Uxío Pérez-Rodríguez

Going to action? A literature review on educational proposals in formal Environmental Education

The current state of the planet’s environmental deterioration calls for formal educational contexts to implement effective environmental proposals which nurture action competence. The aim of this paper is to examine the educational proposals in formal contexts that have been published in the two research journals of greatest impact on Environmental Education during the period 2008–2013, and to analyse how they contribute to the development of action competence. Special attention is paid to research (i) based on real participation by students; (ii) promotes reflection on the complexity of environmental issues; (iii) facilitates critical thinking; (iv) encourages autonomous and responsible decision-making and (v) involves communities. Our results show that these approaches can help improve the development of action-focused environmental education and bring to light a series of challenges for future research.

DESARROLLO DE COMPETENCIAS DOCENTES A PARTIR DE METODOLOGÍAS PARTICIPATIVAS APLICADAS A LA EDUCACIÓN AMBIENTAL

Resumen Se analiza una propuesta de aprendizaje basada en metodologias participativas, cuyo fin es proporcionar al profesorado en formacion inicial la oportunidad de trabajar en equipo y experimentar formas de ensenanza diferentes del modelo tradicional. Esto les permite reflexionar sobre su adecuacion al proceso de aprendizaje y favorece el desarrollo de competencias docentes en el area de las ciencias experimentales y medioambientales. La integracion de la educacion ambiental en la escuela requiere enfoques metodologicos que impliquen una vision globalizada de la problematica ambiental, que fomenten la participacion de los alumnos y la movilizacion de competencias transversales. Los resultados muestran que el alumnado valora positivamente metodologias como el aprendizaje basado en problemas o el trabajo cooperativo. Sin embargo, los futuros docentes deben mejorar sus conocimientos ambientales y su capacidad de analizar y reflexionar sobre la practica docente, a fin de aplicar metodologias innovadoras en su futuro ejercicio profesional.

Tendencias actitudinales del profesorado en formación hacia una educación ambiental transformadora

This study aims to obtain the attitudinal tendencies of a group of teachers in initial training in Spain ( N = 889; 83.4% women and 16.6% men; 53.6% in Primary Education, and 44.8%, in Early Childhood Education), from cluster analysis of the data collected through a previously constructed and validated scale that relates their attitudes: (a) facing socio-environmental problems and (b) toward transformative Environmental Education. This analysis reveals the existence of critical and conformist attitudes that suggests that trainee teachers are not prepared to face sustainability challenges, although there is also a transformative profile consistent with Environmental Education focused on sustainable action. The results obtained may contribute to making training proposals in this field and in other contexts and to identifying those elements that should be reinforced.

Concepciones alternativas sobre Astronomía de profesorado español en formación

The process of teaching and learning astronomy is often fraught with difficulties. The most frequently reported is the ability to generate alternative conceptions, as shown by numerous investigations in different contexts. The objective of this study is to approach the most common alternative conceptions of pre-service teachers, and also to check whether the Spanish alternative conceptions are the same as in other contexts. The results show that these students also held a number of alternative conceptions about basic astronomy and that these are similar to those found in other countries.