Environmental education and classroom practice: some implications for teacher education

Abstract

Informal, open, experiential, student-centred classroom styles are seen as preferable for effective environmental education. The paper examines how far and in what ways such styles are employed and what model of teacher education is eneded. Three hundred and eighty-one teachers in Hong Kong completed a self-administered questionnaire examining the openness and indirectedness of teaching style primarily within a framework of Gagne instructional events. Opening phases in lessons tended to be open, indirect and student-centred but as lessons progresssed became more closed, teacher-directed, bookish and examination oriented. The relative inappropriateness of the style adopted is not seen in terms of lack of teacher knowledge but of teacher perceptions of practicality and a tendency to adopt satisficer strategies to accommodate short-term demands. Teacher education needs to take account of the realities of the school and focus on teacher education and curriculum development as one within a process model of teacher training that is appropriate to the needs of environmental classes.