Climate change and environmental education

the challenges of language use, curriculum design and making meaningful connections

Abstract

Environmental awareness education is an important topic in our current curriculum. The use of language to describe certain terms of this field requires clarity to make a meaningful impact. In order to consider the global level dimension of climate change the multilingual aspect is also an important need for developing learning resources. The curriculum needs an effective design to meet the ongoing challenges related to the understanding of climate change. The making of the meanings from certain science terms by the general public can be an important factor in our profound understanding of environment related terminology. A survey is used to explore some pedagogical and conceptual challenges related to this issue. The research question explores the ways in which climate change and environment education are viewed in terms of effective learning, language use, curriculum design and concept attainment. Some possibilities are discussed to find connections between theory, research and practice. Further studies will be needed to analyze the outcomes for some specific curriculum needs at various levels.