The National Park System and Environmental Education

Abstract

The Watershed Learning Center (WLC) was developed by the Brandywine Valley Association (BVA) to provide outdoor environmental lessons to schools on their own properties or on sites close by. Teachers are trained to take over the lessons by observing BVA instructors and attending workshops. The program was evaluated to discover how the WLC was introduced and expanded in the schools, the program's impact on students, and the effectiveness of the teacher training for program take-over and continuation. The accomplishments and challenges of the WLC program are described and insights provided that can serve as a model for replication.     

Environmental Education in Rural Central Himalayan Schools

Abstract

This article describes an experimental environmental education course in rural schools in India's central Himalayas. The course was designed to introduce environmental and livelihood issues into mainstream curriculum. The Uttaranchal Environment Education Centre initiated this program in 1987 with the help of national and state departments of education. This practical course focuses on land degradation, which is the region's major environmental problem. Students learn how to manage their village ecosystem to ensure maximum sustainable productivity. Currently, 1,000 teachers in 530 schools offer the course to approximately 68,000 students.     

An Environmental Education Program for Teacher Trainers in Finland

Abstract

Finland's Ministry of Education sponsored the development of an environmental education (EE) course for practicing educators of teachers. One to 3 persons from each teacher training unit at various universities and training schools attended a tutor training session, during which a course for other teacher trainers was developed. The course focused on personal development and curriculum development. Tutors used distance education with some locally arranged contact teaching to teach the course. Tutors also led local study groups. Teacher trainers who attended the course learned and applied new teaching practices and produced new model lessons. They also reflected on their personal environmental philosophy and gained in environmental knowledge. Preliminary evaluation of the program indicated that high-quality learning experiences occurred. This 2-step distance education model could be used for large-scale implementation of EE for in-service teacher training.     

The NatureMapping Program: Resource Agency Environmental Education Reform

Abstract

Environmental education for youth and adults is being redefined at resource agencies. The driving forces are education reform and citizen demands to be involved in environmental management decisions. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife examined its traditional environmental education programs and identified the need to create opportunities for citizen involvement as a means to educate while directly impacting its mission. Through a partnership with the Washington Cooperative Research Unit Gap Analysis Project, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife created the NatureMapping Program. The NatureMapping Program enables volunteers, including schools, to collect environmental data that are valuable to governments and communities for problem solving and decision making. A recent study of schools actively NatureMapping describes increased school-community links, motivated students, and a systemic change in curriculum through interdisciplinary inquiry. Resource experts have benefited from new species information and increased community involvement.     

The Future of Teacher Education and the Politics of Resistance

The authors argue that teacher education reform is becoming increasingly aligned to the imperatives of the capitalist marketplace. They describe current initiatives in California that attempt to reclaim schools and teacher education as sites for democratic socialist struggle.     

Policies,Agendas, and Practices Influencing Doctoral Education in Physical Education Teacher Education

ABSTRACT

If teaching physical education is a moral activity, it follows that there is a moral component to the preparation of teachers of physical education and thus a moral component to the preparation of teacher educators. In this article, I examine the major policies, agendas, and practices that influence doctoral preparation in physical education teacher education. I argue from both a utilitarian and realist perspective that we can best serve children and youth in schools by being knowledgeable of the contexts and effects of these policies, agendas, and practices in educating future professors of physical education teacher education.     

Recent Developments in Teacher Education in the United States of America

Two national reports published in 1986 marked the beginning of teacher education reform in the United States of America. Both of these reports proposed a twofold approach to teacher education reform: first, to enrich the professional education of teachers by eliminating undergraduate teacher certification programs and requiring graduate level training; and second, to change the structure of the teaching profession by replacing the existing undifferentiated system in which all teachers have the same rank with a two-tiered system in which lead teachers or career professionals would assume higher level responsibilities and receive higher salaries than regular teachers. A ten-year follow-up report identified some progress toward these goals of teacher education reform but criticised schools of education for not making greater efforts to connect their educational programs to elementary and secondary schools. The report argued specifically for professional development schools to link university schools of education to school systems. Most of the recent efforts to reform teacher education have adopted this approach. A particular focus has been the preparation of new and experienced teachers to educate an increasingly diverse student population.     

Value Education Processes for an Environmental Education Program

ABSTRACT:

Researchers and practitioners in environmental education have widely recognized the importance of facilitating the growth of positive environmental values among learners. Environmental Values Education (EVE) is included in environmental education programs, whether it is consciously planned or is an implicit part of the learner's experience. There are, however, many constraints to developing a well-planned EVE program and integrating this into the general curriculum; foremost among these is the need for teacher training in the theory and methods of EVE. Coursework and practical training for teachers is needed in several areas. When choosing appropriate strategies for teaching environmental ethics, each teacher will need to become familiar with the strengths and weaknesses of each approach, his or her own capabilities and need for further theoretical and practical training and the needs of learners and the nature of the situation at hand. Each learner's level of moral development is an especially important factor to consider when choosing and conducting EVE strategies. It is important for teachers to become familiar with school and community attitudes concerning values education, in order to implement a strong program in environmental values education while working within the existing realities of school policies and community expectations.     

Cultural Humility in Physical Education Teacher Education: A Missing Piece in Developing a New Generation of Socially Just Physical Education Teachers

ABSTRACT

The increased pluralism in today’s United States society, including our public school student population, has called for physical education teacher education (PETE) programs to train teachers who can respond to the educational needs of students from diverse backgrounds. However, concerns have been raised with educator preparation programs’ ability to prepare teachers to address diversity in our schools. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to discuss the movement toward teaching for social justice in PETE with focus on preparing teachers for cultural diversity; this includes special attention to cultural humility as a missing component in physical education teacher preparation. We discuss the current state of diversity in PETE, leading to a discussion of social justice as a theme in teaching and teacher education in physical education. Next, we detail the underpinnings of social justice pedagogies in physical education and the need for infusing cultural humility in PETE.     

Development of a Metric to Test Group Differences in Ecological Knowledge as One Component of Environmental Literacy

Abstract

Environmental literacy has been defined in numerous ways and attempts have been made to measure how environmentally literate people are. Many attempts to measure literacy have instead measured people's knowledge about pollution and their attitudes toward the environment. According to many environmental education experts, knowledge and attitudes are important components of environmental literacy, especially if the goal of environmental education is to change behavior. However, the experts also indicate that, to change an individual's behavior, knowledge about the environment must be associated with environmental sensitivity, personal beliefs, and decisionmaking and problem-solving skills. The research presented in this article contributes to environmental literacy research by offering a tested, valid survey instrument to measure ecological knowledge—one component of environmental literacy. In this article, we provide an example of how this instrument can be applied by comparing knowledge levels among diverse groups of Ohio citizens.     

Information Technology Courses in Teacher Education: the need for integration

ABSTRACT

Although computers have become common features of schools worldwide, their impact on education and learning has been far less than what could be expected from such a versatile and powerful technology. A significant deterrent has been teachers’ lack of skills and expertise with the new technologies but although computer education is increasingly becoming a significant component within teacher education programmes, this paper will argue that the direction and nature of the teaching and learning in many of these courses is counter‐productive and unable to provide the skills and expertise required from new teaching graduates. The paper posits that these skills can best be developed and achieved through instructional programmes in teacher education that mirror the models that student teachers will be required to embrace in their own classrooms. In order to achieve this, the IT component within teacher education must become an integral part of the programme.     

The Effects of an Environmental Education Program on Students,Parents, and Community

Abstract

This study evaluated the impact of an environmental education program on students, parents, and the community. The program, in place for 5 years in 5th and 6th grade classes, was designed to help learners take an in-depth look at environmental issues in their community, make data-based decisions about those issues, and participate in resolving those issues. Qualitative and quantitative methodologies were employed (including student, parent, school personnel, and community member interviews). The authors discuss program connections to students' critical thinking, environmental literacy, and participation in the community; reading, writing, and speaking skills; student and teacher characteristics; and parent and community viewpoints.     

Teacher Agency in South African Education Policy Related to School Safety

Abstract

Safety in and around schools is an on-going concern in South Africa. Current education policy related to school safety institutes mechanisms to reduce violence as a measure of promoting safety. The highest rate of violence reported by learners occurs in the classroom. By implication, how teachers are either enabled or constrained to respond to violent incidents in classrooms is critical. With the aim to determine how education policy related to school safety either enables or constrains teacher agency in South African education policy related to school safety, the article reports on a study that examined the mechanisms of the National School Safety Framework (NSSF) together with the context at schools. The study found that the NSSF mechanisms and school context find little enabling teacher agentic action, where learning is concerned. Although the NSSF mechanisms require teachers to perform many roles as measures of reducing violence to promote school safety, none involve pedagogic strategies or techniques. Given that teachers’ greatest challenge in the context of violence is the disruption of teaching and learning, the NSSF mechanisms are inadequate as an education policy related to school safety within the current context of insecurity in South African schools.     

Markets,Ideologies and Primary Initial Teacher Education

ABSTRACT

The British government's proposals for the reform of primary initial teacher education (ITE), including the transfer of major responsibility to schools, are examined in the context of their plans for more centralised control over the curriculum and the imposition of traditional methods of teaching. A model of appropriate objectives for school‐based primary ITE is outlined and an alternative concept of partnership based on co‐operation between higher education institutions and schools put forward. Implications of the reforms for primary schools are considered. In an attempt to make sense of the government's proposals, the apparent contradiction between its commitment to an educational market and the actual concentration of power in its own hands is explored. The reforms are shown to be part of a sustained attack on education professionals, and to illustrate how market relations may be used to promote the dominance of the central state by fragmenting opposition.     

Applied Theater and Mixed-Status Families: A Collaborative Self-Study with Teacher Education Candidates

ABSTRACT

In this article, we narrate a self-study that emerged through a collaborative, arts-based inquiry around Latinx diversity, especially those arising from citizenship status at the individual and family level. Coming from distinct professional educational landscapes (theatre/drama education, middle/secondary education, and elementary education), we worked inter-disciplinarily to orchestrate a series of workshops for a cohort of elementary teacher education candidates. Our specific focus was rooted in the meanings that applied theatre teaching strategies suggested for us as teacher educators and for the teacher candidates we prepare to teach in schools. We also sought implications that might cultivate broader critical discourses within and across teacher education about diversity. Our blending of self-study with arts-based pedagogies was a purposeful effort to expand our students’ and our own professional subjectivities by disrupting xenophobic and racialized public discourse about national borders using play-based strategies to foster risk and generativity.     

Preparing Preservice Teachers for Life in Schools: The Role of Doctoral Education

ABSTRACT

Physical education teachers face considerable sociopolitical challenges that can impede quality instruction and complicate recruitment into the profession. Physical education teacher education faculty members may not be prepared to address these challenges during their doctoral education. Accordingly, the purpose of the paper was to utilize the lessons learned from occupational socialization research to propose competencies that can be integrated into doctoral education to help future faculty members integrate sociopolitical learning into physical education teacher education. These include: (a) understanding socialization literature and the implications for teacher education, (b) helping doctoral students understand their own prior socialization experiences, (c) recruiting highly qualified preservice teachers, (d) helping preservice teachers question their subjective theories, (e) developing and coordinating field experiences, and (f) preparing preservice teachers for the sociopolitical realities of schools. These competencies align with the proposed addition of a new standard for initial teacher education that addresses sociopolitical learning.     

Book Reviews

Abstract

Educators have invested considerable effort in developing environmental education programs that address students' knowledge, attitudes, and action competence regarding environmental issues. The authors explore the effectiveness of such programs in terms of both student learning outcomes and the intergenerational influence that results when students discuss their learning experiences with their parents and other community members. Six environmental education programs involving 284 students in Queensland schools, from Grades 5-12, were investigated. Students and their parents were surveyed and interviewed regarding their perceptions about the program, the program's influence on their environmental learning, and the extent and nature of discussions that the program stimulated between students and their parents. The authors draw conclusions about key features that should be incorporated into environmental education programs to encourage and empower students to bring about environmental change in their homes and communities.     

Teacher Authority in Schools: A case study from Finland

This paper discusses the nature of teacher authority in Finnish schools. Current trends in Finnish teacher education are presented with an emphasis on the high academic status of teachers. The empirical findings examine moral dilemmas in schools as identified by teachers and students. The methods of the study include interviews and essays. The analysis of the data reveals that the most problematic conflicts in schools are related to teacher-given punishment. The teachers have failed in practising their deontic authority. Teachers' behaviour has included manipulative means to control life in the classroom. The results of the study indicate that moral dilemmas in schools and the nature of teacher authority in solving these conflicts should be addressed more in pre-service teacher education.     

Nature Center Purposes and Values

Abstract

Using the experiences and perspectives of practicing environmental educators, the author identified the elements that contribute most to effective environmental education. First, interviews were conducted with 18 experienced environmental educators from 11 states. Factors that appeared fundamental to the teachers' successes were assembled into an initial elements-of-success framework, consisting of 42 elements arranged in 3 categories: teaching conditions, teacher competencies, and teaching practices. The framework was then sent in survey form to environmental educators across the country. The survey yielded strong and consistent confirmation that environmental educators across the country believe the framework provides a valid and useful representation of the major elements that contribute to successful environmental education.     

New Forms of Partnership Between Schools and Teacher Education Institutes in The Netherlands

Teacher educators are not satisfied with their relations with the schools. In Holland, student teachers go to schools for their teaching practice and obtain the topics of their research projects from their practical experiences. Cooperating teachers are trained to supervise the student teachers during their practice periods. In this paper three attempts to improve the relationship between schools and teacher education institutes are described, analysed and the advantages given for the different partners (student teachers, teacher education, schools). The conclusion is that for the professional development of prospective teachers well organised and complete partnerships between schools and teacher education institutes are crucial.