EdWeek Article: Students Want Climate Change Education. Most Teachers Don't Get Enough Training

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EdWeek Article: Students Want Climate Change Education. Most Teachers Don't Get Enough Training

Hi group,

I'm sharing this article I saw on EdWeek about the need for teachers to get more climate change training. 

Students Want Climate Change Education. Most Teachers Don't Get Enough Training

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Key takeaways:

- Three-fourths of teachers have not received any professional training or education on how to teach climate change.

- About 60 percent of teachers across grade levels and subjects say they have addressed the topic in some capacity with students.

- Majority of teachers say they don't address climate change because climate change isn't in the state's content standards and it's not required by the district (32%), has too much else to cover (31%), can' think of how to relate it to the topic they teach (26%).

- But nearly 1 in 5 teachers (18%) who don’t address climate change with students said it’s because they’re not well-versed in the science and feel out of their depth discussing it.

- About half of teachers say they talk about what students can do personally to lessen the effects of climate change, and 44 percent say they talk about how climate change will affect the future of the Earth.

- Less than a third of respondents talk about the science behind climate change, and only 22 percent talk about either job opportunities related to sustainability or environmental justice.

- Among science teachers specifically, a third have never received any professional training or education on climate change and another third said they had pursued training or research on climate change and/or how to teach it, but on their own time.

- While 40 percent of science teachers said they took a class that covered the science of climate change in college, only 12 percent said their teacher-preparation program taught them how to teach about it and another 12 percent said their school or district has provided professional development on how to teach climate change.

-  3 in 10 high school students said they feel helpless when they think about climate change and its effects. 

- The most important topics to teens are among the most- taught topics among their teachers of all subjects: how climate change will affect the future of the Earth and society, learn about what they can personally do to lessen the effects of climate change and learn the science behind it.