Meaningful Encounters with the Built Environment as the Basis for Urban Environmental Education

Abstract

As the majority of people in the world now live in cities, it makes sense to question the state of urban environmental education and how it could be developed going forward. In this article, we suggest a way forward based on the essays written by Finnish university students. The students reflected on their relationship with an environment that is meaningful to them. In the essays selected for this case study (n = 25), the built environment of Helsinki—the capital of Finland—and its characteristics are in focus. In this qualitative research, inductive content analysis was used for processing the essays. Many students described the connections between urban nature and built environments, but the results also show that the built environment is especially significant because of its social and cultural aspects. Students described the importance of social bonding and how meeting different sorts of people supports their acceptance of diverse perspectives. Personal experiences and meanings attached to the city, as well as their lack, were mentioned; that is, without these personal bonds, meaningful relations to urban environments cannot be developed. Architecture, aesthetics, and soundscapes were also mentioned. In addition, it was expressed that feeling safe in the built environment is important. In urban environmental education, it is therefore important to pay attention to the social and cultural aspects, too, and not just to the ecological dimension. It is crucial that children and young people have access to the city in order to construct their personal relationships with the built environment.

Development of Social and Environmental Competences of Teachers in Training Using Sound and Visual Landscape

“…They thus had to deal with problems in the real world by collecting and interpreting data and reflecting on the evidence to reach conclusions, develop curiosity, and to ask themselves further questions, as suggested in the studies by Minocha et al [62], and Pederson and Irby [25]. Thus, critical thinking is stimulated and people are prepared to participate effectively and constructively in social life through reflection, real-world problem solving, and emotional management [63]. Moreover, participants positively valued the usefulness of the sound and visual landscape for the development of social and environmental teaching competences [64], highlighting that it promotes the approach to nature and environmental commitment [16,58].…”

“…The relationship between sounds and health is shown by the emotions perceived when experiencing the soundscape, showing the importance of using the acoustic environment as an educational resource for health and environmental education, as it focuses on the associated problems and acoustic contamination. The problems of acoustic contamination are analyzed from the perspective of urban environmental education; therefore, it is important to pay attention also to the social and cultural aspects, and not only to the ecological dimension [63]. The experience showed that the listening technique can be used as a teaching resource in interpreting the soundscape and that a type of "ear-cleaning" is required to improve our hearing capacity and discriminate clearly between the different elements as a technique that helps us to understand the sounds in the environment and their components.…”

Preliminary Study of Ethno-Social Learning Advancement to Enhance the Value of Pancasila Student Profiles

“…Students can interact with one another in the social environment. An environment that is very close to students is a part of the social environment [16]. As a result, making use of the social environment can be an alternative learning strategy that fits the needs of elementary school students.…”