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1.
Creativity, innovation and divergent thinking are routinely expected to help people envision and implement alternative practices to the status quo. However, these do not feature strongly in the literature on education for sustainability in higher education (HE), and especially graduate competencies or capabilities for sustainability. The paper makes the case for the importance of creativity in education for sustainability (EfS), and argues that innovation is at the heart of moving societies towards more sustainable paths. In other words, creativity is an essential part of learning for sustainability. A critical perspective is offered, by highlighting the effects of the theoretical roots of sustainability and environmental education in the ecological sciences, the traditional and still dominant construction of learning and teaching in HE and EfS, and the challenges and rewards that supporting creativity presents for learners and teachers in this field.  相似文献   

2.
Education for sustainability (EfS) is emerging as an urgent imperative and challenge for higher education. But what exactly does it mean to put sustainability into higher education? How do we bring sustainability themes into university curriculum, across the enormous diversity of academic disciplines? This paper describes the experience of teaching a large ‘stand‐alone’ EfS subject which sits within the professional contexts of the large first‐year cohort undertaking it. We describe the themes, architecture and approach to sustainability education taken in this course and evaluate the learning and assessment activities offered to students. We conclude with reflections on the student experience and feedback, which suggests that while academics build towards a deeply embedded sustainability ethic in higher education, specialist parallel courses have a valuable role to play in the transition to sustainable futures.  相似文献   

3.
The education for sustainability (EfS) literature espouses participatory, praxis-orientated, place-based and holistic approaches to teaching and learning. The introduction of a first-year EfS unit for pre-service teachers at James Cook University provided an opportunity to explore their attitudes toward EfS and their perceptions of the relevant aspects of the unit to their learning. In this mixed-methods study, pre-service teachers (N = 100) completed a Likert-style survey at the beginning and end of the unit that examined their attitudes toward EfS. Three pre-service teachers were also interviewed to explore further their perceptions and experiences, one semester after completing the unit. Significant improvements were found in pre-service teachers’ EfS self-efficacy, and familiarity with and interest in sustainability issues. Participants also perceived EfS to be relevant to their learning, particularly the praxis-orientated pedagogies in which they engaged, as they believed it developed their knowledge, skills and confidence to teach sustainability in schools. For one pre-service teacher, her experiences of EfS during her practicum enhanced its relevance, as she was able to link theory and practice. The implications of these findings for both teacher education and pedagogical practice for EfS in higher education are also discussed.  相似文献   

4.
This study focuses on the impact of a sustainability leadership development program (SLDP) designed to develop staff members as leaders who encourage sustainability practices within institutions of higher education (IHE). Using the framework of community of practice (CoP), we explored the program’s contribution by interviewing 16 staff members who had attended the program. At the individual level, we found that the SLDP provided participants with opportunities to learn from and with other members of the CoP and to engage them in debate about the various meanings of ‘sustainability’, increasing their environmental awareness and their environmental involvement within the IHE’s community. At the institutional level, the SLDP disseminated the college’s socio-environmental mission statement, increased its administration’s commitment and involvement, served as a platform for addressing local socio-environmental problems and initiated an Education-for-Sustainability (EfS) activists’ network. However, the participants indicated that the SLDP had limited impact on the environmentalism of other staff members and that the on-going mentoring and support from the college administration was insufficient. This study highlights the importance of such EfS professional programs to the development of both staff members and entire institutions as sustainability leaders. It also suggests ways to increase staff involvement in institutional EfS discourse.  相似文献   

5.
In recent times, Australia has recognised and enacted a range of initiatives at service, system and community levels that seek to embed sustainability into the early childhood sector. This paper explores the impact of a professional development (PD) session that provided opportunities for early childhood educators to learn and share ideas about the theory and practice of sustainability generally and early childhood education for sustainability (ECEfS) specifically. The PD was entitled ‘Living and Learning about Sustainability in the Early Years’ and was offered on three occasions across Tasmania. A total of 99 participants attended the three PD sessions (one 5 hour; two 2 hour). The participants had varying levels of experience and included early childhood teachers, centre based educators and preservice teachers. At the start and end of the PD, participants were invited to complete a questionnaire that contained a series of likert scale questions that explored their content knowledge, level of understanding and confidence in regards to ECEfS. Participants were also asked at the start and end of the PD to ‘list five words you think of when you consider the word sustainability.’ A model of teacher professional growth was used to conceptualise the results related to the changes in knowledge, understanding and confidence (personal domain) as a result of the PD related to ECEfS (external domain). The likert-scale questions on the questionnaire revealed significant positive changes in levels of knowledge, understanding and confidence from the start to the end of the PD. Differences as a function of length of PD, level of experience and role are presented and discussed. The ‘5 words’ question showed that participants widened their understandings of ECEfS from a narrow environmental focus to a broader understanding of the social, political and economic dimensions. The early childhood education and care (ECEC) sector has been characterised as having a pedagogical advantage for EfS suggesting that early childhood educators are well placed to engage with EfS more readily than might educators in other education sectors. This article argues that PD is necessary to develop capability in educators in order to meet the imperatives around sustainability outlined in educational policy and curriculum documents in ECEC.  相似文献   

6.
This paper reports some findings from an investigation of educational practice in ten (formal and informal) education for sustainability (EfS) initiatives, to characterise exemplary practice in school and community education for sustainability, considered crucial to Australia’s future. The study focused on rural/regional Australia, specifically New South Wales sites in the Murray-Darling Basin (crucial to Australian agricultural economy, under substantial environmental threat, undergoing significant social and demographic change). The research used and explored new developments in practice theory, aiming to achieve innovative rich characterisations of individual and extra-individual (cultural, discursive, social, material) aspects of practice. The study aimed to derive implications for theory, policy and practice in relation to sustainability and EfS, practice theory, education, and more specifically education for the professions (including the initial education and continuing professional development of educators).  相似文献   

7.
This article explores the potential for developing education for sustainability (EfS) through biodiversity planning in the UK. The current status of education within local biodiversity action plans (LBAPs) is evaluated using the findings of a UK-wide survey of action plans conducted in April 1999. Links between environmental education, EfS and biodiversity education are identified and international and national statements of policy are referred to. The conclusions drawn from this article are that biodiversity practitioners have the tools to deliver EfS through implementation of LBAPs—the concept allowing close links to Local Agenda 21, formal education, business and industry and the community at large. Currently there is a disparity between what is said and what is done, i.e. education is recognised as an important element of biodiversity planning but policy is not always included to encourage practical action. Practitioners should be wary of simply 'rebranding' environmental education as EfS for the complexity of the sustainability issue requires a new and innovative approach to involving individuals and organisations alike.  相似文献   

8.
9.
This paper presents an evidence-based model (the I3E model) for embedding education for sustainability (EfS) within a higher education institution. This model emerged from a doctoral research that examined organisational learning and change processes at the University of Southampton to build EfS into the university curriculum. The researcher aimed to learn from real practice through acting as a facilitator for curriculum development in EfS within an interdisciplinary group of academic staff members. A critical friend position was also acquired within a community of practice to implement a programme which attempted to embed sustainability within the student experience. The I3E model identifies four overarching components that can support universities in their aim to embed EfS within the undergraduate curriculum. These integrated components are: Inform the university community about sustainability; Engage the different university stakeholders in the change process towards sustainability; Empower individuals and groups to make change happen within their sphere of influence and action; and Embed sustainability within existing university structures.  相似文献   

10.
In order to teach about sustainability, teachers need to be able to translate their personal understanding of this concept into their pedagogy in ways that make it accessible to their learners. This translation process is known as pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). This study investigated the way that two teachers translated their understanding of sustainability into their pedagogy and the effects of this translation on children’s learning (n?=?18). Two interpretive case studies were constructed. Data were generated using interviews and documents. Two frameworks were used to analyse the data. One was a definition of sustainability and the other a model of PCK expressed as pedagogical context knowledge (PCxK) that consisted of four components. The findings showed that the translation of sustainability was a complex interaction of three of the PCxK components with some use of the fourth. Some children developed an understanding of sustainability but only two were able to link their understanding with the scientific concepts taught resulting in ‘diffused learning’. Also, these findings suggest that while the PCxK model used to analyse the translation process had a degree of precision and heuristic power, further refinement is needed in order for this model to explicate teachers’ PCK.  相似文献   

11.
Teachers are major players in the development of future citizens who have the knowledge, understanding, skills, values and dispositions to respond to existential threats such as climate change, land degradation, sea level rise and population growth. Yet, this type of education, often captured under the name of Education for Sustainability (EfS), is often rejected by teacher educators and, thereby, mostly not included in the education of future teachers. This paper draws on learning from a long-term collaborative project to argue for the promotion of EfS in teacher education and to offer a set of propositions or strategies for doing so. The paper will interest academics and researchers within and beyond teacher education who are interested in change towards sustainability through education.  相似文献   

12.
Existing comparative studies between peer and teacher feedback in English writing classes have predominantly used frequency measures of peer and teacher feedback in learners’ revisions to suggest their relative values for developing learners’ writing proficiency. However, learners do not necessarily understand the feedback that is used in their redrafts.This study distinguished learners’ use from their understanding of peer and teacher feedback. Eighteen Chinese university English learners participated in the study for sixteen weeks. Three research methods were adopted: (a) content analyses of learners’ use of feedback, (b) stimulated recall interviews on learners’ understanding of feedback, and (c) interviews on the factors that affected learners’ responses to feedback.The findings suggested that the learners used more teacher than peer feedback in their redrafts. However, interviews with these learners revealed that they used a larger percentage of teacher feedback than peer feedback without understanding its significance or value. Student interviews uncovered learners’ passive acceptance of teacher feedback and the facilitative role of first language use in peer interaction.This study suggests that learners’ understanding of feedback should be taken as at least an equally important factor as learners’ use of feedback in examining the relative value of peer and teacher feedback for developing learners’ writing proficiency.  相似文献   

13.
Understanding sustainability is important, as people need to cope with issues associated with over-population and over-consumption. Education is seen as a key strategy to assist with the development of people’s understandings of this complex concept, which could then lead to them being able to make more sustainable lifestyle decisions. In order to teach this concept, teachers need to understand sustainability. This paper investigated 77 New Zealand student teachers’ understandings of sustainability and the level of self-awareness of their understandings. A definition of sustainability was developed for this research from which two tools were constructed to measure these teachers’ level of understanding and self-awareness. Findings showed that many of these student teachers had simplistic understandings of sustainability that were focused on an environmental component. Further evidence of their low level of understanding was illustrated in the way that over half of this group were not able to accurately rate their own level of understanding. These findings suggest a need for the development of teachers’ understandings of sustainability so that they can plan and teach effective sustainability education programmes.  相似文献   

14.
This article explores a pluralist understanding of learning for sustainability in educational theory and relates it to outdoor education practice. In brief, this kind of learning can be described as a deep engagement with an individual’s multiple identities and the personal location in diverse geo-physical and socio-cultural surroundings. I identify the intersection of learning for sustainability and pluralism in three themes: learning as transformation, learning as participation and learning about identities and spaces. The reflections on what kind of learning outdoor education could seek to promote potentially help the field to clarify its role as a sustainable education approach. A programme designed to be responsive to both sustainability and pluralism would enable learners to explore the multifacetedness of a location and provide space for them to share and exchange individual experiences, perceptions and worldviews.  相似文献   

15.
Future professionals will bear the brunt of creating sustainable societies. Equipping them for the task is the challenge of current educators. Educational experiences facilitating the development of sustainable habits of mind are needed. This research reports on the experiences of developing scientists and engineers engaged in a sustainable energy research program. Its focus is the learners’ changing conceptions about sustainability and their role in creating sustainable societies. It is an exploratory, multi-strand, case-oriented study, utilizing mixed methods to analyze qualitative and quantitative data. The research was grounded in the literature of education for sustainability and situated learning in communities, highlighting the common threads supporting the development of a new generation of scientists and engineers with sustainable mindsets. Findings indicated learners’ concepts of sustainability were broadened from narrow, discipline-specific definitions to an understanding of sustainability as a multidisciplinary field. Learners’ developing identities from budding scientists and engineers to citizens invested in and capable of creating sustainable societies is discussed. The development of learning communities was an integral mechanism for facilitating perspective changes; however, field trips and seminars focused on exploring sustainability were identified as key influences in developing multifaceted and more complex conceptions of sustainability.  相似文献   

16.
This paper views the concept of natural capital from an economist’s perspective. It begins by drawing on historical debates in economics on the nature of capital. These serve to identify central issues to do with the relationship between theory, empirics and method in the way in which the concept of capital is deployed in economic discourse. It is suggested that these have resonance for current discussions of the concept of natural capital. Against this background, the paper then discusses the way in which natural capital figures in the analysis of sustainability, and pinpoints various incoherencies. Finally, it draws on recent analyses of technical innovation as a possible solution to the problem of sustainability. It is suggested that there may be a conflict between narrow path‐dependent solutions to the alleged problem, and more open learning‐based approaches. The latter are exemplified by building on and reinterpreting the environmental economist’s concept of a quasi‐option.  相似文献   

17.
In relation to teaching and learning approaches that improve student learning outcomes, threshold concepts have generated substantial interest in higher education. They have been described as ‘portals’ that lead to a transformed way of understanding or thinking, enabling learners to progress, and have been enthusiastically adopted to inform teaching approaches and curriculum design. A growing body of literature has critiqued the relevance and applicability of the threshold concept theory and identified threshold concepts relevant to specific disciplines. More recent research has identified how students cross these thresholds and provided measures of the successful acquisition of threshold concepts. This literature synthesis critiques existing evidence on threshold crossing and acquisition to provide a succinct and informative overview of the outcomes to date. Key questions relevant to educators and researchers investigating whether students acquire the threshold concepts associated with their teaching, arose from the literature synthesis. These were: whether or not threshold crossing can be measured; how variation in student learning can be addressed during measurement; tools that can be used for measuring threshold crossing; whether the way units or concepts are taught should alter prior to measurement, and the challenges and limitations of measuring threshold crossing.  相似文献   

18.
Understanding students’ conceptions of sustainability   总被引:2,自引:2,他引:0  
There has recently been significant emphasis placed on environmental education through, for example, the UN’s Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. Despite this, there is still considerable debate within the literature as to how the aims of environmental education can be achieved within schools. It seems likely that if there is a lack of agreement as to what education for sustainable development should include, then this will impact students’ understanding of sustainable development. This paper presents findings from research investigating how one class of 12‐ to 13‐year‐old geography students in the UK understands the concept of sustainability. The research used concept‐mapping and semi‐structured interviews to explore the students’ understandings of sustainability, within a case study framework. The substantive findings of this research suggest that there is a wide variety of understanding of sustainability among the students, but that generally they allude to three: the nature, purpose and timescale of sustainability. The paper also considers the impact of method on researching students’ subject understandings, in particular the use of context when considering abstract concepts, such as sustainability, and the different results obtained when conducting interviews versus concept maps.  相似文献   

19.
In this study, we discuss findings from a small-scale project evaluating an in-service teacher training programme focused on ‘perspective transformation’ in early childhood education and education for sustainability (EfS). A bespoke professional development programme was developed for Turkish early childhood teachers, based on a variety of Mezirowian-inspired adult education activities. Data were gathered using a mixed method research design, from 24 early childhood educators, through learning diaries, a Learning Activities Survey and follow-up interviews. Initial findings illustrate the range of transformations possible in the teachers’ perspectives during and after the training workshops. Influential factors in facilitating perspective transformation are shown to be the content, structure and sequencing of the training, and peer support. We conclude that transformative learning techniques offer a viable framework for engaging practicing early childhood teachers with EfS and also discuss implications for teacher preparation in both areas.  相似文献   

20.
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