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programs. We will be presenting preliminary results at the National Association for Research in Science Teaching conference in San Antonio, Texas in April, 2017.
That feelings are important in education has been known for a long time, but still efforts to discount it persist. One common way of discounting the role of feelings in education is to claim that education should not deal with feelings/attitudes/values because the purpose of education is simply to inform, not cause change. Clearly that requires being selective in how it is applied. No one would question whether we should want children to enjoy reading and to see change happen, getting them to read more. When it comes to the environment, though, the views are sometimes different. Those of us involved in earth education believe that life on Earth is in trouble, that we (people) have to change how we live if we hope to turn that around, and that education should have that as a goal. As Steve likes to point out, the point is change. If there is no change, there is no point.
So continue to emphasize the feelings, the joy at being in touch with nature. That is crucial.
Bruce Johnson
international program & research coordinator brucejohnson@ieetree.org
* Roczen, N., Kaiser, F. G., Bogner, F. X., & Wilson, M. (2013). A Competence Model for Environmental Education. Environment and Behavior, 20(10), 1–21.
Earthkeepers Honors “recognizing exemplary training sites”
We would like to acknowledge Earthkeepers sites that have very high rates of completion for the program. At each of the following centers, 80% to 100% of their Earthkeepers participants earned all four keys to com- plete the full program:
• Agua Caliente Park, Tucson, Arizona, USA
• Brewongle Environmental Education Center, Sackville North, New South, Wales, Australia
• Bronte Creek Project, Burlington, Ontrario, Canada
• Centro de Ecológia San Simón I. Patiño. Santa Cruz, Bolivia
• Cooper Center for Environmental Learning, Tucson, Arizona, USA
• Cyprus Center for Environmental Research and Education, Lemesos, Cyprus
• Earth Learning Adventures, Michigan, USA
• Kooringal, Dwellingup, Western Australia, Australia
• Natural Resources Southeast, Mt. Gambier, South Australia, Australia
• Norwell CELP, Palmerston, Ontario, Canada
• Rifuggio Jumarre, Angrogna, Italy
• Starflower Experiences, Long Island, New York, USA
• Teaching Responsible Earth Education (T.R.E.E.), New Orleans,
Louisiana, USA
• Wild Mountains, Running Creek, Queensland, Australia
14/Annual Report