I would like to thank people for the many helpful and thoughtful replies to my request, I have much to consider and I am pleased that my concerns are widely shared.
In response to Gregg Muller's response, I agree, there is a lot of confusion and for brevity's sake I conflated the two issues. In my experience, students who are interested in environmental matters, tend to be so as a result of early exposure to "trips to the hills" or outdoor adventure activities. These are usually the result of parental encouragement. But the problem remains, how do we effectively reduce ignorance in the "interested group", and much more significantly, how do we inspire and educate the "disinterested/ unaware group"? This must be addressed within educational institutions and in society and culture as a whole.
Unfortunately, education "in" the environment is limited in schools and colleges. The reasons for this are many, but essentially fall into "educator issues" (ignorance, lack of confidence, unwillingness, lack of awareness of its value etc) and structural limitations (curriculum/ exam preparation time, paperwork (risk assessments, visit forms, permission slips etc), money, transport and so on). I suspect that most school managers are aware of the value of field trips, but real barriers, no matter how trivial to many, exist.
I would absolutely agree with Gregg, that it is getting out there with someone who really knows what they are doing, which is the best strategy.
My request was more about methods of improving engagement among students who have been exposed to lots of environmental scare stories and who have discovered that school ecology is generally rather boring (food chains, pyramids and cycles). These are students who would quite happily sit rapt for an hour watching a David Attenborough documentary. Please note, there are also post-sixteen students, often quite bright academically, who cannot sustain sufficient interest to be quiet for that hour. Frustratingly, these latter students have also opted to study biology or environmental science.
I am sure that many on this list are all too clearly aware of the need for individuals to invest in their learning about the environment and that spectacular documentaries can set up unrealistic expectations. But I am worried about the increasingly apparent need to "entertain" in formal class settings. The superficial headline grabbing stuff seems to be the clearest way forward.
So, am I asking for the impossible ? How do you help people to care about the natural world, when you cannot really take them there ? And yes, I am fully aware of the natural world in my immediate surroundings and try to creatively use it in my teaching.
Thank you once again,
James Banks
Head of Environmental Science
Sir John Deane's College
-----Original Message-----
From: Environmental Education Research [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Gregg Muller
Sent: 09 May 2010 07:34
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Plea for practical application
James, and others,
(At the risk of just adding to your problems) I'm a bit confused by your enquiry.
Your request asks about environmental science, environmental education,environmental studies and biology,environmental learning, and study (of) the environment, as though these are all the same thing.
Quite a bit of the literature also conflates these terms, leading to considerable confusion. There are also cultural differences in what 'counts' as environmental knowledge and the way environmental education is structured (Australia and the UK for example) which can lead to all sorts of problems when trying to review and summarise the research literature. The problems grow even larger when we look across different cultures. For example, the environmental learning that takes place when my students walk for 9 days with traditional owners on their country is considerable, but may not count in Nick's conception of environmental education (although I concur with his exasperation at the lack of basic natural history knowledge of most students leaving secondary school). They (the Goolarabulu traditional owners) fall around laughing when I get out my binoculars and field guides to identify birds, and write them down in a list.
This sort of stuff quickly ends up in (the important) debates of what counts as knowledge, who can and should teach it, how and when to teach it, and the different ways that it might be learned (and taught). Exactly the sort of questions that I think your enquiry was trying to avoid!
If your question is about effective classroom teaching of science, there is a wealth of literature. However, the further you (and your students) get away from the blackboard, the sparser the research becomes.
My research into environmental learning (as opposed to teaching) on extended field trips suggests that comfort with and in the environment, access to good field guides and an enthusiastic and knowledgeable leader are the main factors that students see as the most important for their learning.
Good luck!
Gregg Muller,
Lecturer,
Faculty of Education: Outdoor and Environmental Education
La Trobe University, Bendigo
________________________________________
From: Environmental Education Research [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of James Banks [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 05 May 2010 20:42
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Plea for practical application
Dear all,
I would like to make a general plea as a teacher and examiner of post-sixteen environmental science (in an English Sixth Form college). I do not have the time to trawl through the literature on improving environmental education, some of which sounds absolutely fascinating, so I would like to know whether there is an accessible and useful summary of the most relevant strategies and techniques. My concern as a teacher of A level Environmental Studies and Biology, is that much of the environmental learning that my students have had is simply not very effective. Even students who have opted to study the environment at post-sixteen, seem to be surprisingly ignorant. How is academic research being practically applied ?
If anyone could help me I would be most grateful. I am also very keen to collaborate with researchers or anyone interested in improving the effectiveness of environmental education, especially at a post-sixteen level.
James Banks
Head of Environmental Science
Sir John Deane's College
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