in the classroom
More than words
The case for ‘ action oriented ’ climate change learning .
Kim Beasy interviewed by Emilie Lauer
While the revised national curriculum allows Australian students to learn more about climate change , education experts say teachers need more support to deliver it effectively .
According to Kim Beasy , a curriculum and pedagogy lecturer at the University of Tasmania , the new curriculum is a ‘ step change ’ which features climate learning more explicitly and across different areas .
However , climate change can also be difficult to teach as it requires specific expertise and can be a sensitive topic for students , meaning teachers need increased support outside of the classroom .
“ We can ’ t rely on teachers only , we need specialised community partnership to support teachers and engage students with some ‘ action oriented ’ learning .”
Beasy joined Education Review to discuss climate change , the national curriculum and the need to increase community support .
ER : How is climate change currently taught in the classroom ? KB : I think climate change is taught in classrooms but often we find that it ’ s a bit sporadic . Because teachers have a curriculum that they have to teach , often it comes down to the passions of teachers as to whether climate change features in lessons .
So students may or may not engage with climate change throughout their schooling career in Australia .
Why is it important for students to learn about climate change ? I would suggest , and I think there ’ s many scientists that would agree , climate change is the biggest issue that ’ s facing humanity this century . And we need everybody to understand what that means and also what they can be doing about it .
Education becomes a really important part of that process , because that ’ s where our young people are learning about the world . In schools and classrooms is where a lot of learning happens .
How does the new curriculum tackle the issue of climate change ? What we see in the new curriculum is a step change in how much climate change features across different subject areas or learning areas , which is how they ’ re referred to in the curriculum .
The old curriculum had a limited number of references to climate change , but the new curriculum really does increase how and where climate change features across the different subjects that students learn in schools .
I should just clarify that it ’ s not as if climate change wasn ’ t there before , or that teachers didn ’ t have different ways of teaching climate change through the curriculum . But what we see now is that it ’ s just a lot more explicit . And explicit is good because it can provide further ideas and instructions of how climate change could be brought into classrooms . But it also really puts it on the map as a topic that needs to be included in classrooms .
14 | educationreview . com . au