Environmental Educator and Classroom Teacher Perspectives on Teaching Climate Change

• In Event: 73.061 - Roundtable Session 32
  In Roundtable Session: 73.061-6 - Teacher and Teacher Education Research in Environmental Education

Abstract

With the advent of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), climate change is poised to become a mandated subject in science classrooms. This study interviews nineteen educators, in the disciplines of science, elementary and environmental education, who are currently teaching or preparing to teach climate change. Their concerns included the science as well as the controversy of climate change. They also wanted their students to have a deep understanding of the topic. Based on their report, if the NGSS are adopted, teachers will need support in teaching climate change, specifically: strategies for negotiating socially controversial topics in the ‘classroom’; the development of tools that allow teachers teach about risk and uncertainty; and further study of the pedagogy of complex systems.

Author

• Megan C. McGinty, University of Washington - Seattle