Download Climate Change Awareness and Education

Climate Change
Awareness and Education
Paul Carr
Supervisors TCD/ UCD: Dr. Conor Buggy, Dr. Gayle McGlynn
Supervisor DUCE: Dr. Emiliana Mwita
Additional Researcher: Yunwen Bao
Research Aims & Objectives
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5 year climate change awareness and education project.
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Stage 1: Student and Lecturers in teacher trainer college (DUCE) - 2014
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Stage 2: Students and teachers in a DUCE affiliated secondary school - 2015
Aim:
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Identify the current level of understanding of climate change
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Identify the strengths and weaknesses of current climate change education
Objective:
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Inform the creation of a future education package for DUCE students on CC
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Can be used as ‘pre-implementation’ data and compared with ‘postimplementation’ data in future.
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May be relevant in other sub-Saharan African countries
Research Question
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What is the level of awareness of climate change
among secondary school students in a developing
nation urban school?
Sub Questions:
 What are students’ current misconceptions about
climate change?
 What are students’ personal views and attitudes
towards climate change?
 How/ Where do students currently get information
about climate change?
 How is climate change taught in the classroom?
Participants’ Profile
Male
Female
148
136
Climate Change Knowledge
Cutting down trees causes
climate change – 90% correct
Students identified correctly
the effects of climate change
on weather (85%), flooding and
droughts (73%) and the spread
of disease (74%)
Climate means average
weather – 30% correct
Damage to the ozone layer
causes climate change – 90%
incorrect
Burning fossil fuels causes
climate change – 45% correct
Attitudes towards Climate Change (%)
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
It is already too late to do anything about climate
change
10
18
72
All countries should help each other to stop climate
change
89
7
4
The Tanzanian government should do more to stop
climate change
90
6
4
I want to learn more about climate change at school
87
11
2
Humans have a big effect on climate change
87
8
5
Sources of Climate Change Information (n=276)
Teacher Interviews
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Personal views on climate change education and teaching
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All agreed teaching about climate change is crucial in schools.
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Syllabus and teaching materials are inadequate and outdated.
“The content, especially in ordinary level, is very shallow.”
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Some Geography teachers do not teach about climate change, despite the topic being
part of the syllabus
“No, I don’t teach about climate change… Nowadays there is no topic of climate change
(in geography)… It depends if the teacher is educated on the topic if they will teach
it.”
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Lesson development, teaching methods, books and additional materials that teachers
use varied widely and is very teacher centric.
“I never depend on the syllabus to guide the content of the class. I depend on my own
knowledge”
Conclusions & Recommendations
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Strengths: Regionally relevant, non-scientific knowledge – Extreme weather, deforestation,
industry, spread of disease
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Weaknesses: Scientific knowledge – GHGs, acid rain, ozone layer, climate & weather, fossil fuels
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Gender?
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Positive outlook with sense of agency
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Context of Tanzanian education system – capacity, attendance, materials, teacher training,
language
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Context of a broader system of information dissemination in urban environment
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“what it is that each individual has reason to value” (Unterhalter, 2005, p28)