Environmental Sustainability Education Research Articles

유아교사의 지속가능발전지향 환경교육 실행 방안 탐색

This study aims to explore how early childhood teachers implement sustainable development- oriented environmental education in kindergartens and childcare centers. Data were collected through semistructured in-depth interviews with 10 early childhood teachers who had attended at least one environmental education training related to sustainable development and consistently practiced sustainable development-oriented environmental education in their classrooms for at least 10 months. The study’s findings revealed that the teachers engaged in meaningful interactions with the students to sensitize them to their responsibilities and roles in environmental issues by capturing their daily inconveniences and constraints and encourage improvement. They also attempted to implement environmental education following the principles of sustainable development by organizing the play environment and using eco-friendly materials. Moreover, they tried various teaching and learning materials and activities to keep children interested and engaged. Finally, the teachers worked with the children’s families and community members to create a practical and meaningful environment in which the children could learn about their responsibilities and roles in promoting sustainable development as citizens. The study’s findings, which examined implementation experiences from the perspective of early childhood teachers, are significant because they provide useful information for teacher support.

Pendampingan dan Edukasi tentang Komunikasi Efektif untuk Pelestarian Lingkungan dan Pemilahan Sampah kepada Anak

Household waste pollution remains a common problem. Various efforts have been made by government and non-governmental institutions to contribute to tackling household waste. Not only waste banks, but now many institutions offer services to accommodate recyclable or reusable waste. Environmental care campaigns are one effort to convey information or ideas about the importance of protecting and preserving the environment we live in, namely the earth. The mentoring method was carried out by providing and explaining materials, questions and answers (discussions) as well as providing examples regarding environmental sustainability education and waste management which was conducted on August 21, 2023 located at the Flamboyan RPTRA, Menteng Dalam Village, Tebet District, South Jakarta. The activity was held by the PKM team from Sahid University with 14 RPTRA residents and 2 people from the local village. The PKM team consisted of 3 lecturers and 5 students providing campaign materials and examples. The results of this activity are that online materials have been provided on effective communication for environmental campaigns and waste management by the Communication lecturers team from Sahid University. Furthermore, examples of how to convey campaigns were submitted by PKM students. At the end of the event the PKM team also asked participants about their impressions after participating in the mentoring. Good impressions were obtained that participants became more aware of effective ways to communicate with children regarding environmental conservation and waste sorting.

Waste Management Awareness Education for Elementary School Teachers and Students; the Implementation of Sustainable Environmental Education

In fact, awareness of waste management is still low in Nagari Tanjung Balik, Solok Regency. Based on initial observations, it is known that students at Nagari Tanjung Balik Elementary School do not yet have awareness of waste management. Furthermore, even though since 2022, Nagari Tanjung Balik has had a Waste Bank under the guidance of Universitas Negeri Padang Community Development Team, there has been no contribution from the total of five elementary schools in Nagari Tanjung Balik to the Waste Bank. This is of course not in line with the Nagari Tanjung Balik program which has attempted to intensify waste management in order to create a sustainable environment. Therefore, the solution offered is to provide education to elementary school students who are members of the KKG Cluster III Tanjung Balik Elementary School, X Koto Above District regarding waste management.

Quality education in the field of sustainability using a statistical analysis

AbstractThis paper discusses the importance of quality education in the field of sustainability. The paper highlights four different types of education related to sustainability, including environmental sustainability education, social sustainability education, education for sustainable development (SE), and green skills education. The statistical information on these types of education is summarized and presented in a table format. The paper concludes by emphasizing the need for increased access to education in the field of sustainability to prevent environmental degradation and social problems and to prepare individuals for jobs that contribute to sustainable development.

Leveraging small island context to advance and disseminate environmental health and sustainable development knowledge through higher education

Higher education curricula can be designed to effectively leverage the context of small island states to enhance and deliver sustainable development and environmental health education, catering to workforce development, citizenry, and inclusivity. Small islands and developing states, in particular, are left behind in recognizing and promoting the linkages between environmentally sustainable development and the health of its people. This community case study highlights strategies of a Caribbean-based higher learning institution, leveraging the context of a small island state, to close this gap and create equitable access to integrated sustainable development and environmental health education. Tenets of Education for Sustainable Development theory underpin the pedagogical methodologies used in the delivery of the academic program. The curriculum draws on experiential learning, competency-based education, and diversity and inclusion, oriented to active student–student and student-practitioner engagements. Learning is facilitated through the effective dissemination of information, healthy interactions within a diverse community, professional engagements with multi-disciplinary practitioners, problem-solving, and formulation and presentation of perspectives and experiences relating to the Sustainable Development Agenda and Goals. Highly engaging and inclusive academic processes can accentuate students transitioning into the role of teachers, environmentally conscious leaders and citizens, and competent public health practitioners for the local and global workforces.

Development and Implementation of an Elementary School-Based Indigenous Knowledge Pedagogical Model on Native Tree Species for Environmental Sustainability Education in Ghana

Environmental education across countries is seen as the surest means of nurturing pro-environmental behaviours in children so that the conservation of biodiversity in the environment can be guaranteed. Unfortunately in Ghana, there is no indigenous-knowledge inspired pedagogical model that would aid elementary school teachers in carrying out such education. This convergent parallel mixed method study was aimed at developing, implementing and evaluating an indigenous knowledge inspired pedagogical model for native tree education among elementary school learners in Ghana. The indigenous-knowledge inspired pedagogical model was developed by the researchers under the expert guidance of some curriculum planners in Ghana with inputs from elementary school teachers and in tandem with the elementary school curriculum strand on environmental education. It was implemented in classroom and off-classroom contexts and finally evaluated for its potential in inciting elementary school learners in engaging in helpful native tree conservation activities. The quantitative results show high viability scores (100%) of the ESBIK pedagogical model’s capability of impacting significantly on the sustainability consciousness and competence of elementary school learners (Very Important-72.2%, Extremely Important-27.7%). On the other hand, the qualitative findings indicated the model’s capability of imparting knowledge on the essential roles that native tree species play in their lives and the broader benefits to ecosystem. Elementary school learners demonstrated care for native trees through tree planting, making of nurseries and gardens, and engaging in native tree conservation campaigns. The study recommends that the Ministry of Education should adopt, improve and widely disseminate the pedagogical model. Future studies should consider using a larger sample size comprising elementary schools from several regions out of the sixteen (16) regions and engage in scholarly regional comparison of the results after the implementation of the ESBIK pedagogical model.

Promoting Sustainable Fish Consumption in Portuguese 4th-Grade Students

Consuming fish sustainably means consuming less and better, considering environmental, social, and economic impacts. This demands more knowledge to make informed decisions. In this study, the main goal was to understand how environmental sustainability education can be used as a tool to increase the knowledge and promote sustainable behaviour and consumption habits of 4th-grade students. The COVID-19 pandemic forced the use of two different learning methods, face-to-face and online learning, leading to two different groups of students, and we attempted to measure if the mode of implementing the activities affected the knowledge of the students. A sequential explanatory mixed methodology was applied with a pre-test/post-test design combined with focus group interviews. Between the pre- and post-tests, three activities modules were performed. The results showed that the students were unaware of many aspects related to sustainable fish consumption, but the developed activities significantly increased their knowledge of the subject and impacted students in terms of changing their consumption behaviours. It was also found that the construction of knowledge by the students after the activities was achieved either via face-to-face or online learning. Interviews from the focus group sessions showed that students got to know new fish species, learned about the concept of minimum landing size and closure season and that fish are labelled like other types of food.

A Review of Immersive Technologies, Knowledge Representation, and AI for Human-Centered Digital Experiences

The evolution of digital technologies has resulted in the emergence of diverse interaction technologies. In this paper, we conducted a review of seven domains under a human-centric approach user interface design, human-centered web-based information systems, semantic knowledge representation, X-reality applications, human motion and 3D digitization, serious games, and AI. In this review, we studied these domains concerning their impact on the way we interact with digital interfaces, process information, and engage in immersive experiences. As such, we highlighted the shifts in design paradigms, user-centered principles, and the rise of web-based information systems. The results of such shifts are materialized in modern immersive technologies, semantic knowledge representation, serious games, and the facilitation of artificial intelligence for interactions. Through this exploration, we aimed to assist our understanding of the challenges that lie ahead. The seamless integration of technologies, ethical considerations, accessibility, education for technological literacy, interoperability, user trust, environmental sustainability, and regulatory frameworks are becoming significant. These challenges present opportunities for the future to enrich human experiences while addressing societal needs. This paper lays the groundwork for thoughtful and innovative approaches to the challenges that will define the future of human–computer interaction and information technologies.

Juridical Analysis of Marine Pollution Prevention Control in the Barelang Coastal Community Area by the Batam City Government

This research aims to determine the control of preventing marine pollution in the Barelang Coastal Community Area. This research uses a qualitative type of research. The research method is empirical normative research, namely examining the factual implementation or implementation of positive legal provisions and contracts in each specific legal event, so this research requires primary data and secondary data. Data sources were obtained from primary, secondary and tertiary legal materials. The results of this research are that legal regulations related to the control of preventing marine pollution in the Bareleng coastal area have not been effective and have not been running well because of Law Number 27 of 2007 concerning Management of Coastal Areas and Small Islands and Law Number 32 of 2009 concerning Protection and Environmental Management applies administrative sanctions to business actors. The obstacle to controlling marine pollution prevention in the Barelang Coastal area is the behavior of people who still throw rubbish carelessly. Even though this is very clearly stated in Batam City Regional Regulation number 11 of 2013 article 64, there are no administrative sanctions applied to individuals or local communities. Solution Carrying out targeted and sustainable environmental education and awareness campaigns. Build cooperation with NGOs and environmental organizations to increase public awareness and revise or update inadequate environmental regulations to ensure the effectiveness of controlling marine pollution.

Assessment of the Effectiveness of Intelligent Computing Modeling Application Environment for Sustainable Integration with Civic Education in Colleges and Universities

Abstract Incorporating the concept of environmentally sustainable development into the Civics program in colleges and universities is an important initiative to promote the service of environmental sustainability by the Freshmen. Innovative teaching mode of ecological sustainability and civic education, and the deep integration of green development concept and civic education are crucial to cultivating high-quality talents with environmental sustainability. In this paper, the collected data were standardized and defuzzified, and the CRITIC combination assignment method was used to assign weights to the indicators to obtain the optimal combination weights. Based on this, the indicator data’s gray correlation coefficient and correlation degree were calculated to construct the effect assessment model. The evaluation content for integrating the cultivation of the concept of environmental sustainability and ideological education is proposed in the paper, and the effect evaluation of this was implemented for 11 years. The evaluation results show that in the three classes of college A in the pilot area, the integration of the concept of environmental sustainability and Civic and Political education of college students was significantly improved, and the mean values of the measured improvement were 4.96, 5.05, and 4.95, respectively, which showed a better effect. Among the dimension scores, the mean value of the scores of the three classes in the five dimensions is 3.624.This result indicates that the cultivation of the concept of environmental sustainability has a significant enhancement effect on the performance of Civic and Political Education, and the integration of the two is having a significant impact. The study in this paper incorporates the concept of environmental sustainability into the ideology and political science curriculum of colleges and universities is an effective strategy that not only enhances students’ environmental awareness, but also strengthens the effectiveness of ideology and political science education.

Role of Education for Environmental Sustainability

Role of Education for Environmental Sustainability

Geographical reflections in the Bhagavad Gita: Lessons for the 21st century

Bhagavad Gita with reference to geographical reflection and environmental education for sustainability of modern world. The study is concentrated to reinterpretation of passages of Bhagavad Gita with reverence to geographical knowledge and insights for ecology, economy and societal sustainability. The method of the study is narrative by using qualitative approaches. The findings of the study clearly reveal that the insights of Bhagavad Gita is essential, important and useful for modern world in order to develop ethical and moral grounds for deep ecology i.e. co-existence of soil (mother earth), soul (spiritual value for connecting human action to universe) and society (equidistance of cultural values and traditions for the principle of live and late live).

The correlation between demographic processes and demoethical values of sustainable societal development in the context of climate and energy migration and water scarcity

Object: To study the interrelation of demographic processes in the context of the most pressing global issues related to water resources, climate, energy migration, and demoethical values as a tool for the transformation of sustainable development in society.Methods: The study utilizes the concept of Demoethics, which is based on the priority of spirituality as the basis for a new stage or model of sustainable development in society, which involves integrating the demographic, socioeconomic, and ecological components into the overall processes of modeling.Findings: The proposed approach focuses on organizing activities to improve sustainable development. In particular, a demographic model is presented, which is important for the Society 5.0 and Industry 5.0 organizations. Through literature review and analysis, this research identifies key issues in the sustainable development of the demographic component of the economy based on the demoethical model and provides practical recommendations for stakeholders involved in digital transformation.Conclusions: In order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) for countries, civil society, and international institutions by 2030, commitments have been made to accomplish a range of tasks, from reducing extreme poverty to ensuring environmental sustainability and universal education, reducing child mortality, and promoting gender equality. Despite the fact that adaptation activities directly contribute to achieving SDG 13, which focuses on taking action against climate change, it should be seen as part of a strategy to strengthen a country's achievements in implementing all other SDGs based on the value of Demoethics.Expected results: The results of this study can serve as a basis for supporting targeted policies and the transformation of demographic components of the economy.

Enhancing preschoolers’ creativity through art-based environmental education for sustainability

Creativity is key in developing students’ environmental competence so that they come up with working and sustainable solutions to address environmental issues in daily life. However, these remain under-investigated in both Environmental Education (EE) and Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) research. Here, we report an action research study conducted in a Greek kindergarten, supporting and exploring little-c creativity in a group of preschool students during an art-based EE/ESD project. Visual art had a two-fold role in the study: it was applied as the pedagogical approach in the project and also functioned as a complementary art-based research method, to focus on the conditions that enable young learners’ creativity within an educational intervention. The findings show that preschoolers’ creative thinking is enhanced when encouraged to identify environmental problems in their school and leads to actions towards sustainability. This supports the idea that creativity in preschool EE and ESD requires a pedagogical framework that is receptive to innovation, alongside a supportive teacher who incorporates imaginative, collaborative and reflective approaches to unfold and develop students’ creative potential.

Education for Environmental Sustainability in Preschool through STEM Project-based Learning

Education for Environmental Sustainability in Preschool through STEM Project-based Learning

The Effectiveness of a Community-Based Playgroup in Inspiring Positive Changes in the Environmental Attitudes and Behaviours of Children and their Parents: A Qualitative Case Study

AbstractThe ideal period for implementing environmental education or education for sustainability is during the early childhood years. The educational context of playgroups can be a platform for both children and their parents to learn together and together engage in early childhood education for sustainability (ECEfS), however there is a paucity of literature examining ECEfS within Australian playgroup contexts. The Little Explorers Playgroup (LEP) is a facilitated playgroup located in a sustainable living centre in Sydney, Australia, and provides opportunities for children and their parents to engage in ECEfS. The study purpose was to evaluate the effect of the LEP on the participating children and parents’ environmental attitudes and behaviours. This qualitative study was designed as a single critical case study employing semi-structured telephone interviews conducted with twenty-three participants, including three LEP playgroup facilitators and 20 parents. The data generated by the interviews was analysed thematically and the findings indicated that the LEP empowered and positively transformed both the children and parents’ environmental attitudes and behaviours. This was evident through the children and parents’ adoption of more environmentally responsible attitudes and behaviours. The findings demonstrate that playgroups may be an untapped opportunity for facilitating community change towards sustainable living.

Researching education for environmental sustainability through intergenerational dialogue

This study uses intergenerational dialogue as an approach to researching Education for Environmental Sustainability (EfES) with UK youth (aged 16–18 years), teachers and teacher educators. Through analysis of qualitative data from 210 participants shared through 18 h of participatory online workshops, we identify the framings introduced into discussions on EfES. We find a range of conceptual framings, with youth tending to centre on levels of accountability and critique of economic prioritisation. The case study demonstrates how intergenerational perspectives can be brought into conversation during the research process and identifies an appetite for intergenerational dialogue in EfES. We argue that intergenerational dialogue opens up our collective selves (adult and youth) to the thinking of others so that we can transform obstructions and enact education for environmental sustainability. Future work should consider the place for dialogue between key actors across generations in education decision-making processes.

Critical thinking in environmental education through digital games among students

In recent years, we have come aware of the importance of digital games-based learning environments among young learners. In order to produce a sustainable environmental education that is interactive, persuasive, and action-oriented, it should be interactive and persuasive. This article explains the insights gathered during the teaching of cognitive knowledge, engaging students emotionally through the demonstration of the consequences of destructive environmental behavior in this article. Many studies show that knowledge acquisition in digital games has a significant impact on collaborative learning compared to individual digital game playing. This method study has been examined among 50 students in a high school in environmental education trend in Jaffa-Tel Aviv, who played a game individually (n = 50), in a collaborative group (n = 40) and in a control group (n = 38). During the designed digital games, the students were asked to complete an open-ended questionnaire to identify their thinking skills. A higher level of attitude learning was observed from games compared to traditional pedagogical methods and pro-environmental behavior was achieved. It is important to continue evaluating the effectiveness of digital games as a learning tool and to identify best practices for their design and implementation in educational settings.

PPG, PPG Foundation to invest $5 million in environmental sustainability education

PPG, PPG Foundation to invest $5 million in environmental sustainability education

The CIRCULAR pathway: a new educational methodology for exploratory circular value chain redesign

The circular economy (CE) is gaining global relevance across countries and institutions as a tool to solve some of the most pressing global challenges derived from linear production and consumption systems. However, transitioning to a CE requires significant changes in how businesses and supply chains operate, including redesigning products, processes, and business models. These changes require that future professionals acquire knowledge and skills on the principles of CE, Life Cycle Thinking, and Systems Thinking. However, research on existing higher education programs signals a need for educational resources to develop these skills and knowledge in real-world settings. This paper outlines a new eight-step methodology to introduce students to the principles of CE through the exploratory redesign of a real-world product and value chain in a project-centered learning environment. This methodology was developed in four iterations and was used to teach 251 students from the BSc. Business Engineering at Maastricht University during the academic years 2020–2022. The findings indicate that this method supports students' understanding of complexity, linearity, and the importance of systemic change across the entire value chain, as well as their critical thinking, problem-solving, and decision-making skills. The methodology provided in this paper supports and encourages educational bodies to implement Education for CE in their curricula and further strengthens the complementary fields of Education for Environmental Sustainability and Education for Sustainable Development. Furthermore, educators, professionals and businesses can make use of this tested methodology for exploratory product redesign toward sustainable circularity transitions.