ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION

Environmental Education is a holistic, lifelong learning process directed at creating

responsible individuals who explore and identify environmental issues, engage in problem
solving, and take action effectively to improve the environment. As a result, individuals develop
a deeper awareness and understanding of environmental issues and have effective skills to
make informed and responsible decisions that lead to resolute the environmental challenges.

History of Environmental Education

Some researchers see that Environmental Education owe its origins to the philosopher’s
Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778), who thought that education should keep a focus on the
environment. Thomas Pritchard has coined the term: “Environmental Education” in 1948 during
the Natural Resources conference. The UN Conference on Human Environment in Stockholm in
1972 has empowered Environmental Education, by stressing the importance of learning about
the environment, and by recommending that Environmental Education be recognized,
promoted and integrated in education in all countries. Environmental Education is
acknowledged as critical to save the nature in conferences ever since.
Guiding Principles
Environmental Education is neither environmental advocacy nor environmental
information; rather, Environmental Education is a varied and diverse field that focuses on the
educational process that has to remain neutral by teaching individuals critical thinking and
enhancing their own problem-solving and decision-making skills in a participatory approach.
The guiding principles of Environmental Education include awareness, knowledge, attitudes,
skills and participation.

Environmental Education can be taught formally in schools classrooms, colleges and

universities, or it can take place in informal learning contexts through NGOs, businesses, and
the media, natural centers, botanic gardens, bird-watching canoeing, and scuba diving. Besides,
Environmental Education takes place in various non-formal education programs such as
experiential outdoor education, workshops, outreach programs and community education.

Environmental educator should deliver Environmental Education in a unique way as it is

not only based on science, but also concerned with historical, political, and cultural aspects with
the human dimension of socio-economic factors. It is also based on developing knowledge on
socio-ecological systems.
 Environmental Education provides opportunities to build skills, including problem-
solving and investigation skills. Qualified environmental educators should work in the field,
conducting programs, involving and collaborating with local communities, and using strategies
to link the environmental awareness, building skills, and responsible action. It is through
Environmental Education that citizens, especially children, can test various aspects of an issue
to make informed, science-based, non-biased, and responsible decisions.

Environmental Education: Objectives, Aims and Principles of

Environmental Education!
Environmental education is concerned with those aspects of human behaviour which
are more directly related to man’s interaction with bio-physical environment and his ability to
understand this interaction.
One of the most glaring problems which the world faces today is the environmental
pollution. Man has exploited nature excessively at the cost of the environment. There is an
immediate need to make people aware about environmental degradation. Education and public
participation may change and improve the quality of environment.
According to UNESCO, “Environmental education is a way of implementing the goals of
environmental protection. It is not a separate branch of science but lifelong interdisciplinary
field of study.” It means education towards protection and enhancement of the environment
and education as an instrument of development for improving the quality of life of human
communities.
Objectives of Environmental Education:The following are the objectives of
environmental education:
1. Awareness:
To help the social groups and individuals to acquire knowledge of pollution and
environmental degradation.
2. Knowledge:
To help social groups and individuals to acquire knowledge of the environment beyond
the immediate environment including distant environment.
3. Attitudes:
To help social groups and individuals to acquire a set of values for environmental
protection.
4. Skills and Capacity Building:
To help social groups and individuals to develop skills required for making
discriminations in form, shape, sound, touch, habits and habitats. Further, to develop ability to
draw unbiased inferences and conclusions.
5. Participation:
 To provide social groups and individuals with an opportunity to be actively involved at
all levels in environmental decision making.
There are four areas of decision making:
(a) The types of environmental issues on which decisions might be made;
(b) The physical setting of the prospective environmental decision, including its spatial scale;
(c) The types of social groups and individuals who might interact in a process leading up to an
environmental decision; and
(d) The time frame within which the decision must be made.

ASSESSMENT TOOL
Abstract
Needs assessment guidelines and tools are enumerated for identifying immediate and
long‐term environmental education needs in a community or region and for recommending
subsequent actions. Interviews, written and oral surveys, participatory workshops, public
meetings, document analysis, and other methods of qualitative and quantitative data collection
are described for gathering information quickly and inexpensively from people and institutions
with a wide range of backgrounds, interests, and expertise. Needs assessment conducted in the
Bay Islands in Honduras and Tikal National Park in Guatemala led to the implementation of
environmental education activities, such as the development of an environmental education
manual and workshops for teachers, publication of an ecology guidebook, and establishment of
a park‐community camp program. Evaluation and monitoring based on the needs assessment
results will provide feedback for program modification and design of future initiatives.