By

F.C. OWEYEGHA- AFUNADUULA

Website: http://www.afuna.org or http://www.afuna.o-f.com

Email:afunaduula2000@yahoo.co.uk or afunaduula@afuna.org

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Teaching Methodologies In Environmental Education

The Quality Teaching

Quality of leaving desires partly from the quality of teaching.
Need to encourage student participation ( over /= and cover /=).
Amount of active (student) participation in leaving is an excellent index of the quality of teaching.
Need to adapt teaching methods that bring about maximum student participation ( over /= and cover /=).
Participation reaches its maximum only when the content presentation is interesting and meaningful to students and when students are adequately reinforced.
Environmental Education is best accomplished through student participation.
Teaching methods should be designed to ensure maximum participation of students
Problem solving, field study and experimentation are few of the teaching methods that maximize student participation.
The wide variety of methods used in teaching environmental education are practically the same as those used in other subject areas.
Certain methods, particularly those that develop the students' skills in problem solving and decision-making are more appropriate learning about an environment that is continually changing.
Such skills should be given emphasis as the individual assumes greater responsibility over decisions and actions the environmental consequences of which may be irreversible.
Grow emphasis on environmental education heightens the need for educators to make their teaching more interesting and appealing to students.
Varied and appropriate experiences should be availed to students to enable them to understand the complex environment they are in.
It is assumed that with understanding and interest, action may possibly result.
Therefore, use of a variety of teaching styles and methodologies is highly recommended.

Why a Variety of Methods in Teaching Environmental Education?

Different Environmental educators hold different views as to
best method of teaching and
best sequence of topics.
Many believe there is no such a thing as best.
Any teaching strategy used effectively and efficiently is a successful method (Emery, et. al., 1974).
Method should be looked at as ‘the planned procedure or the instructional moves of the teacher in teaching a lesson’.
Method and strategy mean the same and can be used interchangeably.
Teaching Method refers to ‘the reorganisation of content and restructuring of the learning environment; the giving of the right directions to the students at the right time in the right amount and the provision of opportunities for practice, feedback and correction.
Each student has a preferred teaching style. Therefore is need to maintain students interest and increase their desire for further study.
Several factors affect the effectiveness of a given teaching method.
Learners’ aptitude
Content presented
Delivery system used to present content.
Capability of student to integrate new concepts
Aptitude
This is the natural tendency, readiness liking of a learner for certain subject areas or teaching strategies.
Consists of the skills, experiences or characteristics of the learner that ensures success under a given instructional situation.
Different students have different aptitudes; therefore they will differ in their learning abilities.
A teaching method should take care of this so that students are not bored or frustrated.
Delivery system
Devices used in instruction, e.g., video, audiotapes, computer, projectors,
Environment itself is a classroom, a rich resource of materials that a teacher may use in absence of audiovisual devices or aids.
Where audiovisual equipment is present it is a means to bring the difficult to visit environment to the classroom.
Question that should be asked in the choice of teaching method :
What do you want the student to become?
What can the learner do ?
What is the nature of the subject to be taught/
Goals of Environmental Education describe what one wants the student to become.
Each lesson moves the learner close to the goals.
What the learner can do depends on the developmental stage he/she is in.
What the learner can do also depends on the teacher.
The teacher is perhaps the major part of the delivery system.
The teacher is the key factor in mediating the leaving process.
The method selected by a teacher depends upon what he accepts as the goods of education, his interests and training.
Therefore, there is need to enrich the teachers repertoire of methodologies of teaching.

Problem Solving as an Approach

Note that a problem exists;
When a novel situation cannot be explained nor predicted on basis of existing principles and theories.
Whatever an observation does not concur with expectation.
Many physical, biological, social, political issues and problems of the environment remain to be resolved.
Two types of problems:
The divergent problem, with only one acceptable answer.
The convergent problem, with only one acceptable answer.
Problem solving in environmental education;
This often deals with divergent problems since conditions and needs of different location vary.
Solving convergent problems is mostly guesswork.
Problem-solving skills are basic skills which have to be solved in everyone, mainly through practice.
This is why we say ‘Practice makes perfect’
Those who engage in problem-solving generally learn to become responsible, capable and creative individual.
One sure way of making them learn is by making them respond actively, collect data, answer questions and organise information.
Educators agree on the importance of logical thinking and problem solving in learning the natural and social sciences.
Problem: Problem-solving method is not taught in many schools.
Problem solving should be considered an approach to teaching, under which the following methods may be employed;
Inquiry
Case study
Games
Role-play
Research
Discussion.
There is usually a problem to be tackled in any of these methods; they differ only in the stops taken.
The Force-Field Approach
This is an approach which considers every problem as having a positive or driving forces that tend to push forward a positive change, i.e., an important in the situation.
There are also negative or restraining forces which resist change and maintain the existence of the problem. These must be identified to soften their impact or remove them completely.
- Therefore in problem solving, it is necessary to identify and utilise the positive driving forces in order to achieve the desired end.

Inquiry Method

This emphasis a students own initiative and direction of learning experiences.
Usually there is a topic, problem or question a student is interested in or is curious about
Where curiosity is expressed, a teacher should capitalise on it.
Note: some students are too shy to make brown their questions and knowledge. therefore the teacher must use other means to get these.
The topic, question or problem may be tackled as a cooperative venture :
students working individually or collectively
Students & teacher(s) jointly planning, discussing, hypothesising, analysing and inferring in their attempt to generalise from a set of data.
Hence: theories are formulated and then tested by means of experiment and/or analysis of data gathered from observations to give meaning or find relationships.
Useful methods because it aims to develop students' curiosity and imagination and their ability to express ideas, to inquire, investigate and discover for themselves.
Also students can be motivated to find alternatives or new ways of dealing with complexities when things do not turn out as expected in the search for solutions to the problem.
Concepts can be presented to students in many ways, e.g., Discovery through inquiry and Invitations to inquiry.

Discovery through
Advocated by Richard Sucman.
Uses various delivery systems e.g., films, slides, narrative story supported by photos or demonstration of a phenomenon to pose problems and causality.
Inquiry is conducted without students actually performing experiment or manipulating equipment.
Students gather data about the problem by asking questions.
Usually yes or no questions, to make students become critical thinker and better inquirers.
Data gathered force students to test their hypotheses through what Suchman called ‘Verbalised experiments’
Overall result : students become skilful inquirers through practice.
Inquiry is not new but is one of the means used to develop basic cognitive skills that enable the learners to discover the factors causing observed changes.

Example of Verbalised Experiment

The Concept The pollution of a river is caused by man’s activities and affects the community’s water supply.
Objective To enable students to recognise man's activities that causes adverse changes in the conditions of a river.
Method Discovery through inquiry.
Materials Visiting a polluted river/or using photo.
Procedure: A. Introduce the concept by visiting the river.
Then allow students to ask yes-no-questions so that finally a description of the river, it name, topography, boundaries etc is possible.
B. Develop the concept
i.e., establish possible causes of polluted state of the river
C. Discuss findings:
analysis of data to establish causes of pollution.
probable effects of pollution on usefulness of river
let students prepare a list of what they can do to save the dying river.

Invitation to Inquiry
This emphasises how data are acquired and converted into knowledge.
A problem may be presented and then experiments are performed to solve it
Or students may be invited to interpret and/ or react to a set of data to form a conclusion.
Or a problem situation may be brought out to account for the observed results.
Hypotheses can be tested in another invitation to inquiry.

Research Methods

Experimental Method
An experiment is ‘ an operation carried out under controlled conditions in order to discover an unknown effect or law, to test or establish a hypothesis, or to illustrate a known law’ (Webster).
Controlled conditions;
The researcher identifies all relevant variables maintains them in the normal state except that one being tested.
The variable being tested is believed to have something to do with or is the possible cause of the problem.
Experimenting is actually inquiry through investigation with objects, apparatus and materials under natural and simulated conditions.

Survey Research
This is way of gathering baseline information.
Most useful in environmental education since it can be resorted to in determining awareness, understanding, interest or opinion or community people on an environmental situation.

Case Method
Simulation activities
games
role play
Discussion

Projected Method

This involves the carrying out of a task by a group working together by an individual.

Field Trip

This involves the students going into real experience with nature and as much as possible becoming part of it. It is based on the dictum that experience is the best teacher.

Conclusion

‘Methodology’ is a critical aspect of environmental education. If they are not effective then environmental education will not be effective. They must be effective and environmental effective. They must be effective and environmental education must be effective in order for environmental action to be effective. The goal should be to educate for environmental sustainability and sustainable livelihoods for all. If health for all is important, then it is a myth to think that this can be achieved without an effective environmental education programme that converts its products into agents for sustainability and sustainable livelihoods.