Empowering Students to Act: Learning About, Through and From the Nature of Action

Abstract

Empowering students to act in an environmentally responsible manner is being increasingly touted as a central goal of formal environmental education. Acting in a responsible manner requires the development of environmental knowledge as well as positive attitudes and values towards the environment along with other attributes. While some guidance about how to plan and teach environmental education is available in curriculum and policy documents, teachers are often either unfamiliar with such documents and/or unaware of the theories and pedagogy of environmental education (Cutter-Mackenzie & Smith, 2003; Eames, Cowie, & Bolstad, 2008). This paper offers a definition of environmentally responsible behaviour and identifies the role that knowledge could play when environmentally responsible action is taken by students that could be useful for teachers.Three different lenses are used to examine the knowledge developed by 11-12 year old students and their subsequent actions during engagement in an environmental education programme (n=22). The lenses consist of a cluster of types of knowledge developed by Jensen (2002), a framework for analysing understandings of sustainability and the type of actions taken (Jensen & Schnack, 1997; Kollmuss & Agyeman, 2002).The results suggest that these students developed different types of knowledge that informed the actions taken and that their actions can be categorised as action competence. It is also suggested that these types of knowledge need to be taught explicitly. A three part model is then proposed that could assist students to learn about the nature of action, enabling them to work towards potential solutions for complex environmental issues.

Knowledge, Perceptions and Attitudes on Education for Sustainable Development of Pre-Service Early Childhood Teachers in Greece

“…In the of the UNESCO (2002) report on the lessons learnt about the contribution of ESD over the decade between the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in 1992 and the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) the quote from the Earth Summit in Rio de Janiero in 1992 is reminded, that educators around the world must reorient education 'to once again reflect such a vision of sustainability, one that links economic well-being with cultural traditions and respect for Earth and its resources'. The pre-service teachers could be aware that teachers need to contribute in order to facilitate students to gain knowledge, positive attitudes and appropriate skills (Birdsall, 2010) and to face the major problems of our time.…”

Understanding the Challenges of Science Education in the 21^st Century: New Opportunities for Scientific Literacy

“…This 3-phase approach advocated by Hodson as part of an action-oriented and issuesbased science curriculum takes into consideration the participatory pedagogy of Barrett [5] and the empowerment approach of Birdsall [12] as student-focused instructional approaches to promoting science literacy. Scientific literacy is not only a response to need for improvement in general human conditions and situations, but is highly needed to respond appropriately to nature's furies and to the many problems and challenges that emerge from our actions and behaviors.…”

Using Social Media to Reinforce Environmental Learning and Action Taking for School Students

“…That is, knowledge and experiences are a necessary precondition for motivation to act for the environment, but without reflection, commitment and skills to act (Jensen & Schnack, 1997), action on the basis of a brief educational experience may not occur (Storksdieck, Ellenbogen, & Heimlich, 2005). As action-taking for the environment is a key goal for environmental education (Birdsall, 2010), this is a cause for concern. The aim is for students to take action as a means to develop action competence, not simply to take action for action's sake (Jensen & Schnack, 1997).…”