home

= Changing with the Climate - European Comenius Network = October 25th Teacher Training Day at Reading

Network outline
Changing with the Climate Comenius Network is partially funded by the EC under its Lifelong Learning programme. It is lead by the Institute of Education at The University of Reading. Five other countries are involved: Spain, Italy, Hungary, Romania and France. The partners include local communities and energy consultant organisations.

The UK team is John Oversby (Principal Investigator and Coordinator), Rayner Mayer (Manager), Pam Lewis (Administrator) and Kathy Maskell (Subject Knowledge Lead). Kathy works for the Walker Institute for Climate Systems Research at Reading University, and the others work in the Institute of Education.

There are many organisations that exist to promote both education about climate change, and taking citizenship practical action to mitigate the effects of human induced climate change. Some are included in the links below. The Changing with the Climate Network is intent on working with these organisations, and others, in schools and communities, to educate and take action as widely as possible. Using the expertise of its partners and members, it aims to extend the range of resources available for teaching subject knowledge and taking practical action. The international character of the network has created an opportunity for schools and others taking action to link across national boundaries, sharing ideas and commitment, reflecting the transnational nature of climate change. The network aims to involve community members, as befits the trans-generational nature of climate change. The project is fully aware of the special nature of climate change studies within school curricula, spanning disciplines such as the sciences, geography, modern languages, mathematics, and technology. Other disciplines, such as drama, music, history and art, play an important part in expressions of knowledge and action, and in disseminating ideas about motivation and commitment.

Climate change education has many unique features. Data collection resorts to proxy methods for temperature, for example, and for historical accounts for climate descriptions over thousands of years. The level of uncertainty and approximation in data collection methods provide an excellent basis for discussion of scientific enquiry. The process of simplification in production of explanatory and predictive models is an excellent case study for other areas of knowledge. The long term nature of climate change contrasts greatly with more mainstream sciences, but has parallels in earth sciences and astronomy, where we can learn much about a different nature of enquiry from the norm. Evidence from history and geography provides a humanistic perspective, while technology provides a base for discussion of creativity and its place in human progress. Unlike the present status of sciences such as physics, chemistry and biology, climate change science provokes controversy, where the very nature of science is questioned. This evokes thoughts of the search for causality of fossils in earth sciences and in evolution, from the nineteenth century and still continuing today in some religious groups. Positions about the basic science supported by the strong emotions of climate change deniers, and climate change acceptors, are largely unknown in other sciences today. The pedagogy of climate change is still being developed but is essential if we are to affect teacher education in a sustainable way.This will be a major and unusual output of the Network.

Climate change action has a number of benefits. Action provides a concrete context for the outworking of theoretical ideas learned in the classroom, and a form of solidarity with others taking action. The latter is very important in our international network. Action is also important as a sign of hope, not fear. Action is not only a result but a cause of learning, creating tensions in the minds of the actors that can only be resolved by lifelong learning. We see the Changing with the Climate Network as making a considerable contribution to the place of action in education.

Links
HiCan community education project

Planeta Toolkit on actions to mitigate Climate Change An African link [|Wkipedia Climate Change] [|WiserEarth] [|Fingerprints of human-induced Climate Change] [|Transition Towns Network] [|IAIA Impact Assessment] [|pbworks] [|Green Wiki Stern Review] [|Built environment Climate Change]