What Makes Environmental Education Effective

3 initiatives teachers can take

Environmental education is becoming an important part of educational programs (credit: Rawpixel.com on Shutterstock)

Credit: This article is based on the scientific article “Identifying effective climate change education strategies: a systematic review of the research” by Martha C. Monroe and colleagues. (Full citation and link available at the end of the article)

Global environmental issues, such as climate change and loss of biodiversity, are causing concerns about the health of our planet. As awareness about the importance of taking action is increasing, and governmental regulations are put in place, more and more educators are inspired to make environmental education an important part of educational programs. This is good news, as the Dutch saying tells us “learned young is done old”.

When teaching environmental issues, educators have to deal with several issues. For example, many students lack basic understanding and knowledge of fundamental climate science, and have misconceptions about for example the cause of climate change. Also, a lot of new insights from climate scientists on climate change education are published every year: from 2010 to 2015, on average about 250 new articles were published each year. This makes it challenging to decide how to best present information and what skills to teach. For example, teachers are not sure whether they should only focus on…