Climate Change Education Requires a Holistic Teaching Approach

Our lifestyles and behaviors are contributing to global climate change, which will potentially affect future growth and development, human and/or environmental health, as well as threaten communities. Little research exists on climate change education, making it difficult for schools and educators to develop a successful curriculum. Some challenges associated with climate change education include misconceptions spread by the media, the difficulty of teaching and learning the associated science, and varying levels of knowledge among students. For this study, the researchers evaluated how students' questions about climate change pertain to climate change education topics, and they explored what students' questions revealed about their learning interests regarding climate change.

This study used the Climate System Framework, a climate change education model created by practitioners that emphasizes six focus areas: 1) naturally occurring climate change; 2) air pollution; 3) snow and ice concentrations; 4) ocean science; 5) land and ecosystems; and 6) human influence. The framework creators reasoned that by understanding these topics and how they relate to each other, students' knowledge of the climate system will improve. This framework was later modified to include economic, political, and mitigation elements.

The researchers analyzed camp applications for the 2011 International Millennium Youth Camp, which is held in Finland. This program is open to 16- to 19-year-olds worldwide who have expressed previous interest or success in math or science. The application requested that students choose a primary interest group for the camp, one of which was climate change. After selecting an interest, the application prompted students to ask open-ended questions about the topic. While the camp received nearly 1,500 applications, only 300 of the applicants selected climate change as a primary interest. After initial review of the climate change applications, the researchers eliminated some due to student failure to write a question and small sample sizes from Oceania, South America, and North America. In total, 200 students (66% female, 34% male) from 46 countries in Asia and Europe submitted 355 questions. The researchers analyzed these questions and categorized them into five themes: Climate System Framework, Effects on Humans, Solutions for Climate Change, Raising Awareness, and Human Action.

Building on the Climate System Framework, this research indicated that students expressed interest in many climate change-related topics, including psychology, economics, politics, and community health. Participants were identified as expressing the greatest concern for Solutions to Climate Change (37%). They questioned what they could individually do to help alleviate climate change effects. Participants also considered future technological innovations to mitigate climate change such as utilizing renewable energy and resources. Within the Climate System Framework theme (33%), students highlighted their interest in learning more about the science and research behind climate change. The authors cautioned that this theme was broad because it included any student questions related to the framework's six domains mentioned above. In the Human Action (13%) category, students expressed interest in learning how others, such as government and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) were mitigating climate change. The Effects on Humans (11%) questions addressed climate change implications for communities such as natural hazards, diseases, and droughts. Lastly, a few questions (6%) addressed Raising Awareness as a primary concern, wondering how best to inform others of climate change effects.

The researchers acknowledged that the applicants were passionate about climate change, so their questions may differ from those asked in a standard classroom. For instance, students with less interest or lack of previous knowledge may not ask as many multidisciplinary questions as the applicants in the study. Therefore, the findings of this study might not be transferrable to other classrooms. In addition, the study only included students from Asia and Europe. Students from other regions may have questions regarding other topics related to climate science.

Overall, the authors recommend an interdisciplinary approach to climate change education. This study highlighted that although the students had strong math and science backgrounds, their questions also explored economic, political, social, psychological, and community health aspects of climate change, indicating that climate science spans across disciplines. However, adopting a holistic teaching approach may be challenging. To offset this potential burden, the authors recommend using guided exercises in which teachers support students through self-selected projects. This method encourages students to focus on a topic of interest and are able to learn from each other. However, more research is needed to understand how best to shift education programs to an interdisciplinary/holistic approach that supports climate change education.