Accomplishments
Extending Experiential Learning Approach for Changing the Perceptions of Prospective teachers about Environmental Education
- Abstract
Environmental Education has been infused in teacher education curriculum but still the objectives of teaching environmental education have not been fulfilled to the satisfactory level. Environmental education is taught in subjects of science and geography in school, where the focus of teachers is orientation to factual data as a result are not able to develop appreciation for nature among students. If we actually want to find out solution to the problem, the teacher educators should see at grass root level, the training and pedagogies used for teaching environmental education to pre- service teachers. Today we have moved to constructivist pedagogies which give enough scope of students' active engagement in the process of learning of any discipline. Among various approaches the researcher had used Experiential learning approach for changing the perceptions of the pre-service teachers about environmental education. The researcher aimed to explore the perceptions of 30 pre-service teachers who participated in the three months add on programme in environmental education using experiential learning approach. Case study research design was used where 30 pre-service teachers of a teacher education institution were the sample of the study. Pre-post intervention open ended questionnaires were used as a primary data source which were analysed using the constant comparative approach to develop a thematic analysis of their experience. The results showed that the experiential learning approach changed the perceptions of the pre-service teachers about environmental education. It is recommended that environmental education should be taught using experiential learning approach as this will create teachers who will environmental sensitive and will be create better citizens of country with environmental conscious values.