Climate change education inquiries in the secondary classroom: a practical guide

Abstract

The purpose of this literature review is to report on current climate change education research focused on best practice for climate change pedagogy at the secondary level. Through the literature, I demonstrate the importance of developing an understanding of climate change while creating a deeper and emotional connection to the environment with the goal of educating students who are active and engaged citizens, motivated to be future changemakers. Reid (2019) asks, “What are the risks and benefits of having climate change education focus primarily on, say, cognitive awareness, emotions, and/or behaviour change?” (p.974). While teaching climate science is essential to understand the foundational knowledge, the end goal is to create active citizens who will one day leave the classroom as those changemakers and policy drivers. Having an underlying educational purpose of motivating students to understand and develop a passion for making change requires this emotional switch to be activated and stimulated.