The History and Philosophy of Environmental Education

Experiential Learning for Enhancing Environmental Literacy Regarding Energy: A Professional Development Program for Inservice Science Teachers

“…The second critical feature of EE is that it is not limited to developing science content knowledge, but rather includes myriad process skills such as problem-solving, literacy, reasoning, and communication skills (Bodzin et al, 2010), which span multiple academic disciplines (e.g., NCTM, 2000;NGSS Lead States, 2013). Carter and Simmons (2010) emphasize this quality of EE, indicating that EE content derives from "science, mathematics, language arts, social science, politics, and philosophy" (p. 12). Environmental literacy implies a combination of the content knowledge and process skills across these disciplines.…”

A Failure Reveals Success

“…Although the first use of the phrase environmental education is debated (Carter and Simmons ; Disinger ), the concept can be traced at least as far back as Rousseau's eighteenth‐century ideas for education that included careful attention to the physical world and using the senses to learn (McCrea ). Romantic‐era ideals greatly influenced thinking about the natural world and how to study it (Armitage ).…”

“…Romantic‐era ideals greatly influenced thinking about the natural world and how to study it (Armitage ). Throughout the nineteenth century, authors, including Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and George Perkins Marsh, continued to explore relationships among humans and nature (Carter and Simmons ). Although not focused explicitly on education, these works drew attention to concepts such as preservation and conservation that subsequently influenced the Nature Study movement in the United States (Kohlstedt ; Armitage ).…”

“…In 1970, President Nixon signed the Environmental Education Act, which authorized U.S. federal agencies to develop and fund programs to support environmental education in public schools and in communities (Public Law 91‐516; October 30, 1970). Although funding through this act was eliminated in 1975, environmental education had, by that time, been inculcated into the educational paradigm and was perpetuated by professional associations and other nonprofit organizations that focused on community education and teacher training (Carter and Simmons ).…”

“…Two years later, the first Intergovernmental Conference on Environmental Education was convened in Tbilisi, Georgia. The goals in the resulting Tbilisi Declaration are still considered the definitive statement on what environmental education is and ought to be (Carter and Simmons ). In 1981, the Foundation for Environmental Education Europe (now the Foundation for Environmental Education) was established.…”