Early childhood professionals constantly reflect upon how to improve the quality of educational experiences for young children. They are often encouraged to create centers that support the development of language, literacy and mathematical concepts inside the classroom, but they often forget that there is an untapped world of learning just outside…

Nimal Vaz takes us to the essentials of Montessori as an aid to life for all children, particularly children with special needs. She challenges teachers to truly provide experiences in nature: observing anthills, identifying bird nests, or taking an olfactory walk with a legally blind classmate. Finally, she demonstrates how a child's interest in…

This study was carried out to reveal whether the attitudes of the geography teachers in Turkey towards the environment change according to different variables, using ''Attitude Scale" for 404 geography teachers working in various high schools throughout the country. The data were analysed by SPSS statistical software. The result revealed…

Environmental free-choice learning is a strategy that has been shown to have positive short-term impacts upon participants' attitudes and understanding of desired educational outcomes. However, longitudinal studies in this area are rare due to difficulties inherent in data collection and vast differences in participants in these kinds of…

Extension, with its access to long-term volunteers, has the unique ability to teach citizen scientists about the connection between climate variability and the resulting effects on plants, animals, and thus, humans. The USA National Phenology Network's Nature's Notebook on-line program provides a science learning tool for Extension's Master…

In this paper, we trace selected strands of the German path to Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). We start by addressing pre-ESD research, and move to the concept of "Gestaltungskompetenz," the core concept of German ESD. The concept had to be realigned as to become more compatible with international research on learning…

An effective way to teach about sustainability and environmentally conscious practices in German language, literature, and culture programs is within the context of a business German course. In this article we first situate educational sustainability in the US, leading into an examination of why the context of German business can be particularly…

This study examined the relationship between preschool teachers' environmental literacy and their science and technology self efficacy beliefs. 120 preschool teachers from teacher education programme at one university participated in this study. Data were collected by using Environmental Literacy Scale and Science and Technology Literacy Self…

The Cooperative Extension Service in the United States can play an important role in educating forest landowners to improve forest resilience in the face of climatic uncertainty. Two focus groups in Florida informed the development of a program that was conducted in Leon County; presurveys and postsurveys and observation provided evaluation data.…

The happy chatter and clatter of students bounce off the lunchroom walls at a Northside Elementary School in Sandpoint, Idaho as children eagerly gobble their food and slurp their drinks. Boys and girls with crinkled brown bag lunches filled with disposable products sit next to students with trays heaped with hot lunch and all manner of synthetic…

This research examined preservice early childhood educators' perceptions of outdoor settings and their intentions to use outdoor settings in their teaching practice. Students enrolled in an early childhood education program (n = 110) at a university in the Great Lakes region completed surveys that assessed perceptions of natural settings,…

This critical essay based on empirical study draws upon research on the differences in attitudes toward consumption among Dutch upper-elementary school children with different socioeconomic backgrounds. This article examines two strands of theory: critical literature on the conceptualization and practice of sustainable consumption, and the theory…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe the importance of a focus on ethics in sustainability education and present results from a pilot graduate-level course titled the Ethics of Sustainability. Design/methodology/approach: This is a case study presenting a qualitative evaluation from a pilot 14-week Ethics of Sustainability course.…

International policy analysis tends to simplify the nation state, portraying countries as coherent units that can be described by one statistic or placed into one category. As scholars from Brazil, South Africa, and the USA, we find the nation-centric research perspective particularly challenging. In each of our home countries, the effective…

The present study explores the use of a conventional school ground of a primary school and its potential as a space for creative play and environmental learning. Children's play behavior and views of the school ground are explored, as well as their vision for its improvement. The research constitutes part of a wider school ground project and was…