The Failure of Environmental Education (And How We Can Fix It)

The Failure of Environmental Education (And How We Can Fix It)
Author: Charles Saylan
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 254
Release: 2011-05-25
Genre: Education
ISBN: 0520265386

“The hope for the future depends on teaching current and future students the analytical and critical thinking skills for dealing with the most critical problems. My own hope is for this book to be read by everyone, even those outside the field of environmental education. Read this book, read it again, share it widely, and do something - anything - to help our needy and wounded planet."-Marc Bekoff, author of The Animal Manifesto: Six Reasons For Expanding Our Compassion Footprint "Saylan and Blumstein provide a compelling vision of what can be, and what should be, if we have the courage to open our eyes and the boldness to act.”-Peter Saundry, Ph.D., Executive Director of the National Council for Science and the Environment “A clarion call to incorporate environmental education in all grades K-12, across all academic disciplines, in order to produce future generations of environmental stewards."-Mark Gold, President, Heal The Bay "We need a sea change in the educational system. After all, if we can teach schoolchildren that vandalism is wrong, why can we not teach them that environmental destruction is wrong? This book is a haunting call to action. A beautifully written manifesto that gets it right."-Ron Swaisgood, Director of Applied Animal Ecology, Institute for Conservation Research, San Diego Zoo Global “The greatest threat to the future of all species on the planet is the huge gap between what is understood about global climate change by the scientific community and what is known about climate change by the people who need to know -- the public. The sound prescriptions in this book need to be read now. We are running out of time.”-Dr. James Hansen, world-renowned climatologist and author of Storms of My Grandchildren: The Truth About the Coming Climate Catastrophe and Our Last Chance to Save Humanity “Environmental education is a disaster and educating the public on environmental issues is the greatest challenge facing humanity today. This book will help us understand why we are headed toward the collapse of civilization, and more important, how to fix it. Packed with sound science, useful information, and brilliant ideas, it is a book we must read, and give, to our local school boards and principals nationwide. Our children will thank us."-Paul R. Ehrlich, author of The Population Bomb and Humanity on a Tightrope

Engaging People in Sustainability

Engaging People in Sustainability
Author: Daniella Tilbury
Publisher: IUCN
Total Pages: 152
Release: 2004
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9782831708232

The book is based on the exchange of professional experiences which featured in an IUCN CEC workshop in August 2002. Practitioners from around the world shared their models of good practice and explored the challenges involved in engaging people in sustainability. The difficulties facing practitioners vary between country and context but some challenges are universal: A lack of clarity in communicating what is meant by sustainable development; An ambition to educate everyone to bring about a global citizenship; Social, organisational or institutional factors constrain change to sustainable development, yet there is an emphasis on formal education, and community educators do not receive the same support; A lack of balance in addressing the integration of environmental, social and economic dimensions leading to an interpretation that ESD is mainly about environment and conservation issues; New learning (rather than teaching) approaches are called for to promote more debate in society. Yet, few are trained or experienced in these new approaches. Practitioners need support to explore new ways of promoting learning. [Foreword, ed].

Linking Ecology and Ethics for a Changing World

Linking Ecology and Ethics for a Changing World
Author: Ricardo Rozzi
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 396
Release: 2014-02-06
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9400774702

To comprehensively address the complexities of current socio-ecological problems involved in global environmental change, it is indispiseble to achieve an integration of ecological understanding and ethical values. Contemporary science proposes an inclusive ecosystem concept that recognizes humans as components. Contemporary environmental ethics includes eco-social justice and the realization that as important as biodiversity is cultural diversity, inter-cultural, inter-institutional, and international collaboration requiring a novel approach known as biocultural conservation. Right action in confronting the challenges of the 21st century requires science and ethics to be seamlessly integrated. This book resulted from the 14th Cary Conference that brought together leading scholars and practitioners in ecology and environmental philosophy to discuss core terminologies, methods, questions, and practical frameworks for long-term socio-ecological research, education, and decision making.

Innovating with Concept Mapping

Innovating with Concept Mapping
Author: Alberto Cañas
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 342
Release: 2016-08-20
Genre: Education
ISBN: 331945501X

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Concept Mapping, CMC 2016, held in Tallinn, Estonia, in September 2016. The 25 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 135 submissions. The papers address issues such as facilitation of learning; eliciting, capturing, archiving, and using “expert” knowledge; planning instruction; assessment of “deep” understandings; research planning; collaborative knowledge modeling; creation of “knowledge portfolios”; curriculum design; eLearning, and administrative and strategic planning and monitoring.

Motivational Design for Learning and Performance

Motivational Design for Learning and Performance
Author: John M. Keller
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 365
Release: 2009-11-24
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1441912509

It is impossible to control another person’s motivation. But much of the instructor’s job involves stimulating learner motivation, and learning environments should ideally be designed toward this goal. Motivational Design for Learning and Performance introduces readers to the core concepts of motivation and motivational design and applies this knowledge to the design process in a systematic step-by-step format. The ARCS model—theoretically robust, rooted in best practices, and adaptable to a variety of practical uses—forms the basis of this problem-solving approach. Separate chapters cover each component of the model—attention, relevance, confidence, and satisfaction—and offer strategies for promoting each one in learners. From there, the motivational design process is explained in detail, supplemented by real-world examples and ready-to-use worksheets. The methods are applied to traditional and alternative settings, including gifted classes, elementary grades, self-directed learning, and corporate training. And the book is geared toward the non-specialist reader, making it accessible to those without a psychology or teaching background. With this guide, the reader learns how to: Identify motivation problems and goals Decide whether the environment or the learners need changing Generate attention, relevance, confidence, and satisfaction in learners Integrate motivational design and instructional design Select, develop, and evaluate motivational materials Plus a wealth of tables, worksheets, measures, and other valuable tools aid in the design process Comprehensive and enlightening, Motivational Design for Learning and Performance furnishes an eminently practical body of knowledge to researchers and professionals in performance technology and instructional design as well as educational psychologists, teachers and trainers.

Boundaries

Boundaries
Author: Christine E. Gudorf
Publisher: Georgetown University Press
Total Pages: 329
Release: 2010-04-15
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1589016858

In this expanded and revised edition of a fresh and original case-study textbook on environmental ethics, Christine Gudorf and James Huchingson continue to explore the line that separates the current state of the environment from what it should be in the future. Boundaries begins with a lucid overview of the field, highlighting the key developments and theories in the environmental movement. Specific cases offer a rich and diverse range of situations from around the globe, from saving the forests of Java and the use of pesticides in developing countries to restoring degraded ecosystems in Nebraska. With an emphasis on the concrete circumstances of particular localities, the studies continue to focus on the dilemmas and struggles of individuals and communities who face daunting decisions with serious consequences. This second edition features extensive updates and revisions, along with four new cases: one on water privatization, one on governmental efforts to mitigate global climate change, and two on the obstacles that teachers of environmental ethics encounter in the classroom. Boundaries also includes an appendix for teachers that describes how to use the cases in the classroom.

The Geography of Childhood

The Geography of Childhood
Author: Gary Paul Nabhan
Publisher: Beacon Press (MA)
Total Pages: 224
Release: 1994
Genre: Family & Relationships
ISBN:

"In this unique collaboration, naturalists Gary Nabhan and Stephen Trimble investigate how children come to care deeply about the natural world. They ask searching questions about what may happen to children denied exposure to wild places - a reality for more children today than at any time in human history." "The authors remember pivotal events in their own childhood that led each to a life-long relationship with the land: Nabhan's wanderings in the wasteland of steel mills and power plants of Gary, Indiana, and in the Indiana Dunes; Trimble's travels in the West with a geologist father. They tell stories of children learning about wild places and creatures in settings ranging from cities and suburbs to isolated Nevada sheep ranches to Native American communities in the Southwest and Mexico." "The Geography of Childhood draws insights from fields as various as evolutionary biology, child psychology, education, and ethnography. The book urges adults to rethink our children's contact with nature. Small children have less need for large-scale wilderness than for a garden, gully, or field to create a crucial tie to the natural world. Nabhan suggests that traditional wilderness-oriented rites of passage may help cure the alienation of adolescence: "Those who as adolescents fail to pass through such rites remain in an arrested state of immaturity for the remainder of their lives." Trimble's fatherhood leads him to question how we grant different freedoms to girls and boys in their exploration of nature - and how this bias powerfully affects adult lives. Both authors return to their experiences with indigenous peoples to show how nature is taught and wilderness understood in cultures historically grounded outside of America's cities and suburbs." "The Geography of Childhood makes clear how human growth remains rooted, as it always has, both in childhood and in wild landscapes. It is an essential book for all parents and teachers who wonder what our children may miss if they never experience local wildlife or wild landscapes."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved