How to Improve Sustainability Competences of Teacher Training? Inquiring the Prior Knowledge on Climate Change in Primary School Students

Abstract

The work is carried out in accordance with the Sustainable Development Goal 13 Climate Action with prospective primary school teachers. The study presented is part of the science education subject at the University of Seville (Spain) during the 2019–2020 academic year. This research has two main goals, on the one hand, to present an innovative educational experience (design and implementation) for teacher training, on the other hand, to assess the educational implication of the experience from the prospective primary school teachers’ self-perception about their level of sustainability competences achieved. The novel educational experience consisted in the inquiry of prior knowledge about climate change in primary school children for the design of a lesson plan. The degree of scope of the educational experience, in particular, the level of sustainability competences achieved was assessed from the self-perception of the participants (Prospective Primary school Teachers) through a Likert-type questionnaire. The results show an improvement in the degree of acquisition of these competences, not only from their self-perception, but also from the investigative process followed through this innovative experience. Likewise, these results indicate the success of the educational proposal as a possible educational strategy for the sustainability of the curriculum in the field of science education.

Assessment of the Quality Education Awareness Competence of Pre-Service Educators Using Vignettes

“…Currently, there are a number of tools that have been developed in order to measure competencies related to sustainability. Internationally, there is the Sustainability Literacy Test (the SuLiTest) [43] and the Sustainability Consciousness Questionnaire [44], while in Spain we have the Self-perception Skills in Sustainability (SQSS) [45] questionnaire. A literature review of the tools used to evaluate sustainability competencies indicated that, among these tools, there is an overrepresentation of the evaluation methodology based on self-assessment questionnaires [41].…”

The Learning to Learn Competence in Early Childhood Preservice Teachers: An Outdoor and e/m-Learning Experience in the Museum

“…The use of these open access digital tools, through mobile devices, provides students with a positive, innovative, and current image of education [72], and allows information to be collected in an efficient and effective manner [73]. The questionnaires were completed at two moments-before (pre-test) and after the outdoor experience (post-test)-like other similar studies [12,74].…”

A Conceptual Model for Developing Climate Education in Sustainability Management Education System

“…The scholarly literature describes the recent developments in school reforms regarding sustainability issues. For example Solís-Espallargas and Morón-Monge describe how to improve sustainability competences of teacher training on the basis of inquiring [40]. Morón-Monge et al present an approach to prospective primary school teachers' concepts of environment and biodiversity through their design of educational itineraries [41].…”

“…We claim that each stage should be associated with a corresponding approach to climate education. Climate education should not only concentrate on knowledge development but, first of all, should shape the value system and an ability to take actions to benefit the climate [40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][61][62][63][64]83,[89][90][91]. Our conceptual model postulates that the systemic change in education should reflect these four stages.…”

“…A need also exists to connect gaps and disconnects between ethics, awareness, intention, beliefs, commitments and action [4]. Concepts such as comparative risks and trade-offs are often integral to addressing environmental concerns, but these ideas are new to many teachers [40,41,93].…”