Academic performance

Environmental education programs often use learning materials such as videos, prints, or websites to promote environmental knowledge, awareness, pro-environmental behaviors, and to improve recall among students. These materials are generally called environmental education materials (EEMs), and organizations have created protocols for classroom application for EEMs. NAAEE created the Environmental Education Materials: Guidelines for Excellence to help practitioners use high quality EEMs.

Early school dropout is a global concern, and the dropout rate is most pronounced among students who face racial and ethnic discrimination, are from low-income families, and have parents who do not have college degrees. Disruptive behavior disorders (DBD)—a collection of antisocial behaviors, including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and conduct disorders—are oftentimes a precursor to dropping out. When left untreated, DBD can lead to antisocial behaviors in adulthood.

The adoption of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) has shifted educators' focus away from knowledge acquisition to helping students understand the construction and application of scientific ideas in context. This notion of practice-based learning requires creating classroom based opportunities for engaging in authentic science and understanding how scientific knowledge is generated and communicated by professional scientists on an everyday basis, through practices such as argumentation.

Education literature has long established that authentic care from adult mentors is crucial for youth—particularly minoritized youth—to develop positive relationships with each other, their school, and their wider community. This study affirms those connections and applies them to the environmental sphere by exploring how the authentic care shown by an environmental science teacher encouraged his students to expand their care for the ecological renewal of their local neighborhood.

In recent years, colleges and universities have increased their development of environmental education and sustainability programs as a result of the United Nations Earth Summit. At this conference, members emphasized the need to implement sustainability programs at higher education levels to improve students' understanding of environmental issues. In planning such programs, institutions must determine the most informative teaching methods and model programs accordingly. This study analyzed a course that used experiential learning, specifically project- and problem-based learning.

Environmental education (EE) research indicates that student participation in EE programs can bolster academic performance. However, more evidence is needed to understand the impact of EE in the classroom, which may lead to additional integration of EE across the curriculum. About 20 years ago, Maryland implemented a program to certify and recognize K-12 schools that integrate EE into the curriculum, known as the Maryland Green Schools Awards Program (MDGS).

Developing effective academic curricula is key to improving critical literacy skills in students. Ecosocial theory uses the environment as text, meaning that students analyze, interact, and connect with their local environment to learn critical literacy skills. Prior research has indicated that incorporating ecosocial theory has improved student achievement. These studies inspired the Ontario Ministry of Education to implement the Teacher Leadership and Learning Program (TLLP), which aimed to enhance critical literacy skills by using ecosocial theory-based teaching lessons.

This study explores the extent to which college-level journalism programs include training in environmental reporting. This question is significant because environmental problems are prevalent and prominent, yet are also complex, uncertain, and ever-changing.

The use of mobile devices in daily life is encouraging researchers to re-think learning in the digital age. There is growing interest in what is now called “mobile learning,” which recognizes that the unique characteristics of mobile devices, such as mobility, sensitivity to context, and immediacy, can contribute to and transform the learning environment. Yet, few researchers have studied pedagogical approaches that incorporate mobile devices, and more research is needed to identify how each feature of a mobile device might individually contribute to (or distract from) students' learning.

Climate change can be a confusing issue for much of the U.S. public. Similarly, and often as a result of its relation to the public discourse, teaching about climate change can at times be challenging for K–12 science teachers. This study proposes a potential way to address some of those challenges: teach climate change alongside the carbon cycle rather than separately from the standard curriculum. The authors suggest that climate change-related content fits naturally within a carbon cycle unit.