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AbstractConsidering the crucial role of education in offering mitigation and adaptation strategies for climate change, there is a clear need for objective tools to assess its impact on the understanding of the issue among secondary school students. This paper describes the methodological design used to build and validate an instrument that explores secondary education students’ climate change knowledge. The design is organized into several steps: literature and document review; item design; Expert judgment; pilot testing; and instrument quality criteria analysis. Thus, a questionnaire comprising 27 4-points Likert scale items was designed. Two rounds of pilot testing and statistical analyses were conducted on the difficulty indexes, factor analysis, Spearman coefficient (flit-half method), and alpha coefficient. The result is an instrument with a degree of feasibility, validity and reliability suitable for comparative research as was found in a Spanish macro-study involving 6398 secondary school students. Preliminary results for the Spanish context are offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental problems such as climate change, biodiversity loss, water pollution, and land degradation resulting from human activities, continue to intensify in Ghanaian cities. Some schools of thought have attributed this to the low level of environmental literacy among people; thus, calling for environmentally literate citizens, particularly students, who would understand their interactions with the environment, have positive environmental behaviour and can make informed decisions to resolve current and future environmental problems. This paper sought to assess the level of environmental literacy, based on four components - environmental behaviour, environmental affect (attitudes and sensitivity), and cognitive skills - among 354 Junior and Senior High School students in Kumasi. The results of the paper showed that students generally have a moderate level of environmental literacy on environmental issues, with males displaying significantly higher knowledge, environmental affect and cognitive skills than the female students. Younger students had higher pro-environmental environmental behaviour than older students. Several challenges were further outlined to impede efforts in promoting environmental literacy among students. Notable among them were inability of students to appreciate nature by visiting natural areas, and inadequate resources and logistics, among others. The study concludes that schools' curricula alone cannot promote environmental literacy, but requires other extra-curricular activities such as television programmes as a complementary teaching method. Again, in order to develop environmentally literate students, authorities should implement a comprehensive, well supervised environmental literacy programmes in schools and challenge students to embark on environmental projects to make them agents of sustainable environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThe Ministry of Education, Youth, and Information (MoEYI) in Jamaica engaged in curriculum reform, producing the National Standards Curriculum (NSC) for Grades 4–9. This paper reports on a content analysis of the Grades 4–6 curriculum to determine the representation of Climate Change (CC) content, pedagogies, and activities for supporting Climate Change Education (CCE). The analysis revealed that the NSC includes many CC concepts throughout all three Grades, mostly in Grade 6 Science and Social Studies. In addition, various instructional strategies relevant to CCE are included, for instance, drama, field trips, class discussions, and the use of information and communications technology. However, there are some gaps in the content related to the impact of CC and mitigation measures. The presence of CC content and pedagogical tools in the NSC necessitates an emphasis of these areas in teacher preparation and development programmes to ensure readiness to teach CC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Preparing school teachers goes beyond equipping them with instrumental knowledge of curriculum, pedagogy, and experiences of how this can be enacted in practice. They must be prepared to understand and encompass compelling social issues of justice, equity, and sustainability. To do this they need to understand pressing environmental issues as a forerunner to incorporate sustainability into their teaching. This paper uses survey data from a sample of 136 Australian pre-service teachers to gauge their knowledge and beliefs about sustainability, as well as their level of concern and their inclination to teach about it. The results show sound levels of knowledge of the biophysical environment, knowledge about the consequences of unsustainable practices and the effects of energy use and its contribution as one cause of climate change. Some also hold misconceptions about the causes of climate change. Most prospective teachers are ready to take action to protect earth systems through personal actions, and teaching and advocating within their school community, and less likely to undertake political activities beyond the school. Results from this sample are used to set out a challenge to use the concept of powerful knowledge in tandem with everyday knowledge to improve sustainability instruction in teachers' preparation programs to capitalise on their potential to contribute to Education for Sustainable Development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]