Education for sustainable development (ESD): the turn away from ‘environment’ in environmental education?

This article explores the implications of the shift of environmental education (EE) towards education for sustainable development (ESD) in the context of environmental ethics. While plural perspectives on ESD are encouraged both by practitioners and researchers of EE, there is also a danger that such pluralism may sustain dominant political ideologies and consolidated corporate power that obscure environmental concerns. Encouraging plural interpretations of ESD may in fact lead ecologically ill-informed teachers and students acculturated by the dominant neo-liberal ideology to underprivilege ecocentric perspective. It is argued that ESD, with its focus on human welfare, equality, rights and fair distribution of resources is a radical departure from the aim of EE set out by the Belgrade Charter as well as a distinct turn towards anthropocentrically biased education. This article has two aims: to demonstrate the importance of environmental ethics for EE in general and ESD in particular and to argue in favour of a return to instrumentalism, based on the twinned assumptions that the environmental problems are severe and that education of ecologically minded students could help their resolution.     

Effects of creating digital stories on foreign language education pre-service teachers’ TPACK self-confidence

This study aimed to examine the effects of creating digital stories (DSs) on the self-confidence of foreign language education (FLE) pre-service teachers with regard to technological, pedagogical and content knowledge (TPACK). A one-group pretest/posttest experimental research design was applied, supported by a qualitative approach. A total of 71 FLE pre-service teachers created DSs on a topic from the national foreign language programme. Data were collected through a self-confidence TPACK scale, demographic questionnaire, open-ended question and observations. Results showed positive significant differences between TPACK self-confidence scores before and after DS creation. Specifically, scores on technological pedagogical knowledge and technological knowledge improved significantly. The mean scores of technological content knowledge also improved, but the change was not significant. Moreover, qualitative data showed that FLE pre-service teachers used TPACK-relevant adjectives to describe their DSs as instructive, consistent with aims, appropriate for target students, thought provoking and creative.     

Students’ socio-scientific reasoning on controversies from the viewpoint of education for sustainable development

In this article, we study third-year university students’ reasoning about three controversial socio-scientific issues from the viewpoint of education for sustainable development: local issues (the reintroduction of bears in the Pyrenees in France, wolves in the Mercantour) and a global one (global warming). We used the theoretical frameworks of social representations and of socio-scientific reasoning. Students’ reasoning varies according to the issues, in particular because of their emotional proximity with the issues and their socio-cultural origin. About this kind of issues, it seems pertinent to integrate into the operations of socio-scientific reasoning not only the consideration of values, but also the analysis of the modes of governance and the place given to politics.

Investigating the impact of TPACK development course on pre-service science teachers’ performances

Asia Pacific Education Review - The aim of this study is to investigate the Technology Pedagogy and Content Knowledge (TPACK) development of pre-service science teachers (PSTs) who participated in...     

Teachers’ objects of responsibility: something to care about in education for sustainable development?

Answers to questions about good teaching in environmental education can be expressed in different selective traditions. Questions as to what should be included in good teaching tend to be addressed by both teachers and researchers on an ideological basis. This qualitative study uses a pragmatist approach, and aims to make an empirical contribution to the debate. Rather than telling teachers what they should teach, this interview study involved listening to ten upper secondary school teachers in Sweden, and their arguments concerning their long‐term teaching purposes. Why should students learn particular things? The teachers’ answers revealed habits and frequently used the same arguments. These arguments recurrently dealt with what teachers particularly cared about, and five objects of responsibility were identified in the interviews. These objects of responsibility constitute the starting points of teachers’ actions and can be seen as personal anchor points within a selective tradition. These points of departure remind the teachers of their teaching aims and objectives, and at the same time, keep them within a tradition. While they help the teachers in their everyday practice, they could just as easily be seen as tacit obstacles to efforts to change environmental education into Education for Sustainable Development. The results are also relevant for science education in general. Issues identified in the study include how the same scientific knowledge could be used for different purposes in education, and the different personal anchor points for long‐term purposes of teaching based on teachers’ own ideas of good teaching. These results can be important in developing a reflection tool for teachers, which in turn can help them to reflect more deeply about how they might change their teaching practices.     

Prospective Turkish primary teachers’ views about the use of computers in mathematics education

The use of computers and technology in mathematics education affects students’ learning, achievements, and affective dimensions. This study explores prospective Turkish primary mathematics teachers’ views about the use of computers in mathematics education. The sample comprised of 129 fourth-year prospective primary mathematics teachers from two different universities in Turkey. Data consisting of participants’ written responses were qualitatively analyzed and categorized according to TPACK. Results show that the prospective teachers’ views about computers and their use in mathematics are usually positive. They enjoy working with computers, even though they are only able to perform relatively minor calculations with computers. They stated that improved use of computers can help them to learn and teach mathematics more effectively. However, they did not feel confident about their ability to teach mathematics using computers.     

An intensive programme on education for sustainable development: the participants’ experience

This paper presents the framework of an intensive programme (IP) organised by UNESCO and addressed to young graduate professionals to prepare them for a career in fields related to sustainability. The aims of the IP were to address participants’ environmental awareness and to develop attitudes and skills related to environmental planning and management. This paper focuses on the methodological aspects of the educational activities and on the setting in which the activities were delivered. Teaching methods based on a learner-centred approach were used in the training. During the activities, 17 participants were provided the opportunity to experience various aspects of environmental integration and sustainability principles in key sectors of planning procedures in the Lonjsko Polje Nature Park (Croatia). The activities were evaluated using quantitative and qualitative tools such as the environmental education questionnaire, the training quality and involvement questionnaire and two focus groups with participants. The results showed the relevance of the setting and the methods applied to develop environmental awareness and skills related to managing sustainability issues. Implications for future research about educational programmes based on the development of sustainability principles are discussed.     

Can telecollaboration contribute to the TPACK development of pre-service teachers?

This study examines the suitability of telecollaboration practices to enhance ICT integration in Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL)-based units by analysing the number and type of episodes related to students’ technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) produced in a telecollaboration whose aim was the design of a technology-enhanced CLIL unit. Results revealed a high number of episodes focusing on the domains and intersections of the TPACK framework, that pedagogical content knowledge was the main focus of attention and prompted most of the suggestions for change in the unit and that telecollaboration promoted collaboration and made participation more equal. Consequently, telecollaboration showed a great potential for directing students’ attention to their TPACK even though the scarcity of episodes focusing on the TPACK intersection also indicated there is ample room for more teacher training efforts to prepare pre-service teachers for technology integration.     

Science teachers’ conceptions of teaching: Implications for teacher education

An analysis of recent science education research on student conceptions of natural phenomena, on science teaching and on science teacher planning carries implications for science teacher education. This suggests that the development of appropriate conceptions of teaching should be an important goal of science teacher education. Drawing the analogy between conceptions of natural phenomena and conceptions of teaching suggests guidelines for designing instruction in science teacher education courses. The importance of these guidelines is enhanced because teachers are likely to hold conceptions of teaching which are in conflict with those considered appropriate.

Activities in science teacher education which have attempted to identify and influence conceptions of science teaching are described and analysed. While these activities must be regarded as preliminary, they point to a powerful approach to thinking about the education of science teachers.     

Socialization content in schools and education for sustainable development – II. A study of students’ apprehension of teachers’ companion meanings in ESD

Subject content is always studied within an educational context. This context is constituted by the socialization content, which can be regarded as an educational content beyond the subject content. This is the third article of three studies (this article; Sund and Wickman 2011; Sund 2008) that together form a triangulation of possible socialization content of environmental education. A common purpose for these three combined studies is to embrace and visualize the important value-laden content, which is often forgotten in discussions about the development of education for sustainable development. It is not sufficient to merely integrate more subject content matter – it may also be necessary to adapt to a changed teaching approach, which also develops content in the teaching process. Teachers’ changed approaches convey qualitatively different clusters of ‘meta-messages’ to students. The first study from authors in 2008 developed an analytical tool consisting of five important educational aspects and the second, also published in Environmental Education Research used the aspects to study teachers’ socialization content expressed in the interviews. The present study examines whether the qualitative differences in upper secondary teachers’ communicated socialization content in three selective traditions are apprehended by their students.     

Student teachers’ perceptions of reading and the teaching of reading: the implications for teacher education

This article reports on research which identified perceptions of reading and the teaching of reading held by trainee teachers and the impact on my provision as a teacher educator. It found that students’ past and present experiences of learning to read and being a reader influenced their perceptions of what reading is and of what it means to teach reading. As a teacher educator, I am not able to give students long experience of seeing children becoming readers, but I am able to give them richer experiences of reading in personally and culturally relevant contexts. This has implications for the nature of subject knowledge required by a student teacher of reading and the curriculum and practice of teacher education.     

Changing pre-service mathematics teachers’ beliefs about using computers for teaching and learning mathematics: the effect of three different models

This study examines the effect of three different computer integration models on pre-service mathematics teachers’ beliefs about using computers in mathematics education. Participants included 104 pre-service mathematics teachers (36 second-year students in the Computer Oriented Model group, 35 fourth-year students in the Integrated Model (IM) group and 33 fifth-year students in the Exploring Mathematical Relationships with Mathematical Software (EMReMaS) group. The results indicated a remarkable change in beliefs within the EMReMaS and IM groups concerning computer use in teaching and learning mathematics. The present study offers empirical evidence that the pre-service mathematics teachers’ experiences in computer-based mathematics courses played a significant role in this change. Teacher education programmes should consider this learning method for pre-service teachers.     

From environment to sustainable development: China’s strategies for ESD in basic education

This paper intends to provide an overview of the reorientation of education in China in the period 1998–2009 with regard to development issues. During this time, the focus has shifted gradually from the environment and health to education for sustainable development. The article centres on highlighting the main interventions and strategies adopted by China’s schools to make this reorientation possible, including: the introduction of new visions of sustainable development and project planning; the establishment of organisational mechanisms and capacity-building measures for their implementation in the field; the integration of ESD into teaching and learning processes; the maintenance of an action-research mechanism for innovations; and the sharing of lessons with both the national and the international community in order to make the implementation of ESD more effective.     

Examining the impact of educational technology courses on pre-service teachers’ development of technological pedagogical content knowledge

The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the impact of educational technology courses on pre-service teachers’ development of knowledge of technology integration in a teacher preparation program in the USA. The present study was conducted with eight pre-service teachers enrolled in the elementary teacher education program at a large university in the mid-western USA. Data sources included interviews, documents, and observations. The findings identified knowledge of technology integration the pre-service teachers developed and identified knowledge of technology integration needed in the technology integration courses. The present study provided a number of suggestions on different activities that could be built into educational technology courses to better prepare pre-service teachers to teach with technology.     

Talking about education: exploring the significance of teachers’ talk for teacher agency

Abstract

The interest in teachers’ discourses and vocabularies has for a long time been studied under the rubric of knowledge, most notably teachers’ professional knowledge. This interest can be traced back to Shulman’s distinction between different kinds of teacher knowledge and Schwab’s interest in the role of practical reasoning and judgement in teaching. Within the research, a distinction can be found between a more narrow approach that focuses on teachers’ propositional or theoretical knowledge and a more encompassing approach in which teachers’ knowledge is not only the knowledge for teachers generated elsewhere, but also the knowledge of teachers. This is the ‘stock of knowledge’ gained from a range of sources and experiences, including teachers’ ongoing engagement with the practice of teaching itself. In this paper, we focus on the role of teachers’ talk in their achievement of agency. We explore how, in what way and to what extent such talk helps or hinders teachers in exerting control over and giving direction to their everyday practices, bearing in mind that such practices are not just the outcome of teachers’ judgements and actions, but are also shaped by the structures and cultures within which teachers work.     

Looking back on experienced teachers’ reflections: how did pre-service school practice support the development of self-efficacy?

This research focuses on experienced Estonian teachers’ pre-service school practice. Each one of the 19 teachers interviewed in this study had over 25?years of professional experience. We were interested in their recollections of their pre-service school practice and the impact that their experience had on them professionally. The results indicate the importance of support systems and a cooperative atmosphere in the school, both of which enable a beginning teacher’s self-efficacy. Despite the lack of explicit support structures from the 1960s to the 1980s, implicit support existed and played an important role in facilitating the development of student teachers’ self-efficacy.     

Course quality in higher education teacher training: What matters for pre-service physics teachers’ content knowledge development?

This study examines the impact of course quality on pre-service physics teachers’ content knowledge (CK) development. Teachers’ CK is one prerequisite to effective teaching. To support teachers in developing CK, the quality of higher education content courses plays a major role. Yet, models of course quality for higher education vary in their dimensions and it is hence not clear how course quality is best conceptualized. To address this issue, we analyzed data from N = 107 pre-service physics teachers’ CK over one year. We used confirmatory factor analysis to determine the number and nature of dimensions for course quality. Next, we used path models to investigate the impact on CK development. Our results show that a four-dimensional model described CK course quality best and that the cognitive support dimension in particular supports CK development. This highlights the importance of focusing on cognitive support for improving pre-service physics teachers’ CK development.     

Researchers’ positions and construction of curricula of education for sustainable development in France

The article sets the international context for the development of a curriculum of education for sustainable development and shows the directions being taken in the Francophone community. Building on a significant number of studies carried out in France, we constitute a typology of the positions of French-speaking researchers involved in those studies and contributing to the establishment of the national curriculum. This typology is constructed using a methodology based on the frequency of lexical occurrences in a bibliographic database, combined with a methodology of research on the social representations of the researchers of this community. We first present a broad comparison with the Anglo-Saxon sphere, we postulate that these positions influence the curriculum construction and raise the issue of the social responsibility of education science researchers in the face of international political demands.     

Student teachers’ conceptions of sustainable development: the starting-points of geographers and scientists

Postgraduate student teachers’ conceptions of sustainable development were elicited using a questionnaire completed by the entire cohort of geography (N = 21) and science (N = 40) students starting the University of Oxford Post Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) secondary course. Responses were analysed in three ways: (i) development of categories to capture features of sustainable development; (ii) scrutiny of individual responses for the presence or absence of key features (specifically environmental, economic and social factors); and (iii) in contrast to these grounded approaches, examination of the responses in light of a pre-specified framework. Notable findings were: (i) the large numbers recognizing the centrality of environmental (87%), economic (69%) and social (49%) factors—about a third highlighted all three factors (the geographers significantly more so than the scientists), while a further third mentioned two of them; (ii) when compared with the pre-specified framework, the aspects of sustainable development largely missing were to do with preservation of diversity, and with uncertainty and precaution in action; (iii) only one response contained an aesthetic element; and (iv) when comparing education for sustainable development with environmental education, the most frequent view identified the former as broader. The findings are related to contemporary literature in the field and some implications for PGCE learning are considered.