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1
Introduction
Climate change is occurring, is very likely caused by human activities,
and poses significant risks for a broad range of human and natural sys-
tems. Each additional ton of greenhouse gases emitted commits us to
further change and greater risks. In the judgment of the Committee on
America's Climate Choices, the environmental, economic, and humani-
tarian risks of climate change indicate a pressing need for substantial
action to limit the magnitude of climate change and to prepare to adapt
to its impacts. (National Research Council, 2011a, p. 1)
A
principal message from the recent National Research Council
report America's Climate Choices, this brief summary of how cli-
mate change will shape many aspects of life in the foreseeable
future emphasizes the vital importance of preparation for these changes.
The report points to the importance of formal and informal education
in supporting the public's understanding of those challenges climate
change will bring, and in preparing current and future generations to
act to limit the magnitude of climate change and respond to those chal-
lenges. Recognizing both the urgency and the difficulty of climate change
education, the National Research Council, with support from the National
Science Foundation, formed the Climate Change Education Roundta-
ble. The roundtable brings together federal agency representatives with
diverse experts and practitioners in the physical and natural sciences,
social sciences, learning sciences, environmental education, education
policy, extension education and outreach, resource management, and
public policy to engage in discussion and explore educational strategies
1
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2 CLIMATE CHANGE EDUCATION: FORMAL SETTINGS, K-14
for addressing climate change. Roundtable chair James Mahoney noted
that the importance of the roundtable lies in its broad focus on climate
change education, including formal education from kindergarten through
college, public understanding, and the means to develop in decision mak-
ers, from local, state, and federal government officials to business owners,
the capacity to address climate change issues.
The roundtable, which is overseen by the Board on Science Educa-
tion, the Board on Environmental Change and Society, and the Division
on Earth and Life Studies, was charged to hold two workshops to sur-
vey the landscape of climate change education. The first explored the
goals for climate change education for various target audiences (National
Research Council, 2011b). The second workshop, which is the focus of this
summary, was held on August 31 and September 1, 2011, and focused
on the teaching and learning of climate change and climate science in
formal education settings, from kindergarten through the first two years
of college (K-14). This workshop, based on an already articulated need to
teach climate change education, provided a forum for discussion of the
evidence from research and practice regarding:
· how climate change is currently taught in school;
· how best to teach climate change in K-14 settings;
· what factors impede the teaching of climate change in schools; and
· innovations in K-14 climate change education.
The goal of the workshop was to raise and explore complex questions
around climate change education, and to address the current status of
climate change education in grades K-14 of the formal education system
by facilitating discussion between expert researchers and practitioners
in complementary fields, such as education policy, teacher professional
development, learning and cognitive science, K-12 and higher education
administration, instructional design, curriculum development, and cli-
mate science. In an effort to provide a common frame for the workshop
participants, the steering committee based the initial assumptions about
climate change on the recent National Research Council (2010) report
Advancing the Science of Climate Change that climate change is already
occurring, is based largely on human activities, and is supported by mul-
tiple lines of scientific evidence. Beyond this initial assumption, the work-
shop did not discuss, nor intend to explore, the science of climate change
or related climate issues, but rather confined the discussions to informing
the issues around teaching climate change in formal school settings, K-14.
To explore these topics, the steering committee structured the work-
shop to provide ample opportunity for discussion among expert research-
ers and practitioners across the K-14 formal education system. This report
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INTRODUCTION 3
BOX 1-1
Workshop Statement of Task
An ad hoc committee will plan and conduct a public workshop that will address
the current status of climate change education within grades K-14 of the formal
education system. The workshop will feature invited presentations and discussion.
It will provide an opportunity for discussion between expert researchers and prac-
titioners in complementary fields, such as education policy, teacher professional
development, learning and cognitive science, climate change, K-12 and higher
education administration, instructional design, and curriculum development. Dis-
cussions at the workshop will focus on identifying how the issue of climate change
is currently taught in school; what research indicates about how best to teach
climate change in K-14 settings; what factors impede teaching climate change
in schools; and how to best articulate the connection between climate change
education in K-12 and higher education. The committee will develop the agenda
topics, select and invite speakers and discussants, and moderate the discussion.
summarizes the workshop's presentations and discussions. Box 1-1 pres-
ents the workshop statement of task.
CONTEXT
America's Climate Choices (National Research Council, 2011a) describes
key issues the nation faces in responding to climate change and develop-
ing strategies for mitigation and adaptation, noted Charles W. (Andy)
Anderson (Michigan State University) in opening the workshop. The
report articulates two challenges for the formal education system: to
prepare scientists, leaders, and practitioners with the needed expertise to
address climate change issues, and also to prepare all citizens to become
informed decision makers. The report proposes that decisions about miti-
gation and adaptation be viewed in a framework of iterative risk man-
agement. That is, Anderson explained, the optimal response to climate
change would be "an ongoing process of identifying risks and response
options, advancing a portfolio of actions that emphasize risk reductions
and are robust across a range of possible futures, and revising choices
related to the climate over time to take advantage of new knowledge."
The report does not call for a commitment to some particular course of
action, Anderson noted. Instead, it asks for a commitment to understand-
ing the implications of different courses of action and choosing in a delib-
erative way among them.
America's Climate Choices identifies key elements of an effective
national response, Anderson explained, one of which is to develop institu-
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4 CLIMATE CHANGE EDUCATION: FORMAL SETTINGS, K-14
tions and processes that ensure that pertinent information is collected and
that links scientific and technical analysis with public deliberation and
decision making. Deliberation and decision making are critical to effec-
tive responses to climate change, Anderson emphasized, and thus it is
essential to prepare all citizens to understand the risks of both action and
inaction and to engage in effective deliberation about all available choices.
The vital importance of an informed citizenry is illustrated, Anderson
noted, in data presented at the Roundtable on Climate Change Educa-
tion's first workshop, on the diversity of beliefs people hold about climate
change. In a series of studies that examined how the American public
responds to climate change information, researchers categorized the pub-
lic into "Six Americas"1: the six basic response categories are "dismissive,"
"doubtful," "disengaged," "cautious," "concerned," and "alarmed." "It's
disturbing," Anderson observed, "that between 2008 and 2010 public
opinion shifted away from concerned toward dismissive."
An even more important issue demonstrated in these studies,
Anderson stressed is that public understanding of factual issues related
to climate change is distinctly limited (National Research Council, 2011a).
He stated that "as the evidence mounts, the controversy [about climate
change] is inevitably going to die down" but noted that public delib-
eration becomes difficult or impossible when individuals choose their
own facts, as well as their opinions and values, to interpret information.
Anderson observed that in the future the controversy may shift from
whether climate change is occurring to what actions need to be taken to
address it and pointed to the need to prepare today's children for a future
in which the basic facts of climate change are no longer controversial, and
the consequences are real.
CLIMATE CHANGE EDUCATION FOR A CHANGING WORLD
Two assumptions underlie the way many people approach the topic
of climate change education, noted Daniel Edelson (National Geographic
Society) in the keynote presentation: one is that such education would
begin with components of the science education curriculum, and the
other is that much of it would concern climate science and the dynamics
of climate change. Although he supports the idea that young people need
to learn about climate processes and the ethics of anthropogenic climate
change, he has a different view of the best way to conceive of climate
change education.
To explain his perspective, he listed educational goals that are widely
1See http://environment.yale.edu/climate/ [January 2012].
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INTRODUCTION 5
shared in the climate change education community. Every graduate of the
K-14 education system should understand
· Fundamental processes that influence climate, at scales ranging
from local to regional to global.
· Natural variability and natural cycles in climate.
· Human impact on the climate--that is, how the growth in human
population and technology has made it possible for human activ-
ity to change climate patterns at various scales.
· How changes in climate can and do influence physical systems,
ecosystems, and society.
· Why the scientific community is now convinced that anthropo-
genic climate change is under way.
· What the range of effects of climate change is and how likely
various different scenarios of climate change are under different
conditions.
These ideas, he suggested, make up the common ground for educa-
tors who may have different perspectives on how to approach climate
change education. People may draw different conclusions based on how
this material should be covered in schools, but these basic ideas are the
foundation for informed debate and decision making and thus provide
a reasonable definition of climate literacy. He believes strongly that "the
future of society and earth's ecosystems do hang in the balance, and . . .
will depend, ultimately on our success in preparing the next generation
to make good decisions [related to] climate change."
However, Edelson does not believe it is necessary, or even desirable,
to create a major component of school curricula focused on climate science
and climate change to achieve this goal. His primary reason is conceptual:
he believes that most of what one needs to understand in order to be
climate-literate has nothing to do with climate in particular, but rather is
covered by the fundamentals of earth systems science. Edelson pointed
to a report published by the National Aeronautics and Space Adminis-
tration (NASA) in the 1980s that played a leading role in recasting the
geosciences as the study of interconnected processes that cut across the
traditional disciplines of geology, oceanography, climatology, hydrology,
ecology, and others and also wove in the role of human systems (NASA
Advisory Council, 1988). This approach was illustrated in a figure that
came to be known as the Bretherton diagram (see Figure 1-1) after its
author Francis Bretherton of the University of WisconsinMadison.
The Bretherton report was published at a time when climate change
research was "gaining traction" and was very influential in the scien-
tific community, Edelson noted. The report was intended as a guide to
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6 CLIMATE CHANGE EDUCATION: FORMAL SETTINGS, K-14
FIGURE 1-1 A diagram of the earth system proposed by the Earth System Sci-
ences Committee, chaired by Francis Bretherton, which published the seminal
report Earth System Science: A Program for Global Change.
Source: Adapted from NASA Advisory Council (1988).
earth science research, and it put forth two critical principles: (1) that all
earth processes and phenomena can be understood as dynamic systems
that transform or transport matter and energy in accordance with the
laws of chemistry and physics and (2) that all of these earth systems are
interconnected, so that no system can be understood in isolation from
any other. These were "paradigmatic breakthroughs," Edelson observed,
which are now uncontroversial in the earth science community and which
distinguished that field from other science disciplines that tend to study
systems in isolation.
More recently this approach has been diluted, Edelson explained, by a
tendency in the field of earth science education for people to advocate for
particular spheres. For example, a framework for ocean literacy, developed
collaboratively by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA) and others, described a sequential development of understand-
ing of ocean science (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,
2004). This framework was well constructed, in Edelson's view, but treats
ocean literacy in isolation, "without regard to any other important lit-
eracies in the earth system sciences." He suggested that this framework
follows the first principle of earth systems science--the dynamic systems
principle--but sets aside the principle of interconnectedness. Some of
those concerned with other areas of earth systems science perceived the
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INTRODUCTION 7
framework as a challenge, Edelson explained, and responded with similar
documents defining the knowledge sequence for these other areas.
The problem, for Edelson, is that "it's not possible to teach climate sci-
ence on its own so that people can understand it." It only makes sense as
part of an integrated, holistic education in earth systems science, although
specific learning outcomes related to climate change would be part of that
education. He commented that a shift in focus from climate change educa-
tion to earth systems science education that encompasses key knowledge
and understanding about climate change is necessary. Indeed, he sug-
gested, "considering climate change education as a separate thing from
overall earth system education is a waste of time."
Edelson thinks it important for concerned scientists and educators to
"raise the banner of earth systems education and use climate change as
one of the reasons that it is absolutely critical." To support this position,
he cited a pragmatic example of why the climate-focused approach is not
effective. In 2008, he pointed out, following a major effort by numerous
groups of scientists and other stakeholders to educate the public about
climate change, 72 percent of Americans believed that global warming
was happening. By 2010, however, this figure had dropped to 50 percent,
and the percentage of those who actively did not believe in global warm-
ing had doubled, from 17 to 36 percent (Borick, Lachapelle, and Rabe,
2011). The reason, Edelson proposed, is that the information the public
had received was not connected to and embedded in larger knowledge
structures. Thus, he explained, "as soon as somebody else comes along
with a compelling argument that goes the other way, [people] cannot
reconstruct the previous argument. They don't have the fundamental
systemic understanding of what is going on."
Focusing on climate change in isolation places it in competition with
other important education outcomes in a similar sphere, Edelson pointed
out, such as study of the ocean, pollution, or even HIV/AIDS, poverty, or
peace education. It is also important, in Edelson's view, to distinguish the
study of climate change, which is an observable phenomenon, from the
study of such fundamental, explanatory aspects of science as evolution,
for example.
The exclusive focus on climate change also creates insider and outsider
views, he added. Climate change is politically charged, and conflict over
the new science standards and other education issues is inevitable. Such
conflict would be much easier to overcome if the debate took place among
people who already had achieved the basic literacy described above.
The heat and energy of such conflicts can have long-lasting impacts, and
Edelson expressed concern that conflict has the potential to derail the
progress of the new science education standards that specifically include
references to climate science and climate change education. It is important
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8 CLIMATE CHANGE EDUCATION: FORMAL SETTINGS, K-14
to remember, he noted, that "in politics you don't win because you are
right, and you don't necessarily even win because you have a majority."
A better approach, for Edelson, is to pursue the goal of developing
geo-literacy, or the capacity to make "big decisions," those that have big
impacts (such as whether or not to drill for oil in a certain area) and that
affect and are influenced by many processes and actors--such as formal
democratic processes, advocacy, and public opinion. Edelson listed four
components of geo-literacy:
1. reasoning about dynamic earth systems (physical, ecological,
social, and technological);
2. reasoning about geographic relationships (relationships between
places and systems and connections between places);
3. reasoning systematically about decisions; and
4. knowledge of specific systems and places at multiple scales.
This approach is intended to complement, not replace, other educa-
tional frameworks and standards, Edelson explained, but it provides a
larger framework for integrating the key aspects of climate systems with
those of human systems. It is also applicable not only to K-12 or under-
graduate natural and physical science education, but also to the social
and behavioral sciences curricula. It focuses on reasoning and decision
making, with an emphasis on place and geographic decision making.
"With the decline in geography education and social studies," he noted,
"teaching of geographic reasoning and geospatial thinking has almost
disappeared." Systematic approaches to decision making are not taught
anywhere in the curriculum, Edelson noted, but people need "to be able
to evaluate evidence, project consequences, weigh options and trade-offs,
and use their values to make well reasoned decisions."
Adding climate change education on top of all that is already in
the curriculum, in Edelson's view, is likely to yield a situation in which
"some teachers do a great job with it, some teachers don't understand
it or don't believe it and don't do it at all, and a lot of people will try to
squeeze it in amongst a bunch of other competing priorities." Instead, he
suggested, it would be possible to work backward from an understand-
ing of the tasks that young people will face when they leave school and
establish educational priorities that will truly prepare them. For example,
Edelson emphasized, "students should be able to make well-reasoned
decisions about purchases of cars and major appliances that take into
account environmental impact, including climate change. They should be
able to evaluate arguments for and against particular energy policies, and
be able to communicate their own arguments to their elected representa-
tives if they choose."
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INTRODUCTION 9
DISCUSSION
Participants had questions and comments about Edelson's proposed
approach. Roberta Johnson (National Earth Science Teachers Association)
asked whether Edelson was targeting a straw man, because, in practice,
there are currently a very small number of courses being taught that focus
on climate change. She commented that "if you are lucky enough to have
an earth science class or an earth systems class, you might be doing a
unit on climate change in the context of everything else you are doing."
Edelson agreed, stressing that there should be both short and long-term
strategies. In the short term, he said, it is important to work within the
current system and integrate climate change into the classroom whenever
possible. The long-term strategy he advocates is to address the fundamen-
tal problem with earth systems understanding and to treat climate change
in the context of both earth and human systems.
Cathy Middlecamp (University of WisconsinMadison) questioned
where biology, chemistry, and physics fit into Edelson's approach of
fostering geo-literacy, and Ted Willard (American Association for the
Advancement of Science) followed with a question about why focusing
on geo-literacy is a better strategy than working across all science disci-
plines. Edelson explained that his approach is intended as a high-level
organizational structure that should apply to all sciences in the curricula,
pointing out that "we should be designing our education around what we
want people to be able to do."
Nancy Songer (University of Michigan) asked whether it will be pos-
sible to take a top-down approach to developing the next generation of
science education standards in a way that fuses together the content and
practices for all of the sciences--natural, physical, and social--so that
priorities can be set through a single concerted effort. Edelson reiterated
that significantly altering the current standards effort "would be counter-
productive" but stressed that the education community should already be
focusing on the next generation of standards beyond the current efforts.
He observed that a major breakthrough could come when coordinated
standards for disciplines within social studies, which currently do not
exist, are developed. Rather than eliminating boundaries between disci-
plines, Edelson suggested that connections across disciplines should be
made well in advance (of articulating standards), so that the next genera-
tion of standards is better coordinated and integrated. "I am arguing for a
better developed top-level structure, a way of connecting disciplines and
making sure that when we set, say, physics priorities, they are connected
to earth science priorities, math priorities, and social studies priorities,
for that matter."
David Blockstein (National Council for Science and the Environment)
pointed to the Bretherton diagram to ask how the definition of geo-
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10 CLIMATE CHANGE EDUCATION: FORMAL SETTINGS, K-14
literacy differed from that of ecology, noting that from his perspective
it was a description of ecology. Edelson responded that the diagram is a
marvel for just that reason--each community sees it as a model of their
own discipline. Geo-literacy, he explained, goes beyond the traditional
notion of earth systems to include the physical, natural, ecological, bio-
logical, social, and technological systems.
