v-xEPA
                       United States
                       Environmental Protection
                       Agency
                             Office of Communications,
                             Education, and Media Relations
                             (1704)
EPA-171-F-98-016
August 1998
invironmental   Education  Advances
lua  ity  Education
                       What is Environmental Education?

                       Environmental education is a learning process that
                       increases knowledge and awareness about the
                       environment and develops skills that enable responsible
                       decisions and actions that impact the environment.
                       Environmental education encourages inquiry and
                       investigation and enables the learner to develop
                       critical-thinking, problem-solving, and effective
                       decision-making skills. Environmental education
                       enables individuals to weigh various sides of an
                       environmental issue. It does not advocate a particular
                       viewpoint or course of action.*

                       What Do Education Reformers Want? How Does Environmental Education Advance
                       Education Reform Goals?

                       "Education reform" means different things to different people.  But the one thing that all
                       "reformers" agree on is that the goal of education reform is to improve learning. Many advocates
                       of education reform are stressing the need to use new approaches to teaching and learning that
                       involve changes in curriculum and instruction. Others are calling for the need for more
                       fundamental changes at the school site and greater accountability and assessment of progress in
                       improving learning. The following are some examples of specific changes reformers are calling for
                       and suggestions about how environmental education can be used as  a vehicle to advance these
                       reform goals.  For example, reformers are calling for the need to:
           * See the UNESCO Tblisi Declaration
            (1978) and the National Environmental
            Education Advisory Council's "Report
            Assessing Environmental Education in the
            U. S. and the Implementation of the
            National Environmental Education Act"
            (1996) (EPA-171-R-96-001). Obtain a
            free copy of the report by contacting the
            National Center for Environmental
            Publications and Information by telephone
            at 800-490-9198 or order on line at
            .
                               Provide a real world context for learning and linking the
                               classroom to the needs of the community
                               -- Environmental education teaches about real
                                 issues that impact every community such as
                                 drinking water quality, indoor and outdoor air
                                 quality, habitat improvement, pesticide use and
                                 exposure, lead paint poisoning, as well as solid
                                 and hazardous waste management.
                                 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
                                 Region 5, Library (PL-12J)
                                 77 West Jackson Boulevard, 12th Floor
                                 Chicago, IL  60604-3590

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  Move away from textbook-driven, teacher-led
  instruction by using "hands-on," learner-centered,
  and cooperative learning approaches where students
  are actively engaged in their own learning process
  -  Environmental education engages the
     learner in a hands-on, student-driven
     investigative learning process.  Learners
     could collect and scientifically analyze air
     samples from their community or water
     samples from a local stream to assess
     indicators  of air or water quality.
EE and Education Reform
at the School Site
The State Education and Environment
Roundtable (SEER) supports the efforts of 12
state departments of education to improve learning
by using the environment as the context for
integrating learning across the curriculum. The
twelve states are CA, CO, FL, IA, KY, MD, MN,
NJ, OH, PA, TX, and WA.  For example, the
Washington Creating Model Links is a project in
which schools have developed a curriculum
integration plan with EE as the focus of their
restructuring efforts ().
  Focus on the need to develop the learner's
  critical-thinking, problem-solving, and decision-
  making skills
  —  Environmental education enables the
     learner to develop critical-thinking,
     problem-solving,  and decision-making
     skills. Teams of students could investigate
     the availability and viability of various local
     modes of transportation as alternatives to
     single-occupancy, privately-operated
     vehicles (such as bike paths, use of existing
     parking lots for car pool parking, and
     commuter bus and rail lines) and develop a
     plan for improving citizen choice in local
     transportation issues.
Curriculum in EE and
Education Reform
Project Learning Tree, Project WILD, and
Project WET are K-12 environmental education
programs that use their interdisciplinary
educational materials to foster the development
of critical-thinking and problem-solving skills.
These programs address a diverse range of topics
that include forest ecology, municipal solid
waste, risk assessment, energy issues, schoolyard
habitat, wildlife conservation and management,
wetlands and groundwater management, and
water conservation issues. Many of these
supplementary curriculum materials were
designed specifically with systemic education
reform in mind (,
, and
,
respectively).
  Replace the traditional, compartmentalized
  academic subjects with an interdisciplinary
  curriculum that more authentically connects fields
  of knowledge
  — Environmental education uses an
     interdisciplinary curriculum that
     connects various academic subjects.
     Students could use an interdisciplinary
     municipal solid waste curriculum which
     includes activities that teach about
     scientific inquiry, solve mathematical
     problems, promote understanding of the
     history  of local land uses, and improve
     writing and other communication  skills.
 Instruction in EE and Education Reform
The California Science Implementation Network
uses an interdisciplinary curriculum called
A Child's Place in the Environment in more than
100 California elementary schools as part of a
systemic professional development effort that
focuses on whole school change.  Lead teachers
participate in 21 days of professional
development throughout the year and help
engage the entire school in the systemic reform
process. The curriculum is aligned with
California's science and social science frameworks
().

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  Place emphasis on the need to set higher
  academic standards and to develop
  performance-based assessments of the learner's
  ability to meet those standards.
  -  Teachers can meet higher
     education standards by selecting
     environmental education materials
     that are correlated to their local,
     state, or national academic
     standards.  Environmental
     education provides the opportunity
     to use authentic  assessments
     because students are often involved
     with real-life projects.
Assessment in EE and Education
Reform
The Maryland School Performance Assessment
program measures the performance of
Maryland schools by examining how well
students solve problems individually and
collectively, apply what they have learned to real
world problems; relate and use knowledge from
different subject areas. The primary purpose of
the assessment is to provide information to
improve instruction in schools.  The
Assessment includes the use of environmental
issues as a problem-solving framework.
Getting More Information
    Visit EdGateway's "Environmental Education and Education Reform" World Wide Web site
    which includes information and examples on linkages between environmental education and
    education reform relating to curriculum, instruction, assessment, and the school site
    (< http: //www. edgate way. net/eereform/ >).

    Obtain a copy of a forthcoming publication tentatively titled "Linking Environmental Education and
    Education Reform" which examines linkages relating to instruction, professional development,
    assessment, standards and guidelines, and school structure.  The expected publication date is Fall 1998.
    For upcoming information, visit the World Wide Web at  or  or contact EPA's Office of Environmental Education at 202-260-4965.

    Attend the annual conferences of fazNorth American Association for Environmental Education
    (NAAEE). The theme of the 28th annual conference is "environmental education and education
    reform." The conference will take place in Cincinnati, Ohio from August 27 through 31, 1999.  For
    information, contact  Janet Thoreen at 937-676-25164 (phone), jthoreen@erinet.com (E-mail), or visit
    their World Wide Web set at .

    Attend the annual conferences of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD).
    The Association has an Environmental Education Network which meets as part of each conference.
    Their next conference takes place in San Francisco, California from March 6 through 8, 1999.
    For information, contact ASDC at 703-578-9600 (phone) or visit their World Wide Web site at
    .

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