EduChange Methodology

Abstract

Climate change adaptation is a telling example of a wicked problem . Pre-service teachers face the challenge of teaching this wicked problem to their students. Place-based education offers teachers the possibility to let their students study the effects of climate change and possible adaptation measures in their local environment. Geospatial technologies, as survey apps, storymaps, excursion apps and virtual reality (VR) can be used to let students explore the effects of, and possibilities for, adaptation to climate change in their living environment and other places. However, in order to design high quality education, (future) teachers need to have an extensive knowledge basis. They need to have knowledge in the fields of Technology (T), Pedagogy (P), and Content (C), and knowledge at the interplay of these fields. The TPCK framework (Mishra & Koehler, 2006) describes the different types of knowledge that (pre-service) teachers need. According to the literature, the knowledge can be transferred to (future) teachers in courses, but it is more effective to let (pre-service) teachers actively transform their content knowledge so that it becomes accessible for students; engage in designing, conducting and evaluating tasks; share their outcomes with fellow (future) teachers; and reflect on what was learned. These activities were the core of the EduChange course. This chapter describes the TPCK framework into more detail, and describes how the different activities of the EduChange program contribute to the development of the knowledge basis of (pre-service) teachers. EduChangeIn 2017, lecturers and teacher trainers from universities in Malta, Olomouc (Czech Republic), Trondheim (Norway) and Utrecht (Netherlands) joined forces in the form of an Erasmus+ partnership to improve climate change education. Together, they designed a course called 'EduChange' for students in geography education, science education and environmental education at the four universities. We wanted to equip the pre-service teachers with knowledge, skills and attitudes needed of design and conduct innovative lessons about climate change.