An Environmental Education Approach to the Training of Elementary Teachers: A Teacher Education Programme. A Discussion Document for Unesco Training Seminars on Teacher Training in Environmental Education.

Overview & Synopsis

This document describes an elementary teacher education program (TEP) for training elementary school teachers to include the environment in the content and methods of the early years of education. The major focus of this document is to infuse environmental content and methods in existing or planned courses of instruction in the TEP. The topics in part I are the goals for the TEP as well as discussions on learner objectives as they related to the goals, the role of citizenship responsibility, and environmental sensitivity. Part II deals with topics of infusion and the infusion strategy. Part III lays out the entire TEP, providing an overall description of each course and making definite suggestions for the infusion of environmental education into the appropriate courses. Part IV focuses on the critical variables of instruction and successfully seeing these outcomes realized in students. It also describes the General Teaching Model (GTM), resources for instruction, inventorying community resources available for instruction, the use of field trips, and problem solving as a strategy for environmental education. Part V presents example infusion activities for use in the TEP. (KR)