The integration of biodiversity education in the initial education of primary school teachers: four comparative case studies from Europe

Lindemann‐Matthies, Petra; Constantinou, Constantinos; Junge, Xenia; Köhler, Karlheinz; Mayer, Jürgen; Nagel, Ueli; Raper, George; Schüle, Diane; Kadji‐Beltran, Chrysanthi

doi:10.1080/13504620802613496

Cited by 59 publications

(46 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…Socio-economic, institutional or political aspects are rarely included cf. [43]. Indonesia strives to include environmental education in university curricula.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Knowledge of Indonesian University Students on the Sustainable Management of Natural Resources

et al. 2013

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Abstract:Graduates of university programs addressing sustainable resource management are likely to shape strategies for natural resource use in the future. Their academic training needs to foster student knowledge of the multiple dimensions of natural resource management. This paper investigates university student understanding of such challenges. We differentiated situational, conceptual, and procedural types of knowledge, and three domains of knowledge (ecological, socio-economic and institutional knowledge), and sampled beginners (third semester) and seniors (seventh semester) of seven natural resource related programs at the leading Indonesian institution of higher education in the field of natural resource management (IPB Bogor; n = 882). The questionnaire consisted of multiple choice and rating scale items covering ‗locally' relevant open-access resource use issues. With a confirmatory tau-equivalent LISREL model, construct validity was assessed. The ability to extract relevant information from problem descriptions provided (situational knowledge) did not differ between third and seventh semester students. While it was high for ecological and socio-economic items, it was markedly lower for institutional knowledge. Knowledge of relevant scientific concepts (conceptual knowledge) increased in OPEN ACCESSSustainability 2013, 5 1444 the ecological and socio-economic domains but the effect was small. Conceptual knowledge in the socio-economical and institutional domains tended to be lower than ecological knowledge. Although there was certain improvement, student judgments on the efficacy of resource management options (procedural knowledge) differed strongly from expert judgments for beginners as well as for senior students. We conclude that many of the university students in the sampled programs displayed substantial gaps in their capacity to solve complex, real-world natural resource management problems. Specifically, the socio-economic and institutional knowledge domains-and their integration with ecological knowledge-may require attention by educational planners.

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“…Socio-economic, institutional or political aspects are rarely included cf. [43]. Indonesia strives to include environmental education in university curricula.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Knowledge of Indonesian University Students on the Sustainable Management of Natural Resources

et al. 2013

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“…Although students do not understand the complexity of biodiversity, they do, according to another study [63], have positive attitudes towards it. Previous research emphasises the importance of the preparation of student teachers in biodiversity education [61,71]. Therefore, we find it important to analyse student teachers' understanding of biodiversity, what they include in the concept and how they describe the importance of biodiversity for sustainability.…”

Section: Biodiversity For Understanding Of Sustainabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Systems Thinking for Understanding Sustainability? Nordic Student Teachers’ Views on the Relationship between Species Identification, Biodiversity and Sustainable Development

et al. 2017

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Sustainability is a complex concept including ecological, economic and social dimensions, which in turn involve several aspects that are interrelated in a complex way, such as cultural, health and political aspects. Systems thinking, which focuses on a system's interrelated parts, could therefore help people understand the complexity of sustainability. The aim of this study is to analyse student teachers' level of systems thinking regarding sustainability, especially the ecological dimension, and how they explain the relationship between species identification, biodiversity and sustainability. Nordic student teachers (N = 424) participated in a questionnaire and their open answers were content-analysed and categorised. The results indicate the student teachers' low level of systems thinking regarding ecological sustainability. About a quarter of them (25.4%) had a basic level including interconnections (13.7%), additional feedback (8.9%) and also behavioural aspects (2.8%), but none of them reached an intermediate or advanced level. The low level of systems thinking could be explained by two main factors: (1) Systems thinking has not been used as an educational method of developing understanding of sustainability in teacher education programmes; and (2) systems thinking is also a result of life experiences; the older ones showing more systems thinking than the younger ones. Therefore, elementary forms of systems thinking should be an educational method already in primary education.

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“…The latter means that an interdisciplinary perspective is applied to controversial subjects with ethical aspects in focus. Examples of similar areas are environmental issues, stem cell research, genetic manipulation (Lewis & Leach, 2006) and biodiversity (Harris & Ratcliffe, 2005;Lindemann-Matthies, Constantinou, Junge, Köhler, Mayer, Nagel, Raper, Schüle, & Kadji-Beltran, 2009). …”

Section: Research In the Fieldmentioning

confidence: 99%

Crossing Disciplinary Borders: Perspectives on Learning About Sustainable Development

Dimenäs¹,

Alexandersson²

2012

Journal of Teacher Education for Sustainability

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The integration of biodiversity education in the initial education of primary school teachers: four comparative case studies from Europe

Cited by 59 publications

References 32 publications

Knowledge of Indonesian University Students on the Sustainable Management of Natural Resources

Knowledge of Indonesian University Students on the Sustainable Management of Natural Resources

Systems Thinking for Understanding Sustainability? Nordic Student Teachers’ Views on the Relationship between Species Identification, Biodiversity and Sustainable Development

Crossing Disciplinary Borders: Perspectives on Learning About Sustainable Development

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