A needs analysis undertaken by partners has shown that their faculty members deemed learning about climate change to be very important.
Most learned about climate from the news.
Most faculty members indicated that they did not feel prepared enough to teach about climate change, and as a result they were not confident teaching it.
TECCHED addresses this need by developing a digital learning platform in which faculty members freely examine the content of the modules to prepare themselves to confidently teach about climate in their own courses. The platform will help them by increasing their knowledge about the topic and pedagogical skills related to teaching the subject.
This open-access digital learning platform will aim to increase faculty members’ pedagogical competencies teaching about climate.
TECCHED will also prepare an enriched book as an open-access resource for faculty members to use in their own courses.
Faculty members were also aware that the curriculum did not foster the “character and values” of their pre-service teachers.
TECCHED will design a technology-enhanced curriculum for character and values development, meeting faculty members’ curricular needs in terms of teaching an affective domain of climate change through a technology-enhanced curriculum.
TECCHED will thus encourage innovative practices, as it focuses on climate change, as the most important global and ecological problem of this century.
Innovative methodologies are needed to teach about climate change.
Climate change is a complex and multidisciplinary environmental problem. Studies indicate that pre-service teachers have a number of misconceptions regarding the scientific content of the climate change subject.
It is important to increase preservice teachers’ understanding of the challenge of climate change and increase teachers’ preparedness to deal with this subject at the university level.
TECCHED will address this need by developing a technology-enhanced curriculum for faculty members working at colleges of education.
Resources for faculty members
A study conducted with 3150 faculty members indicated that education staff felt a responsibility for teaching about climate, but they were the second least confident to teach the subject after health sciences faculty members (Beck et al. 2013).
Pre-service teachers said they have difficulties finding different types of reliable materials to study this complex phenomenon.
TECCHED will address this need by developing an enriched book so that the faculty members and preservice teachers can study the material to help them understand climate change and the role of character and values in decision making.
Developing Character and Values
Character and values are fundamental means for informed decision-making.
Studies show that preservice teachers struggle to demonstrate a willingness to encourage action on socio-scientific issues.
In the case of climate change education, it is crucial that the individuals feel responsible and are willing to act to mitigate the effects of climate change. These traits need to be developed in pre-service teachers, so that they can transfer their skills and knowledge to their students.
TECCHED will address this gap by incorporating character and values dimensions into the technology-enhanced climate change education curriculum.