Academe draws up lesson plan on climate change
A global federation of academies of national scientists has called for a change in education practices and strategies to allow the present and future generations to understand and better prepare for the impacts of climate change.
The call was issued in a fourpage statement released by the InterAcademy Partnership for Science (IAP), a global network of the world’s science academies which includes the National Academy of Science and Technology (NAST) of the Philippines.
“Climate change education must consider the need to provide teachers, in developed as well as in developing countries, professional learning opportunities with up-to-date facts, new and innovative training processes, new resources for the classroom, and new tools to empower their students as ‘agents of change,’” the IAP statement said.
The IAP stressed that educating the present and future generations about climate change, and teaching them to act with a critical mind and a hopeful heart were essential for the future of humanity.
“Science education must meet the challenge, especially through the use of an inquiry-based and interdisciplinary pedagogy, with the global scientific community playing an essential role in its implementation and improvement,” the IAP said.
It is pushing for the inquirybased science education (IBSE), which was developed over the last two decades, as an effective way to teach science at primary and secondary school levels and also to inspire higher education worldwide.
“It provides a firm basis to develop urgently a specific, interdisciplinary climate change education program,” the IAP said.
IBSE pilot projects in the Americas, Europe, Asia and Africa have provided a large database of what is required to achieve successful changes in basic science education.
“The most obvious conclusion is that teachers must be educated, trained and supported in order for science to be taught in an active and participative manner, which includes experiments, hypothesis testing, critical thinking and use of proper language,” the IAP said.