Climate Change Education Goals, Audiences, and Strategies: A Workshop Summary (2011) / Chapter Skim
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4 Major Messages
4 Major Messages
Pages 51-60
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From page 51... ...
This chapter is organized by the major themes that emerged during this discussion. GOALS OF CLIMATE CHANGE EDUCATION A broad range of goals for climate change education were discussed during the workshop, representing a variety of objectives pursued by communities with interest in a climate-literate public and climate-literate decision makers: from increasing basic knowledge of climate science to enhancing the capacity of individuals and groups to respond to the chal lenges posed by climate change.
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From page 52... ...
At a more fine-grained scale, the goals of climate change education include improving understanding of climate-related issues (e.g., climate systems, climate change, and the impacts of climate change) , raising awareness of the potential strategies for limiting the impacts of climate change, encouraging specific action to minimize human impacts and adapt to the changing climate, and help ing individuals and groups to make climate-friendly choices.
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From page 53... ...
However, most scientists do not share their find ings directly with the public but instead disseminate information about climate change in peer-reviewed journals or science media; the role of scientists is to be honest brokers or neutral arbiters of information, he said. William Solecki stressed that scientists should not overstep these roles or they risk losing their considerable legitimacy and trust.
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From page 54... ...
Mahoney observed that the climate change education community needs to balance the fact that climate change is a massive issue that affects the overall earth system, with the reality that individual actions often result in limited, if any, impact on mitigation. This can pose a problem for communicating with individuals or specific groups, who may find it difficult to make the link between climate change and their own behavior, or why they should support the election of political representatives who support climate change mitigation or adaptation policies.
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From page 55... ...
In sum, he said, climate change education communities need to exhibit respect for multiple audiences and not simply try to change people's beliefs, val ues, and understandings to reflect those of the scientists and educators themselves. Several workshop participants subsequently stressed the importance of reaching out to so-called influentials or opinion leaders.
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From page 56... ...
A successful outcome for the workshop would be more communication between people from various communities. CHANGING THE TRANSITION MODEL The comments of the workshop participants on the goals, audiences, and effective practices for climate change led some to question the need for a new model of how knowledge is transferred to nonscientist audi
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From page 57... ...
A question was raised about effective entry points to finding common ground between communities that differ in their values and beliefs and how the focus can shift from "where we are separate to areas in which we are actually the same." Several responses suggested a new system of knowledge transfer, characterized by: • messages and information tailored to the specific needs, values, attitudes, and interests of the audience; • engagement in active learning experiences as an individual and as part of a group; and • interactive and ongoing interactions to sustain relationships. Furthermore, messages could be tailored to the audience's specific needs, values, attitudes, and feelings in a system of productive climate change information transmission for the public and decision makers.
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From page 58... ...
Decision makers typi cally take the information from the scientists and make decisions based on community values, needs, and interests. Many workshop participants thought the presentations and discussions during the workshop made it clear that meaningful efforts in climate change education need to engage the audience in a dialogue in which all viewpoints are understood and considered.
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From page 59... ...
Hassenzahl noted that thinking needs to go beyond examining measurable outcomes to measuring effective processes for achieving the desired results. FINAL WORDS Storksdieck thanked participants for their active contributions to the workshop and reminded them that the workshop was proposed by the Climate Change Education Roundtable, an activity of the National Research Council that brings together federal agencies involved in cli mate change education with various experts to discuss issues of common concern.
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From page 60... ...
As the workshop demonstrated, interesting and fruitful learning may occur when different sub-communities of the larger climate change community interact with one another. To Stern the workshop suggested a variety of near-future priorities that federal agen cies and private foundations could focus on, including solid evaluation research on climate change education projects based on clearly defined indicators for various goals.
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