Abstract
This study aims to contribute to research on systemic thinking in biology education, particularly how to best equip pre-service teachers to introduce health problems such as the COVID-19 pandemic using the “One Health” approach. We attempt to explore to what extent a group of pre-service teachers identify our lifestyle and relationships with nature as factors that contribute to the emergence of future pandemics. The research questions are as follows: (1) What dimensions of the One Health approach did the students identify as potential causes that can produce and prevent future pandemics such as the COVID-19 disease? (2) To what extent did the students show a systemic view aligned to the One Health approach? The participants were 43 pre-service elementary teachers working on a set of activities about the COVID-19 pandemic, in which they were asked about the potential causes of and ways to prevent future pandemics. Content analysis of individual written responses is applied for addressing the research questions, focusing on the dimensions of the One Health approach and the level of system thinking reflected. Most participants focused on the human dimension and a few mentioned environmental and animal dimensions, which points to the need to integrate the One Health notion into teacher training.
Highlights
Science education faces urgent challenges related to health and environmental problems, as the COVID-19 pandemic has shown
Plans to reduce the risk of future pandemics need to lessen our impact on the environment, critical thinking for taking responsible actions needs to be pursued in health and environmental education
This study aims to explore how a group of primary pre-service teachers frame the problem of the COVID-19 pandemic; to what extent they are able to apply a systemic view that recognizes the intersections between environment and human health
Summary
Science education faces urgent challenges related to health and environmental problems, as the COVID-19 pandemic has shown. During this pandemic, citizens over the world were called upon to take actions and make responsible decisions to stop the spread of the disease; relatively little attention was paid to the environmental factors that contributed to its presence. The human impact on the environment is increasing the risk of emerging infectious diseases in humans, over 60% of which originate from animals, mainly from wildlife. Plans to reduce the risk of future pandemics need to lessen our impact on the environment, critical thinking for taking responsible actions needs to be pursued in health and environmental education. COVID-19 is an emergent disease, and as such, it can be characterized as a socio-scientific issue (SSI) that demands responsible
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