Refine
Year of publication
- 2013 (2) (remove)
Document Type
- Doctoral Thesis (2)
Has Fulltext
- yes (2)
Is part of the Bibliography
- no (2) (remove)
Keywords
- Baum (1)
- Bestimmung (1)
- Bestimmungsschlüssel (1)
- Biologieunterricht (1)
- Determination Key (1)
- Evaluation (1)
- Internet (1)
- Kosovo (1)
- Laubbaum (1)
- Lehrer (1)
Institute
- Institut für Naturwissenschaften (2) (remove)
This thesis is concerned with the current situation and future developments of environmental education in Kosovo. Ecological problems in Kosovo have accumulated over decades as a consequence of the uncontrolled use of natural resources, a growing industrial production with a high level of pollution, and a lack of appropriate policies, laws, and institutions which could treat the problems. Air, water and soil pollution, waste problems and a severe loss of biodiversity are the main environmental threats. The integration of education for sustainable development (ESD) into all levels of education is one of the key priorities in Kosovo’s environmental action plan. However, at present it is not even known how environmental education (EE) is integrated in the country’s educational system. In a first step, all official textbooks and the national curriculum of Kosovo were thus scrutinized to identify how many and which environmental topics were included, in which subjects and grades they were taught, and which teaching approaches were used. In a second step, a written questionnaire was sent to a representative sample of biology, geography, chemistry and civic education teachers (overall 244 persons) to investigate the integration of EE in high schools (optional upper secondary education) in Kosovo. In a third step, in-depth interviews with 18 of these high school teachers were carried out to extend and deepen the discussion of their responses in the questionnaire. In a fourth step, a toolkit on EE / ESD was developed and introduced to nine high school teachers during a one-day inservice workshop. In a fifth step, structured observations were used to investigate the impact of the workshop on high school teachers’ performance in the classroom. Only 15 out of 130 books, most of them for biology teaching, included environmental topics. Environmental topics were most prominent in textbooks for grade 8, 10 and 12, whereas they were almost lacking at the primary-school level. Most environmental teaching units provided pupils with mere environmental / ecological information (91%). The other units aimed to raise pupils’ awareness of environmental values, critically reflected links between the natural, social and cultural environment, and demonstrated the importance of a healthy environment for human health, quality of life and sustainable development. They were most prominent in books for civic education. However, no environmental unit promoted pupils’ action competence. High school teachers were found to focus on various kinds of pollution and hazards of pollutants. Teachers’ choice of topics was highly relevant, place-based and linked to the experiences of pupils, but excluded sustainability issues such as the loss of biodiversity. EE was approached in three ways. The first approach critically reflected links between the natural, social and cultural environment, while the second approach was characterized by knowledge submission of environmental facts. The third approach aimed at capacity-building and, in the sense of ESD, understood learning as process-oriented, participatory and action-oriented. However, this approach was rather uncommon, most likely due to insufficient teacher preparation, classes that were too large (up to 50 pupils), and lack of little time (just one hour per week for EE). These constraints also restricted outdoor activities. Nevertheless, in view of the interviewees ideal EE would mean outdoor education, field work and other place-based, capacity-building practical experiences, and the development of critical thinking skills. Teachers were rather satisfied with the one-day inservice workshop and stated that they had learned something new. Moreover, they liked the new toolkit and thought it practicable for use in school. However, one year later it was obvious that without support from head teachers and colleagues the toolkit was not used in schools. The study found that before the workshop teacher talk accounted for more than 90% of all lesson time and pupil-initiated talk constituted less than 10% within a typical 45-minute lesson. After the workshop, teacher talk significantly decreased and pupil talk significantly increased. Moreover, pupils were found to be engaged in small activities suitable for ESD. In conclusion, there is a strong need for new textbooks on EE / ESD in Kosovo. However, without providing teachers with skills suitable for ESD, they will most likely continue to lecture and pupils will continue to only memorize the material. Moreover, novel teaching and learning approaches need engagement from credible leaders within the institutions. Especially head teachers should thus be incorporated in the implementation of new teaching material and approaches, and training courses on EE and ESD for school principles, administrators, and of course teachers, should be offered.
Zusammenfassung Die fortschreitende Abnahme der Biodiversität gehört zu den bedeutendsten Umweltproblemen weltweit. Das Verschwinden biologischer Vielfalt wird jedoch von der Bevölkerung kaum erkannt. Um Vielfalt in der Natur überhaupt wahrzunehmen ist es nötig, verschiedene Tier- und Pflanzenarten unterscheiden zu können. Da die Grundlage für diese Artenkenntnis idealer Weise in der Grundschulzeit geschaffen wird, besteht ein großer Bedarf an geeigneten Unterrichtsmaterialien, zum Beispiel in Form von Bestimmungshilfen. Ein wichtiges Hilfsmittel zur Identifizierung von Tier- und Pflanzenarten sind dichotome Bestimmungsschlüssel. In jedem ihrer Bestimmungsschritte wird die Entscheidung zwischen zwei sich gegenseitig ausschließenden Ausprägungen eines Merkmals verlangt. Die Wahl für eine der beiden Beschreibungen führt zur nächsten Entscheidungsfrage und am Ende zum Bestimmungsergebnis. Bei der Verwendung dichotomer Bestimmungsschlüssel werden genaues Betrachten und das Erkennen von Ähnlichkeiten und Unterschieden geübt, was bei Kindern die Fähigkeit zum Ordnen und Klassifizieren von Organismen fördern könnte. In der vorliegenden Arbeit wurde ein dichotomer Online-Bestimmungsschlüssel für Laubbäume für die Anwendung in der Grundschule entwickelt. Der Schlüssel kann auch offline verwendet oder ausgedruckt werden. Dabei ist er sehr flexibel einsetzbar. Er ermöglicht die Bestimmung einer großen Zahl an Baumarten, lässt sich aber auch individuell auf eine kleinere Artenauswahl reduzieren. In diesem Fall werden die nicht notwendigen Beschreibungen und Bestimmungsschritte automatisch unterdrückt. Der Bestimmungsschlüssel konnte aufgrund der hohen Nachfrage mit einer großen Zahl an Befragten evaluiert werden. Diese Daten wurden durch eine Studie mit Schulkindern ergänzt. Dabei zeigten sich unter anderem die hohe Akzeptanz und die gute Anwendbarkeit des Unterrichtsmaterials. In einer explorativen Studie mit Grundschulkindern wurde der Einfluss von Bestimmungsübungen auf die Fähigkeit zum Anwenden von Kriterien und zum Unterscheiden von Baumarten anhand der Laubblätter untersucht. Dabei wurde der dichotome Bestimmungsschlüssel gegen einen einfachen Objekt-Bild-Vergleich getestet. Vor und nach einer Reihe von Bestimmungsübungen wurde die Fähigkeit zum Ordnen von Laubblättern ermittelt und verglichen, welche Metaphern und Kriterien die Kinder beim Beschreiben der Unterschiede zwischen Laubblättern verwendeten. Die Ergebnisse weisen darauf hin, dass Kinder, die einen dichotomen Bestimmungsschlüssel verwendet hatten, Arten sicherer unterscheiden und Kriterien präziser anwenden können als Kinder, die in den Bestimmungsübungen nur mit dem Objekt-Bild-Vergleich gearbeitet hatten.