Collaborative knowledge building to promote in-service teacher training in environmental education

Abstract

Environmental education (EE) is a problematic field in teacher education for many reasons. First, there is no consensus about its central concepts. Second, environmental education emerged as a response to environmental problems. Environmental educators do not agree on what are real environmental problems and what are exaggerated fears. For many educators, global warming is a serious environmental problem, but for those who view it in a geological perspective of long-term climatic change, it is not such a problem. When teachers are provided with the possibility of sharing problems of EE and building knowledge collaboratively with university experts, what do they do? What kind of problems do teachers regard as important? What kinds of problems do the university experts regard as important? These questions were investigated through the use of a database program called Knowledge Forum®. Knowledge Forum® is a shared virtual environment for collaborative knowledge building. This article analyses the use of the database in the 1st year (September 2000-September 2001) of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development Environment and School Initiatives project on the theme of ‘Learnscapes, Ecoschools and Teacher Education’. The results are discussed in the context of international research and development in collaborative knowledge building for promoting European environmental education in teacher education. © 2001 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.