I've been preparing a reflection for a professional development activity this summer. In the process of thinking about environmental education, I had the opportunity during June to read some books I should have read a long time ago: "Last Child in the Woods," "Collapse," and "Something New Under the Sun: An Environmental History of the Twentieth Century." I was driven to write about what these books meant to me, but I wanted to begin by giving some background information from the readings themselves.
The need for nature-based science education is not new, nor is it newly discovered. Eleanor Roosevelt illustrated the importance of seasons, rivers, and woods ecology in her work. Beatrix Potter used nature to invoke a sense of mystery and imagination, patterns and connection with the world. Even Cesar Chavez had a history of placing the environment as a higher priority for social reform. But these leaders might have difficulty communicating with the typical American about why environmental education needs expanded committment and resource allocation.
One of the benefits of using the environment in education is the creativity it inspires in students. While this is certainly a difficult definition for a learning objective because of its subjectivity, creativity nontheless applies to scientific inquiry and is undoubtedly required for the higher level thinking we want to instill in our students. Even adults have difficulty maintaining focus in the workplace when they lose sight of the creative aspect of their professional lives and start to drown in the minutiaes of voice mail, memos, and meetings.
So we can look towards other systems beyond our own to see how an educator might be led towards development of an outstanding environment-based curriculum. One example would be found in Japan, where teams of teachers "attack" a lesson plan through conscientious study of how the students are actually engaged with the material and careful, painstaking analysis of what the students learned. There seems to be a much greater focus on improvement, specifically improving lesson implementation, through objective lesson study. In contrast, the U.S. education system seems heavily tilted in the area of standards and assessment, while less focused on the area of pedagogy. It would seem that the focus on expected outcomes and results might also need a close examination of skills and strategies for getting there, but of course this is a somewhat "messy" proposition to evaluate. If we learn about the Japanese lesson study model, it could provide American teachers with a template for improving our own pedagogy so that we are better able to enact AND assess those standards which are so ingrained in district learning objectives.
What changes have come about gradually as children have fewer opportunities to play in the garden, walk home under the moon-lit stars, or traipse down through the woods to the river? One psychologist, Louis Chawla, found a strong need in children for a dynamic relationship with the places they live, play and work within. We also know that 40% of 5-8 year olds have cardiac risk factors. If we want to diagnose a "disorder" in our children, we might be interested to know that currently 8 million children in the United States suffer from some type of "disorder" related to attention span, listening, following directions, or focusing on tasks. Where does the persistent pattern of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity come from? Michael Guriam believes: "Neurologically, human beings haven't caught up with today's overstimulating environment." It might also come from the focus on pharmaceuticals in our environment: I was shocked to learn that the use of stimulants in children of middle and high school age has increased 600% from 1990-1995. This included methlphenidate and amphetamines. And finally, the lack of connection students are able to make between their future careers is revealing:
40% of students responded: "Science is relevant"
26% of students responded: "Science will not be useful in my career"
29.5% of students responded: "Science will be a part of my everyday life"
28.6% of students responded: "Science should be a regular part of educational training"
These reponses were gathered by Jerome L. Greene from the Science Center at Yale.
So it seems like the challenge is 2-fold: 1.) convincing others (the world) that science is critical component of modern society, and 2.) science is environmentally-based investigation that takes place in relevant, community-oriented contexts
More to come on this soon. . .
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