three apparently similar countries.     

Ettore Gelpi: an appreciation

Abstracts

English

The aim of the paper is to argue for a curriculum model approach to problems of development in adult and lifelong (or continuing) education contexts.

The advantages of such an approach are outlined : relating theory to practice and social policies to educational processes; exploring professional role‐structures and their effect upon received curriculum assumptions in the adult sector, particularly the traditional needs‐meeting, remedial and compensatory elements of such assumptions.

The significance of recent theoretical and policy developments in adult and continuing education is reviewed in these terms and some distinctions made between alternative implicit models of the lifelong curriculum. It is suggested that adult education, as presently constituted, might, itself, be an obstacle to the development of an integrated lifelong education curriculum.

In order to elucidate this a number of curriculum concepts, familiar enough in the general theory of education, are considered in the less familiar context of adult and lifelong education: typologies of curriculum models are used to explore some issues of development in this context (e.g. objectives, provision, process, action, research models etc.)

Ideas of a ‘core’ curriculum, and of the ‘hidden’ or ‘latent’ curriculum, together with curriculum development and evaluation are also considered.

The existing state of the adult and continuing education curriculum is then analyzed within such a conceptual framework. The disposition of professional roles is described, together with the curricular implications of the structure of provision (the University Extra‐Mural Departments, the WEA and the LEA sector).

The ideas of ‘flexibility’ and ‘access’ are critically reviewed as a function of professional (rather than political) ideologies, and the adult‐lifelong curriculum is analyzed in terms of administrative criteria on the one hand and educational process and social action on the other.

A prevailing orthodoxy of continuing education is elucidated in curriculum terms, and contrasted with the curriculum implications of lifelong models. For example, such models stress the functional interdependence of learning stages in an ‘intrinsic’ rather than a ‘remedial’ way, whereas much thinking about adult and continuing education in Britain is concerned with compensatory responses to failures of early educational experience.

In conclusion, it is argued that, in curriculum terms, the development of a continuing or a lifelong education system is by no means as straightforward as is sometimes supposed, and that the obstacles lie primarily within the nature of present curriculum assumptions as much as the more obvious material obstacles to development. Adult education, as it is presently organized, articulates the same kind of curriculum assumptions as initial education. The curriculum assumptions of lifelong education, however, are much more concerned with education in terms of social control and knowledge‐content than with access to professional provision which reproduces curriculum models of initial education sectors.     

Environmental Knowledge and Attitudes

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess perceived environmental education (EE) curriculum needs in the United States (K-16). The Environmental Education Curriculum Needs Assessment Questionnaire (EECNAQ) was developed, validated, and direct-mailed to 169 randomly selected professional environmental educators (58.6% return rate). The EECNAQ elicited perceptions about the desired status and the current state of EE curricula, the need for curriculum development, the anticipated use of curricula teachers, and the need for inservice teacher education. These five major questions were posed relative to fifteen goals which reflected the Tbilisi objectives and four levels of environmental literacy. The findings reveal a consensus among the professional participants that the EE goals are important ones, that they are not being met to a large extent in existing curricula, that extensive needs exist for both goal-oriented curricula and teacher education, and that the goaloriented curricula would be used by teachers.     

Discipline and Pleasure: The pedagogical work of Disneyland

Abstract

Disneyland is work disguised as play; school disguised as vacation. While Walt Disney’s curriculum deploys across all of its products, it literally engulfs the approximately 50 million ‘guests’ who visit the Disney Parks each year. Drawing on Sarah Ahmed’s phenomenological reading of orientation in Queer phenomenology, this article investigates the ways in which Disney’s didacticism is made material through practices and procedures designed to orient the park’s visitors, to ensure that those visitors always know where they are and who they are, as a means of educating ‘good’ citizens. The argument focuses not on Disneyland’s narrative curriculum but on its corporeal one: visitors are enticed to make affective investments, to construct or reconstruct their identities to comply with the Disney version of the ideal American worker and consumer, as the park attempts to reorient those who resist those roles.     

Researching balance between cognition and affect in science teaching and learning

This paper is based on findings from a three year collaborative action research project on classroom teaching and learning. The research, which involved 33 teachers, over two thousand students from six schools, and the authors, centred on exploring how various features of the classroom context influence teaching and learning processes. We interpret project findings as indicating the importance of balance between cognition and affect for effective teaching and learning. We advance the notion of challenge as a way of conceptualising this balance. Challenge comprises a cognitive/metacognitivedemand component and an affectiveinterest component. Nine major features of a teaching/learning event were found to interact to influence these cognitive and affective components of challenge. Specializations: Collaborative research on science teaching and learning; staff development and school improvement; quality of science education. Specializations: Learning and teaching science; pre-service teacher education. Specializations: teacher development in science education; technology education. Specializations: Science and teachnology curriculum, environmental education, educational disadvantage. Specializations: learning theory, probing of understanding, conceptual change.     

新课改视阈中教师教育课程的反思与构建

新基础教育课程改革理念,要求基础教育教师适应角色的改变,也给传统的教师教育课程建设及改革提出了挑战。因此,基于新课改理念视角,应对传统教师教育课程现状进行反思与批判,并在此基础上凸显对教师教育课程改革的企盼和追求,提出新课改视阂中教师教育课程的构建。