Pre-Service Environmental
Education Project (PEEP)
Lynda Paznokas
Associate Dean, College of Education
School and Community
Collaboration Center
Washington State University
Pullman, Washington
February 29, 2008
TEEP
Rochester, New York
Lynda Paznokas
Pullman, Washington
School and Community Collaboration Center
• The SCCC is the outreach center for the College of Education
• Our purpose is to serve schools and communities:
Teaching and learning, educational leadership, counseling
psychology, international efforts, Professional Certification, National
Board for Professional Teaching Standards, grant writing, etc.
K-12 students in the United States are deficient
in their understanding of the environment
and the issues that affect it.
(Survey Research Center, 2000)
• The principal cause of
this is inadequate
preparation of preservice teachers to
teach environmental
subjects.
(McKeown-Ice, 2000)
• There is an urgent need
to remedy this situation.
The long-term goal of the
Pre-Service Environmental Education Project
is to increase understanding of the environment
among K-12 students.
The objective of the project,
which represents an
important step toward
attainment of this long-term
goal, is that professors at 18
universities in the state of
Washington are
incorporating significant
environmental/sustainability
education within pre-service
teacher science methods
courses.
Bringing effective environmental education to pre-service teachers
through their science methods course is a very efficient method of
improving environmental learning of their future students.
“The power of the pre-service curriculum is its multiplier effect. Where
one teacher has the potential to impact the number of students taught
throughout a career, a methods course has the potential to impact many future
teachers and, ultimately, a far greater number of students” (Power, 2004).
TOTOS
Teachers of Teachers of Science
• A gathering of university
faculty responsible for science
methods courses for K-12
teachers
• Hosted by WSU since 1998
• Focus on teacher preparation,
including content, pedagogy,
curriculum, and assessment
• Maintains communication with
OSPI, WSTA, and others
• Provides input on state
science initiatives
• Collegial; break bread together
TOTOS Themes
•
•
•
•
Some years TOTOS
has a theme to our
meetings:
Assessment
Informal science
education
Research
Environmental
Education
During the 2004 TOTOS meeting, university faculty members in
Washington agreed to work together to
1.
develop and implement a process to infuse EE into the basic
science methods course for pre-service teachers.
2.
prepare pre-service teachers to be able to effectively teach skills
and concepts of EE to their future students.
Plans continued to evolve at the 2005 meeting.
Washington Administrative Code
(2000)
Instruction about conservation,
natural resources, and the
environment shall be provided at all
grades in an interdisciplinary
manner…with emphasis on solving
problems of human adaptation to the
environment.”
Although each university has its own mission and environmental setting
(urban, desert, beach, forest, etc.), all teacher preparation programs are
working toward the same environmental education goals.
Pre-service teachers are being trained to deliver experiential, field-based,
effective, accurate, and age-appropriate environmental skills and content to
students, within the framework of Environmental Education Guidelines for
Washington Schools (2000). This will be updated through the “e3 Washington”
initiative. This training is linked to Washington’s K-10 Science Grade Level
Expectations (2005), particularly Scientific Field Investigations.
Funding for Pre-Service
Environmental Education Project
provided by….
Additional funding and support
has come from…
There are 3 Aims to the
Pre-Service Environmental Education Project
1.
Develop pre-service teacher environmental education teaching
strategies.
2.
Evaluate the application of the pre-service teacher
environmental education strategies
3.
Disseminate pre-service teacher environmental education
strategy models regionally and nationally.
Aim #1
Develop pre-service teacher environmental
education teaching strategies
Activities are being developed for the classroom and/or field to fit
the unique natural and academic setting of each university.
Examples include
• Conducting an outdoor environmental day for children
• Learning about hazardous waste reduction
• Partnering with state agencies to do authentic science inquiry investigations
• Teaching integrated environmental curriculum in a school
• Raising salmon in a classroom with a field trip to a salmon stream
• Contributing to a database on the status of invasive plant species at a park
• Learning how to use a wildlife refuge or ocean shoreline as a field trip site
for children
• Teaching environmental education at a science center
• Understanding school yard ecology
• Integrating computer technology into children’s
environmental science classes
Outdoor Environmental Day
Klemgard County Park
• WSU K-8 pre-service
teachers put on an
environmental education
experience third graders.
• Students study soil,
water, plants, and
animals.
• College of Sciences
faculty members help
with the science content
part of lesson planning.
Through EPA funding, TOTOS programs received funds to buy nonconsumable environmental education equipment to enhance the teaching
of environmental education.
The materials also expose pre-service teachers to types of materials they can
use effectively and safely with children.
From the Pacific Education Institute, TOTOS members received an extensive
collection of environmental education lesson plan books such as Project
Wild, Project Wet, and Project Learning Tree.
These books helped support Pre-Service Environmental Education Project
lessons in K-12 science methods courses.
Aim #2
Evaluate the application of the pre-service
teacher environmental education
strategies
• The outcome of Aim #2 is to develop and implement a
common assessment instrument to show the
effectiveness of a variety of approaches in diverse
settings to prepare K-12 pre-service teachers to teach
environmental education.
• The project is not looking for one unique teaching
approach but rather identifying multiple ways of
achieving environmental education standards by taking
advantage of local needs, resources, and environments.
Some of the many sources of content for
student and faculty surveys
Faculty Survey
Selected Questions
Pre-Service Teacher Initial Survey
• In addition to the “statements of agreement,”
pre-service teachers were asked:
• Briefly describe environmental education
experiences you have had in previous grades:
- Elementary school:
- Middle school/junior high:
- High school:
- University:
- Informal education experiences: (Volunteer or
participant in environmental programs through groups such as Scouts, church, nature
centers, science centers, outdoor schools, parks and recreation, zoos, family, etc.)
Pre-Service Teacher Final Survey
• In addition to “statements of agreement,” preservice teachers were asked:
- Describe how this course improved your
ability to teach environmental education to your
future students (be specific):
- Describe how this course could be changed
to improve your ability to teach environmental
education to your future students (be specific):
Environmental Education
Philosophy Agreement
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100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
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Co
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% of responses
Environmental Education Philosophy Agreement
High End - 4's & 5's
Initial survey
Final survey
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
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0
Initial survey
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Final survey
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EE
% of responses
Pre-Service Teacher's EE Knowledge Base
(High End - 4's & 5's)
% of responses
Ability to Teach (High End - 4's & 5's)
100
80
60
Initial surveys
40
Final surveys
20
0
EE
EE
outside inside
Tech
Tech
EE
EE
outside inside
Initial Surveys
Special
needs
students
Field trip
planning
Final Surveys
Outdoor
management
100
80
60
40
20
0
Integrate EE
lessons
% of responses
Pre-Service Teachers' Abilities
(High End - 4's & 5's)
Aim #3
Disseminate pre-service teacher
environmental education strategy models
regionally and nationally
The project is expected to provide at least 24 models of how a
university science methods course can prepare pre-service
teachers to confidently and competently teach environmental
education to their future K-12 students.
Plans are in the beginning stage for a regional Association for
Science Teacher Education conference in 2009 to disseminate and
share environmental education teaching practices for pre-service
science teacher educators. This conference will serve as a pilot
for a future national conference.
We were granted a no-cost
extension on the PEEP Project.
• The extension was granted because the
project involves working with multiple
institutions around the state and the
challenges of this type of coordination.
• The grant now extends until 6/30/08.
Sustainability and Environmental Education
for Pre-Service (SEEP)
The SEEP grant proposal was submitted to EPA as a
headquarters grant in December 2007 for TOTOS.
Among other things, the proposal includes:
- Workshop with agencies and informal science
institutions to discuss human and material
environmental resources in support of pre-service
teacher preparation.
- Workshop to discuss implementation strategies for
evidence-based teacher preparation of
environmental/sustainability issues.
- Regional conference of NW ASTE
- Collaborative publication describing SEEP models
- Environmental equipment support through the WSU
Equipment Loan Program at no cost to universities
The Washington Forest Protection Association
received a grant to provide PLT facilitator training the day
before the May 2008 TOTOS meeting in Pullman.
TOTOS faculty will be
expected to provide PLT
training in their methods
courses and share
experiences.
The grant includes:
- Lesson training
- Conceptual frameworks
- Facilitator handbook
- Mentor facilitator to visit
professors’ classrooms in
the fall
As a result of the Pre-Service Environmental Education Project,
the environmental goals of the historic Belgrade Charter
will be brought closer to realization:
“The goal of environmental education is to develop a
world population that is aware of, and concerned about,
the environment and its associated problems, and which
has the knowledge, skills, attitudes, motivations, and
commitment to work individually and collectively toward
solutions of current problems and the prevention of new
ones” (UNESCO, 1976).