Climate change education in school
The purpose of the project is to provide knowledge of climate literacy based on empirical data to be used in school. The researchers have developed a theoretical model of what knowledge, abilities and attitudes constitute students’ climate literacy, hypotheses about what factors affect climate literacy, and how climate literacy can lead to a willingness to act in a more climate-friendly way. Work now continues by testing the model with students in upper secondary school, teachers and the general public in three sub-studies.
In climate research, it is becoming increasingly clear that we are facing climate changes as a result of our greenhouse gas emissions. These climate changes will have both global and local consequences. Forecasts show that the average temperature on Earth will increase and sea levels will rise, but locally changes may differ and be difficult to predict. In some parts of the world, the climate is expected to become more humid and in other parts drier, with temperature changes varying greatly from place to place. Refined climate models show that in northern Europe we are facing more rainfall and more storms, an increased number of extreme weather situations and thereby an increased risk of natural disasters.
Awareness is not affecting our decisions - yet
Research shows that there is an awareness among the general public, and specifically among upper-secondary school students, about the greenhouse effect and its consequences for the climate. However, this is has so far had little impact on the willingness and ability to make climate-friendly decisions in everyday life. A possible contributing factor is that many students do not have an adequate conceptual understanding of the complex relationship between energy consumption and climate change. Another aspect is that students easily perceive the climate threat as a future problem, happening globally or in poor countries, rather than an acute problem here and now for us in Europe.
However, in recent years we have seen a trend with young people organising protests and taking action to raise the issue of climate change. This has manifested not least through Fridays for Future, the global climate strike movement initiated by Greta Thunberg.
Didactic researchers and climate researchers at Karlstad University and didactic researchers at IPN in Kiel have developed a theoretical model of what knowledge, abilities and attitudes constitute students’ climate literacy, hypotheses about what factors affect climate literacy, and how climate literacy, in turn, can lead to a willingness to act in a more climate-friendly way. Work now continues by testing the model with students in upper-secondary school, teachers and the general public in three sub-studies.
The project “Bringing Climate Change to School: Theoretical Framing, Elaboration and Evaluation of Learning Opportunities for Climate Literacy” will run from 1 August 2020 until 31 July 2024 and is financed by the Swedish Research Council. The project is a collaboration between Karlstad University and German IPN - Leibniz-Institut für die Pädagogik der Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik.
Researchers in the project
Karlstad University
IPN - Leibniz-Institut für die Pädagogik der Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik