CHAPTER 3: REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE 41
3.16. Attitudes related to teaching and learning of Environmental Education
teachers’ understanding of the environment and EE in experiential ways in order to influence behavioural change. It is also evident that tackling environmental problems using experiential methods such as, group work or field trips encourages deep learning and has a long term impact on the learners. Such methods also hold promise for teaching geography pre-service teachers.
Another exploratory study by Moseley and Utley (2008) on pre-service teachers beliefs about the environment, found that appropriate beliefs by teachers are a prerequisite to the effective teaching of EE.
Likewise, so is understanding and learning of EE by pre-service geography teachers. Teaching beliefs shape teaching practice especially in the area of EE. Pre-service geography teachers, therefore, need to spend time and give attention to discussing the goals of EE as given in the Zimbabwe National Environmental Education Policy and Strategies (2003), which they will apply in the school curriculum, particularly in geography. Moseley and Utley (2008) further point out that teacher educators need to be explicit in the objectives and delivery of EE activities and curricula with pre-service teachers.
Yavetz, Goldman, and Pe’er (2014) investigated environmental literacy among pre-service teachers, concerning their attitudes, knowledge and environmental behaviour. This longitudinal study of students in three teacher training colleges showed that students’ environmental knowledge was limited at the beginning of their studies, while their overall attitudes towards the environment were positive. Such a study reveals that environmental literacy among students of any level can be improved during training in areas such as EE. The study found that students majoring in fields specifically related to the environment were more knowledgeable and had more environmentally-oriented attitudes in comparison to students with other majors. The results of the cited study resonate well with the key research question of this study, concerning finding out understanding of EE among pre-service geography teachers. This will serve as a basis to develop pro-environmental behaviours among geography pre-service teachers at the Lowveld University.
Individuals’ environmental behaviours reflect their environmental literacy. Hence developing environmental literacy is equivalent to developing responsible environmental behaviour, and correspondingly individuals’ behaviours reflect the level of their environmental literacy (Cole, 2007).
According to Yavetz, Goldman, and Pe’er (2014) responsible environmental behaviour is a learned action;
it does not develop in a vacuum but in response to interacting components.
A study by Perrota, Moseley and Cantu (2008) indicates that pre-service teachers’ perceptions of the environment are not influenced by ethnicity, nor their dominant residential experience. EE in schools is seen as an important strategy for environmental sustainability (Taylor, Doff, Jenkins & Kennelly, 2007).
However, if teachers are to engage their students effectively in EE, it is a reasonable assumption that they should have an understanding and secure knowledge of key contemporary environmental issues and a positive attitude towards the environment (Cutter-Mackenzie & Smith, 2003). The studies cited above, across a number of countries indicate many instances if limited environmental knowledge amongst teachers, particularly so among pre-service teachers.
Phenomena such as rapid population growth, industrialization, urbanization, and exploitation of natural resources implicitly have a negative effects on the natural balance and so cause environmental problems (Yıldız, Sipahioğlu & Yılmaz, 2000). Global warming is the primary environmental issue encountered today. Global warming can be defined as the gradual increase in the Earth’s surface temperature because greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, methane, water vapour and fluorinated gases, allow radiation heat from the sun into the Earth’s atmosphere but partially prevent the heat escaping back into space (Lynas, 2008). Global warming as a result of the greenhouse effect, which causes the climate system to change is the most important environmental issue which has emerged directly from human behaviour. Across scientific, political, economic and ethical fields it is a much debated question of the 21st century. Hence EE is most relevant for the young generation (Schreiner, Henriksen, & Hansen, 2005). Global warming affects not only the countries which cause the release of these gases but all regions of Earth. Many devastating natural events have been witnessed recently across several continents ranging from America to Europe, Asia and Antarctica. Examples include the increasing frequency and strength of hurricanes and typhoons in the United States of America and Japan, the rapid melting of glaciers at the poles, devastating floods in southern Asia and the destruction caused by massive forest fires in , which led to many deaths and a considerable material damage (Lynas, 2008).
Investment in EE is particularly important for Zimbabwe based on agri-based economy that presents a particular set of environmental challenges. The current study therefore is aimed at increasing the number of educated individuals who are aware of environmental problems such as global warming and help them develop solutions to prevent further problems. Therefore, an “environmental education investment” made for our children should be perceived as an investment made for the world (Bozkurt & Cansüngü, 2002;
Yılmaz, Morgil, Aktug, & Göbekli, 2002). The Zimbabwean natural environment is agriculturally based;
70% of the population’s livelihood depends on agriculture. This dependence results in a variety of environmental challenges such as veld fires, soil erosion, cultivation of marginal areas, cultivation of stream banks and deforestation. These challenges are geographically specific, soil specific, and nationally specific
to Zimbabwe. Fien (2001: p. 240 as cited in Holdsworth, Bekessy, Thomas, 2009) argues that sustainability education pedagogy must encourage educators to include the exploration of “questions, issues and problems of sustainability, especially in contexts relevant to them and their communities.”
3.17. The application of ELT and PAR in understanding and learning Environmental Education