Systematic review of causal relationship between climate change and student outcomes

• In Event: The Future is Now: Youth Engagement and Environmental Action

Proposal

Increased interest in climate change education and the growing recognition of the challenges inherent to Interest in education about climate change has increased in recent years, attributable in part to expanded funding and leadership for educational programs that address climate change (Anderson2012; Government of Alberta 2017; UNESCO 2009; U.S. Department of State 2014), the addition of climate change to educational curriculum guidelines (e.g. NRC 2012), mounting awareness of unusual weather patterns (Trenberth, Fasullo, and Shepherd 2015), and the deepening concern of the likelihood of global environmental, social, and economic changes due to climate change (Adger et al. 2013; Bellardet al. 2012; Moorhead 2009; NRC 2001; Wheeler and von Braun 2013). With this growing interest has come an increase in published research articles about climate change education around the world: from 12 articles published between 1990 and 1999, and 433 from 2000 to 2009, to 1489 from 2010 to2015, according to searches conducted in Academic Search Premier using the search terms of ‘climate change’ and ‘education.’ Despite this enormous wealth of information, educators are faced with many challenges when teaching about climate change and there is not broad agreement about what strategies are most effective.
The purpose of this research is to use a systematic review to synthesize the existing literature to describe educational strategies that have been shown to contribute to effective teaching about climate change in formal and non-formal settings.
The increasing interest in and need for effective climate change education, and increasing awareness that we may not know how best to do it, combine to create an appropriate opportunity to conduct a systematic review to understand effective strategies in climate change education. There is a limit to looking to previously published work to identify strategies for the future. Yet there is also wisdom to being informed about what has been done before embarking on new efforts. Other researchers haveembarked on similar tasks in recent years, reviewing existing literature on climate change communication and education (Wibeck 2014), teacher professional development (Hestness et al. 2014), global warming education (Bozdoğan 2011), climate change beliefs and attitudes (Brownlee, Powell, and Hallo2013), and factors influencing changes in skills, attitudes, and behaviors (Anderson 2012). This review differs from those mentioned as it focuses on articles that tested, measured, and reported results of a climate change educational intervention and used the systematic review process (see Methods). All of these efforts serve to guide educators as they continue to explore new approaches, gaps, and needs in climate change education.

Authors

• Hyun-Ki Shim, Kongju National University

• Hoonho Kim, Kongju National University

• YUNMI SHIN, Kongju National University