A cross-country comparison of climate change in middle school science and geography curricula

Abstract

The challenge of climate change means that school education is more important than ever in preparing young people for an uncertain future. The focus of this research is climate change education and its status in the compulsory middle school years (approximately years 7-10) across six countries (Australia, Israel, Finland, Indonesia, Canada, and England). The authors investigated formal published national curriculum documents, specifically science and geography, to determine the presence of climate change topics, and the way they are addressed in these subjects. The key findings are that: (1) the term 'climate change' appears in the formal curriculum of all six countries in science or geography; (2) approaches to climate change in the curriculum differ substantially across different countries; (3) climate change is often presented as a context, example, or elaboration for other science concepts rather than a discrete topic; (4) the presence of climate change in most curriculum documents is scattered and spread over multiple years, and (5) knowledge about causes of climate change predominates over action and behavioural changes. These findings raise questions as to whether current school curricula provide sufficient guidance for teachers to develop students' understandings, skills and values regarding climate change.

Science education in the Anthropocene: the aesthetics of climate change education in an epoch of uncertainty

“…As we know, what takes place in schools is strongly shaped by the curricula, and the situation is no different with climate science as part of climate change education. In their recent study, Dawson et al (2022) show that across the compulsory middle-school years in six countries (Australia, Israel, Finland, Indonesia, Canada and England) that regarding science and geography:…”

Στατιστική, Γεωγραφία Και ΤΠΕ. Μπορούν Να Πορευτούν Μαζί; Απόψεις Μαθητών/Τριών Β/Θμιας Εκπαίδευσης

“…Η τρίτη δεκαετία του 21 ου αιώνα -την οποία διανύουμε-προβάλλει την ανάγκη για την κτήση υψηλού επιπέδου στατιστικoύ γραμματισμού (Gal, 2002˙ Ridgway et al, 2022 καθώς αποτελεί ίδιον του ενεργού πολίτη η σύνδεση της καθημερινότητάς του με την κριτική αξιολόγηση των δεδομένων. Παράλληλα η Γεωγραφία ως ένα ολιστικό γνωστικό αντικείμενο (Granados-Sánchez, 2022), προσφέρει την ευκαιρία για ενεργό εμπλοκή των μαθητών/τριών -σε πραγματικό χρόνο-με δεδομένα που άπτονται της καθημερινής ζωής τους (Dawson et al, 2022) ενώ συμβάλλει στην ανάπτυξη του οπτικού γραμματισμού και της χωρικής αντίληψης και σκέψης (Gagnier & Fisher, 2020). Η αξιοποίηση δε, των ΤΠΕ στο μάθημα της Γεωγραφίας, προσφέρει τα εργαλεία που απαιτούνται για την οπτικοποίηση, κατανόηση και κατ' επέκταση ερμηνεία χωρικών και μη χωρικών δεδομένων από τους μαθητές/τριες.…”

9-10-Year-Old Children’s Understanding of Climate Change

“…Nevertheless, various obstacles such as insufficient knowledge, lack of resources, personal belief (e.g., do not believe in scientific consensus on climate change), and fear of community backlash often deter them from teaching climate change effectively [1,9,18,[21][22][23]. When they implement it, some teachers focus on scientific concepts of climate change as the curriculum is content-focused [24] or some teachers view sociocultural and ethical concerns related to climate change are not science but social studies, thus should not be addressed in science classrooms [25].…”