Climate change is the most urgent and complex global crisis facing mankind, and responding to climate change has become the top priority for mankind. What can education contribute to humanity's fight against climate change?How can education be harnessed to mitigate and adapt to climate change?
On December 2, the 6th World Education Frontier Forum** hosted by the China Education 30 Forum with the theme of "Climate Education and Xi: Turning the Tide, Starting with Me" was held. Thirty-seven experts and scholars from Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, the United States, Japan, Malaysia and other countries introduced their latest research results and effective practical explorations in climate change education around the theme of the forum.
Climate change is not just a scientific issue
Climate change is not only a scientific issue, but also a social issue that affects the economy, politics, culture and environment of countries around the world.
Climate change has had a direct impact on education, affecting the normal operation and future development of education. UN Children** warns that climate change-induced climate disasters, such as floods, droughts, storms and wildfires, have displaced some 43.1 million children in 44 countries between 2016 and 2021, equivalent to about 20,000 children every day.
Gong Peng, Vice-Chancellor and Chair Professor of Global Sustainable Development at the University of Hong Kong, outlined a series of problems brought by climate change. In his view, climate change is encroaching on our daily living space, and the public's attention to issues related to population health and climate change has increased significantly.
Yin Houqing, vice president of the 8th Council of the Chinese Society of Education and president of the Shanghai Society of Education, conducted a survey of 236 primary and secondary schools in Shanghai. He found that the schools surveyed had designed a total of 400 science projects in project chemistry Xi, with about 20% of the projects related to the environment, which is a high proportion overall. However, climate change projects accounted for 25%, which is a very low percentage.
Yue Wei, a professor at the School of Education at Central China Normal University, said that addressing climate change is not only a scientific and social issue, but also an educational issue, and education must take active action. The value proposition of education in addressing climate change lies in climate change mitigation and adaptation.
Environmental education is already an important part of education in many countries and regions. Li Zhuofen, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and academician of the Canadian Academy of Engineering, shared at the forum that the purpose of climate education is to hope that the next generation will take care of our earth and protect our environment.
Dai Dawei, director general of the Tian Jiabing Association, said that ecological civilization education is not only curriculum education, but also the cultivation of life education and action ability. Environmental education is the common responsibility of schools, families and society, and how to strengthen the cooperation between the three parties in environmental education is also an issue that needs to be explored.
An assessment survey of international students by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) shows that young people generally have a good understanding of climate change. Nearly 80% of the students surveyed (2018) said they knew or were very familiar with climate change and global warming. Deborah Nusa, a senior analyst at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, is currently working on a project called "Education Policies for a Sustainable Future". She said that education systems play an important role in climate change by influencing mindsets, behaviours and life choices. At the same time, climate change provides an opportunity for education to help young people develop systems, thinking skills and accept complexity.
Teachers urgently need to be literate about climate change education
The implementation of climate change education is a big issue!Li Shengbing, dean of the School of Educational Sciences of South China Normal University and executive director of the Center for Hong Kong and Macao Studies, raised this issue at the meeting.
Pei Qing, an associate professor at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, has long been engaged in climate change education and research. In his teaching practice, he has found that when talking to students about global climate change, they often feel very far away from themselves. When learning Xi climate change, it is difficult for students to appreciate the traces of climate change, and they often feel powerless. "How to shorten the distance between students and climate change education, effectively promote climate change education, and improve the scientific literacy and humanistic feelings of young people are issues that need to be considered in climate change education."
For a long time, education has followed a modern development paradigm centered on economic growth. This is undoubtedly exacerbating the existential crisis for humanity and the planet. Yue Wei said that in order to mitigate, adapt and even reverse climate change, education itself must be transformed, and its important direction is its own ecology.
Today, in some countries, science teaching in schools has not changed much in the last decade, is becoming increasingly outdated, and is disconnected from real science practice in the real world." Deborah Nusa believes that school science education plays a vital role in nurturing future scientists, so attracting and supporting students to pursue further studies in STEM fields is key to strengthening green development.
Teachers are the key to the implementation of climate change education, but teachers around the world generally lack the necessary knowledge, resources and teaching training related to climate change education, and cannot effectively implement climate change education in the classroom. A recent UNESCO survey of 58,280 teachers in 144 countries showed that less than 40% of teachers were confident in teaching about climate change.
Dai Dawei pointed out that the environment is unprecedentedly complex and requires the participation of many disciplines, which puts higher demands on educators.
Carry out multidisciplinary integrated education
How can we carry out educational action on climate change?At the forum, the guests shared their practical experience in schools around the world. For example, Jiangjiagang Primary School in Zengdu District, Suizhou City, Hubei Province, allows students to further understand the common phenomena such as temperature, wind direction, and wind speed in life through knowledge explanations, games, and outdoor practices, and feel the changes in nature.
Climate change education involves meteorology, geography, physics, chemistry, sociology, economics, political science and other multidisciplinary content. Yue Wei proposed that the implementation of climate education should move from a single discipline to the integration of multiple disciplines, and the unique advantages of different disciplines should be brought into play to achieve the effect of collaborative education.
Yue Wei believes that student-centered experiential teaching and learning Xi are the most effective for climate change education. These pedagogies allow students to connect with the real world and develop their creativity to find solutions to problems from different perspectives.
In this regard, Yin Houqing said that climate education is not only to teach everyone the skills to cope with climate change in their lives, but also to enable students to form the values needed to adapt to climate change, so as to drive behavioral change. In the construction and implementation of climate change education curriculum, the theme-based learning Xi method promotes learner Xi s to move from knowledge Xi to understanding Xi, and then connects with life on this basis, so as to improve ecological civilization literacy.
Our earth is not inherited from our parents, but borrowed from our children". Cheng Jieming, Emeritus Professor and Former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Hong Kong, Chairman of the World Education Frontiers Forum, and member of the China Education 30 Forum, mentioned in his concluding remarks that saving the planet requires joint efforts. From understanding the world to realizing that we want to change our lives, this is the connotation of education. He hopes that students can change the environment they live in through their own actions.
Author: Kang Li.