Significance of practical & outdoor educational approaches of environmental learning to develop environmental awareness among school-going students: a study on the current practice of environmental education in Bangladesh to understand the significance of environmental learning in the context of country’s present climate scenario

Miti, Tanzuma Islam (2017) Significance of practical & outdoor educational approaches of environmental learning to develop environmental awareness among school-going students: a study on the current practice of environmental education in Bangladesh to understand the significance of environmental learning in the context of country’s present climate scenario. Masters dissertation, University of Cumbria. Item availability may be restricted.

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Abstract

There is no doubt that environmental education is a need for an over populated and disaster prone country like Bangladesh which is highly vulnerable to climate change and at present, human-made environmental pollution is increasing the pace of existing problems. In such situation, Bangladesh needs environmental awareness to mitigate the adverse impact of unfriendly environmental activity and to ensure a better future for its people. Therefore, children need to learn about environment both theoretically and practically for knowledge, values, attitudes and skill development so that they can develop environmental awareness to mitigate the existing problems and prepare themselves with appropriate strategies to address the upcoming environmental challenges. It is a bitter truth that there are many limitations in the education system of Bangladesh and still there is no environmental curriculum in the school system. Few subject-textbooks have environment-related chapters but, due to traditional teaching-learning practice, students are not having proper knowledge about environmental issues. This study presents the current scenario of environmental education (concerning its practical and outdoor learning approaches) in the school system. It identifies the limitations in the current education practice with a purpose of understanding the significance of environmental education to develop environmental awareness among school-going students. Using mixed method research approaches, this research, therefore, accumulated data from students, teachers, and education experts to analyse the findings (facts and limitations) and outlined few important recommendations for future study in this area. Data shows that environmental education provides opportunities of being in outdoor where students can engage themselves with nature and real world issues that relate their academic learning to practical experiences. To make it happen, the education system of Bangladesh needs to work on few of its critical areas such as teaching-learning practice, teacher's training, practical learning, and outside school activities, etc. It is true that outdoor practice in education is not much encouraged in Bangladesh, but all the participants of this study agreed that outdoor focused environmental learning is essential for better learning outcome, skill development and growing environmental awareness in the society.

Item Type:	Thesis/Dissertation (Masters)
Departments:	Academic Departments > Science, Natural Resources & Outdoor Studies (SNROS) > Outdoor Studies
Additional Information:	Dissertation presented in part fulfilment of the requirements of the Degree of Master of Arts in Outdoor and Experiential Learning or Development Training, University of Cumbria, July 2017.
Depositing User:	Anna Lupton
Date Deposited:	14 Jun 2018 16:15
Last Modified:	12 Jan 2024 17:46
URI:	https://insight.cumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/3939