Instructional Practices in K-12 Climate Change Education Across Disciplines: A Study of Early Adopters from New Jersey

Abstract

The United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable DeveTablelopment centers on the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Among these goals, two address climate change education: Goal 13, Climate Action, and Goal 4, Quality Education. In order to build a more sustainable future, climate change education is critical. In 2022, New Jersey became the first state in the US to integrate climate change into learning standards across subjects and grade levels K-12. In an effort to better understand the way in which teachers began to include climate change in their instruction, 50 teachers were observed implementing a lesson of their choosing that included climate change throughout the 2023–2024 academic year. Though most of the observed lessons featured science, many subject areas were included in the dataset, such as art, technology, history, and physical education. Teachers engaging in climate change instruction tended to use a variety of instructional practices. In nearly all cases, a multitude of methodologies were used in each lesson. However, small group instruction was featured in nearly all observed lessons. Quantitative descriptions of the findings are followed by three vignettes of exemplar instruction to provide a clearer understanding of the context of this work. These findings provide a scope for how climate change can be integrated in instructional settings at scale and suggestions for leveraging the experiences of early adopters of this innovation to support widespread implementation.

1. Introduction

The year 2024 was Earth’s hottest since record keeping began in 1890 [1]. The planet also experienced magnified upper ocean water temperatures, lower than average sea ice, and an above average-number of tropical storms. All of our planet experiences the effects of our changing climate. Yet, the US state of New Jersey experiences magnified effects of climate change relative to many other places in the US and globally [2]. New Jersey has had significantly more extended periods of higher temperatures, sea level rise, both precipitation and associated flooding, and drought events. Predictive studies suggest that these trends will continue and intensify by the year 2050 and beyond [2].

Just as not all places experience the effects of climate change in the same way, individuals and groups of people experience the effects of climate change differently. Children are more vulnerable to the negative effects of climate change when compared to their adult counterparts [3]. Children are at increased risk for exposure to pathogens, displacement from homes due to flooding, increased heat exposure, and asthma and allergies. Studies also indicate that increased heat exposure has a negative correlation with academic achievement. The US EPA reported that average temperature increases of 4 °C resulted in 7% reductions in academic achievement per child [3]. Thus, it becomes clear that adaptations are needed in educational systems to meet the needs of learners in the context of our changing climate, alongside efforts to teach about climate change as a topic in school settings. As Dolan explains,

“Children are currently affected by climate change albeit in differing ways, depending on geographical, social, and economic factors. As interested citizens, they have a right to a comprehensive and robust climate change education, to ensure they become responsible decision makers now and in the future.”

[4] p. 9.

The United Nations’ 2030 agenda for sustainable development, “provides a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future [5].” This agenda hinges on the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Among these goals, two center directly on climate change education: Goal 13, Climate Action, and Goal 4, Quality Education. In order to build a more sustainable future, climate change education is critical. Attention must be paid to education about climate change. Past research [6,7] demonstrates that climate change education is an effective tool for mitigating the devastating effects of a warming climate. Studies suggest that education for climate change has the potential to reduce carbon emissions in a similar manner to many of the top solutions suggested by Project Drawdown, such as transitioning to electric cars and widespread installation of solar panels [7,8]. Yet, education is rarely utilized as a tool for climate change mitigation on global or local scales. UNESCO reports that Sustainable Development Goal 4, “Quality Education,” was addressed in only two of 72 transnational climate initiatives [9]. Recent literature reviews also suggest that there is a great need for understanding formalized strategies for countries and other entities to implement comprehensive climate change education [10]. Additionally, in many parts of the United States and elsewhere around the globe, controversy surrounds efforts supporting climate change education, and in some cases, policies are being put in place to prevent teachers from addressing the topic in schools [11,12].

However, around the world, there are exemplary places in which climate change education has been implemented at scale. The US state of New Jersey has recently become a global climate change education leader [13]. In 2020, New Jersey’s First Lady Tammy Murphy announced that the state would be the first in the US to require the integration of comprehensive learning standards to support climate change instruction [14]. These standards encompass all subject areas and grade levels. Building a foundational knowledge base in climate science among all New Jersey citizens through including interdisciplinary learning standards across subject areas can result in a population well prepared to develop solutions to this pressing global problem.

In 2022, the new standards to support climate change learning were released, and their implementation began in the 2022–2023 academic year [15]. These standards include explicit references to climate change within each content area. For example, a world languages standard targeted at students in grades 3–5 (ages approximately 8–11) states, Demonstrate comprehension of brief oral and written messages found in short culturally authentic materials on global issues, including climate change, while a visual and performing arts standard targeted at students in grades 6–8 (ages approximately 11–14) states, Analyze and contrast how art forms are used to reflect global issues, including climate change. These standards do not require adding new instructional units or completely upending curricula. Rather, they provide entry points for integrating the topic across many subjects.

It should be noted that these standards were not the first effort to integrate climate change in New Jersey schools. New Jersey adopted the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) as its science learning standards in 2014 [16]. The NGSS include explicit instruction in climate change beginning in middle school with the disciplinary core idea, Global Climate Change [16]. New Jersey’s comprehensive standards addressing climate change represent an expansion upon the ideas introduced in the NGSS to include elementary grades and direct attention in subjects outside of science. It should also be acknowledged that there is sometimes controversy over the terminology related to curriculum and standards. Throughout this manuscript, we use the description of learning standards and their distinction from curriculum set out by New Jersey’s State Department of Education. (https://www.nj.gov/education/code/current/title6a/chap8.pdf, accessed 7 July 2025). In New Jersey student learning standards are not curriculum. Rather, standards simply identify the scope of ideas covered on a given subject over a period of time and include performance expectations, which are statements of what information students should be able to know or do at the end of a particular grade level or grade band. Curriculum, on the other hand, specifies instructional materials, sequences, and strategies that are used to enact standards. In New Jersey, local education agencies (or school districts) are given the freedom to select a curriculum of their own choice. Thus, no particular textbooks or materials are mandated for use in the state. The purpose of this current study is to better understand which instructional strategies teachers are using to teach children about climate change in New Jersey, approximately one year into the implementation of these new learning standards, in a broader effort to address SDGs 4 and 13. This study investigates the classrooms of teachers who volunteered to be observed very soon after the standards addressing climate change were introduced. These teachers were early to adopt the innovation of climate change education.

2. Theoretical Underpinnings

Educational innovations, and in fact innovations of all kinds, are typically adopted in predictable phases. Individuals first learn about the innovation, next develop positive or negative views about the innovation, then make the decision to adopt it, and finally put it to use. Rogers (2003) developed the Diffusion of Innovations theory, which delineates the way in which innovations are transmitted across social systems and contexts [17]. Rogers’ theory identifies four elements needed for diffusion: (1) the innovation itself; (2) communication about that innovation; (3) the timeframe during which this innovation is transmitted; and (4) the social system in which the innovation is introduced. Though innovations are not all the same, there are many characteristics that groups and individuals must consider in order to determine whether and when to adopt or adapt to that innovation, which the author describes as relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability, and observability [17]. The model depicted in

Table 1. Rogers’ (2003) [17] characteristics of climate change education as innovation (CCCEI).

Characteristics of Innovation	Defined by	Evidenced in Climate Change Education
Relative Advantage	The way in which the innovation improves current educational practice	Integration of the topic ensures that all learning standards are being met
Compatibility	The way in which the innovation is consistent with past practice and current needs	Fit within existing curricula and instructional materials
Complexity	The ease or difficulty of implementing the innovation	Ability to integrate climate change without extra burden
Trialability	The way in which the innovation can be experimented with before fully committing	Ability to use multiple different methods and approaches to integrate climate change
Observability	The visibility of the effects of implementing the innovation	Changed ideas, practices, and understandings

outlines the way in which climate change education in New Jersey can be described by Rogers’ characteristics of innovation. There is also a temporal component of innovation, which organizes the timeframe in which individuals take on a new innovation. Rogers sorts populations within a given timeframe as Innovators (the first 2.5% of those to take on an innovation), Early Adopters (the next 13.5%), Majority Adopters (the bulk of the population, or 64%), and Laggards (the remainder, or 16%).

Dale, McEwan, and Bohan (2021) [18] describe early adopters of educational innovations as visionaries and those willing to take risks. These authors suggest that the early adopters can help institutions to build capacity for widespread innovation adoption within educational settings [18]. Given the newness of the innovation that is the focus of this study, i.e., comprehensive climate change education across grade levels and subject areas in New Jersey, the participating teachers in this current study are early adopters of climate change instruction [15]. As Basilo and Lyons said, “Early Adopters … are opinion leaders toward whom others look for advice and guidance. Change agents most often seek out Early Adopters because of their strong influence on speeding adoption. The Early Adopter reduces uncertainty for others when they adopt an innovation, and they enjoy a high level of esteem among their peers (p. 161).” [19]. Early adopter teachers often serve as informal mentors to colleagues as they bring innovations to larger scales, such as schools or school systems. The goal of this study is to articulate the ways in which the observed teachers implemented climate change instruction to provide a baseline or starting point for understanding the way in which this innovation plays out over time and at scale.

3. Research Question

This study seeks to explore the following question:

What practices are early-adopting teachers using when engaging in climate change instruction in K-12 settings?

4. Methodology

This manuscript presents a study of climate change education in New Jersey. Aside from topic and geographic location, the study is bounded by time; all data were collected during the 2023–2024 academic year. The study sought to observe three teachers in each of New Jersey’s 21 counties, one at each level—elementary, middle, and high school—to provide a geographic scope that represented the entire state. These teachers were volunteers and recruited via professional listservs, word of mouth, advertisements at professional meetings, and social media posts. They invited the research team to send an observer to visit their classrooms during a lesson of their choosing integrating climate change. Four researchers observed the teachers (one researcher per observation) and recorded their observations using a semi-structured protocol (see Appendix A). Following the observation, teachers participated in a debriefing interview to contextualize the observation and clarify where needed.

A quantitative description of the variety of observed instructional practices is provided. This is followed by three vignettes to provide a deeper and more nuanced picture of the way in which climate change education was enacted across the dataset. These data, taken together, are interpreted within the context of the model described in Table 1, Characteristics of Climate Change Education as Innovation, CCCEI.

4.1. Data Collection and Analysis

A classroom observation protocol was developed in order to cast a wide net to describe the state of climate change education broadly and not to evaluate the quality of instruction. This unique protocol (see Appendix A) provides contextual information to frame the observation: grade level, subject(s) of lesson, class size, classroom setup, and instructional strategies used. Next, the protocol allows the observer to include a description of what the teacher and students are doing at the beginning, middle, and end of the lesson. The four researchers who completed the observations established inter-coder reliability by using the protocol to code a video lesson and discussing discrepancies until 100% agreement was met. The observed lessons varied in duration, ranging from approximately 30 to 90 min, with most falling between 50 and 60 min.

Within 48 h of completing each observation, the teacher was interviewed by the observer via Zoom. These interviews were recorded digitally and transcribed. Transcriptions were edited to remove any identifying information and correct any errors. Interviews each lasted approximately 20 min. For a subset of three participating teachers, short narrative vignettes were crafted using interview transcripts, field notes from the classroom observations, and classroom artifacts collected or photographed during observations.

4.2. Ethics Statement

This study was reviewed and approved by our institution’s institutional review board (IRB). Informed consent was provided by each of the participants.

4.3. Participants

A total of 50 teachers were recruited and participated in the observation study, and these were divided fairly evenly across the three levels: elementary, middle, and high school.

4.3.1. Elementary School Teachers

Of the 17 teacher participants, most, 12 or 71%, were classroom generalist teachers in grades ranging from K-5. Two were teachers in inclusion classrooms where lessons were team-taught by generalist and special education teachers (12%), and the remaining three (18%) were “specials” teachers—one art teacher, one technology teacher, and one science specialist.

4.3.2. Middle School Teachers

Half, or eight, of the 16 observed middle school teachers were science teachers. Another three, or 19%, were English-language arts teachers. One teacher (or 6%) taught each of the following subjects: mathematics, art, multidisciplinary advisory, social studies, and physical education.

4.3.3. High School Teachers

Of the 17 observed high school teachers, a large majority were science teachers: 11, or 65%. Two, or 12%, were Spanish teachers, and another two, or 12%, were technology teachers. One teacher (or 6%) taught each of the following subjects: English as a second language and social studies.

5. Findings

A total of 50 teachers were recruited, representing 81% of the target 63. Teacher participants represented 20 of New Jersey’s 21 counties, or 95%. The county in which we were unable to recruit any teachers was Cumberland. This county is relatively small compared to others; it ranks 16th in population (approximately 150,000 residents). Because of a scheduling error, four teachers were recruited and observed in Gloucester County. Many of the observations took place during interdisciplinary lessons, and all subject areas addressed in a given lesson were documented.

Table 2. Distribution of subject areas observed.

Subject Area	Number of Observed Lessons	Percentage of Observed Lessons
Science	32	64%
English-Language Arts (includes reading and writing)	8	14%
Technology, Computer Science, STEM, or STEAM	5	10%
Social Studies	3	6%
World Languages (Spanish)	2	4%
Art	2	4%
Mathematics	1	2%
Physical Education	1	2%

shows the distribution of lessons across subject areas.

Science was the most common subject observed, and it was listed as a primary or integrated subject in nearly two-thirds of the observed lessons. However, other subjects were also frequently observed, including English language arts, technology, and social studies. Though the numbers were smaller for world languages, art, mathematics, and physical education, it should be noted that they were observed as part of this study, which indicates that there are clear examples of instruction occurring across content areas among the pool of observed classrooms. It should also be noted that many lessons integrated more than one subject, suggesting that interdisciplinary approaches were valued by the teachers in the dataset.

Many instructional strategies were utilized in the observed lessons, and most observed lessons included more than one instructional activity. For example, lessons often included mini lectures followed by small group or independent activities. Instructional tools, such as video, audio, laboratory activities, and online simulations, were also noted during the observations.

Table 3. Observed instructional activities.

Instructional Activity	Frequency	Percentage
Small Group Activities	38	76%
Whole Class Discussion	37	74%
Lecture	32	64%
Use of Video and/or Audio Resources (including podcasts)	31	62%
Students Working Independently	27	54%
Using Nonfiction Texts	24	48%
Writing	23	46%
Use of Digital Collaborative Tools (including Jamboard or Seesaw)	18	36%
Reading Aloud (teacher or students)	15	30%
Data Analysis and/or Interpretation	15	30%
Interdisciplinary Instruction	14	28%
Problem or Project-Based Learning	13	26%
Reading Silently or with a Partner	13	26%
Lab Activities	10	20%
Student Presentations	8	16%
Arts-based Instruction	6	12%
Use of Online Simulations or Virtual Labs	5	10%
Argumentation or Debate (including scientific argumentation)	3	6%
Using Fiction Texts	2	4%
Games	2	4%
Outdoor Learning	2	4%

The first five highlighted rows indicate that the activity was observed in more than half of the lessons.

indicates the frequency of various instructional strategies observed over the course of the study.

As can be seen in Table 3, the observed teachers used a wide variety of instructional strategies to enact climate change instruction. The first five shaded rows represent strategies that were present in more than half of the 50 observed lessons. Four of these five rows indicate modes of instruction—lecture, discussion, small group work, and independent work—suggesting that teachers pursued multiple modes to communicate climate change content to their classes. Also frequent among the dataset were the use of audio and video resources (62%) and nonfiction text-based resources (48%), suggesting that the observed teachers are leveraging existing media and technology to share climate change content with their students. Many strategies employed across multiple observations included skills that apply to many content areas, such as data analysis and interpretation (30%), writing (46%), and student presentations (16%). Others, such as lab activities (20%) and argumentation or debate (6%), are tied more closely to unique and individual disciplines.

Given the breadth and scope of these observed lessons, narrative vignettes provide richer descriptions of a subset of three teacher participants—one at the elementary level, one at the middle school level, and one at the high school level (note: all names used are pseudonyms.). These vignettes offer a more detailed explanation of the variety of ways in which climate change instruction was implemented across the landscape of the entire dataset.

6. Vignette

6.1. Vignette #1: Mrs. Nelson

Mrs. Nelson is a third-grade teacher in an inclusion classroom in an urban school district in Central New Jersey. With more than two decades of teaching experience, she is no stranger to changes and innovations. She invited the team to observe her during a social studies lesson, which she started by seating the children on a rug in front of the room and reviewing key ideas from the book the class had read the previous day, Andrea Beatty’s Sofia Valdez, Future Prez. Mrs. Nelson reviewed the difference between urban, suburban, and rural settings and told the class that they would be focusing the day’s activities on identifying green spaces. Next, Mrs. Nelson displayed an aerial photograph of New York City and asked the students whether the environment was urban, suburban, or rural. The students correctly described the density of buildings and noted that it was urban, but one boy noticed the large green rectangle toward the middle on top of the image—Central Park! Mrs. Nelson praised his keen observation and noted that we can always find green space—even in urban environments. Next, Mrs. Nelson shared that they would be looking at three images, all from within a 20 min drive of where they were currently sitting. For each, they would turn and talk to their neighbors about what types of things they noticed and share what kind of environment was pictured with the whole class. The first image was of the city in which the school was located. “That’s the football field at the high school!” one student exclaimed. Another noticed how close together the buildings were with surprise and said, “So we live in an urban environment!” After acknowledging the student’s correct answer, Mrs. Nelson showed an image from the next town over. The students almost immediately recognized a local park and the way in which the housing plots were of similar size and shape. They correctly identified this as a suburban environment. Finally, the students looked at an aerial image of a less familiar area, less than 10 miles away. The students commented that it looked like farmland and were surprised to know this place was so close to them. One child shyly raised a hand and asked, “Could there really be a rural place so close by?” When Mrs. Nelson affirmed that there was, she asked the children to consider differences between the three photos with respect to green spaces, and the students concluded that their city had fewer than these nearby towns. Next, she asked what Sofia Valdez might do in this situation. The students shared many ideas, from writing petitions to build more parks to planting a rooftop garden at their school. Mrs. Nelson wrapped up the lesson by praising their advocacy and letting the class know that tomorrow, they would pick a plan to advocate for as a class.

6.2. Vignette #2: Ms. Young

Ms. Young teaches seventh-grade science in a county in a suburban town in the southern part of New Jersey. She describes her teaching style as interactive and full of hands-on experiences. She has been integrating ideas around climate change since it was formally introduced through the Next Generation Science Standards in 2014, but she has always also highlighted related topics such as human impacts on the environment and biodiversity loss. During her observed lesson, Ms. Young started with some quick review questions that explained that the class would be discussing drinking water. She began by modeling how much water was on the planet using a gallon jug. She poured a quarter cup of that water into a new container and noted that this represented the freshwater on the planet. Next, she removed one tablespoon from the quarter cup to represent the amount of freshwater not trapped in the ground, clouds, or glaciers. Finally, she removed just one droplet from the tablespoon to represent drinking water. The students were visibly surprised by the model and curious to learn more about water and its distribution. One student wondered, “How can it be that there are so many billions of people on Earth and so little water for them to drink?” Ms. Young challenged the student to keep that in mind when thinking about differences in these reservoirs.

Next, Ms. Young asked the class whether they had any negative experiences with water themselves, and several mentioned bad storms, drownings, and floods. She then shared a personal anecdote from her hometown where the school is located. Ms. Young’s childhood home never flooded when she was growing up, but her parents continue to live there, and over the past several years, they have experienced two severe floods. One of these floods destroyed a wall and condemned the home. Several students offered similar experiences of water damage in their own homes. After sharing, she asked the students about other ways that climate change is affecting water-including scarcity (increased droughts) and increased pollution and waterborne diseases (flooding). Next, Ms. Young shifted focus and provided video examples about how engineers are building solutions to solve the problem of contaminated water. To further pique students’ interest, Ms. Young also shared the average salaries earned by environmental engineers and fielded questions about education and other preparation needed to begin in that type of career. Throughout the discussion, Ms. Young freely allowed students to ask and respond to questions throughout the class discussion. The remainder of the observed lesson was dedicated to the “design” phase of an engineering design challenge in which the students were grouped and tasked with creating a filter for contaminated water, which they would build and test in future lessons.

6.3. Vignette #3: Ms. Carlson

Ms. Carlson teaches a garden-focused environmental science class at a rural technical high school in the southern part of New Jersey. Her work at the school started as a FoodCorps service volunteer, establishing a robust school garden more than a decade earlier. Ms. Carlson describes herself as a wellness advocate and integrates many different modalities into her teaching. During her interview, she said that the following questions drive her instructional planning: How can we care for the climate and translate this into action? What kind of science do we need to make this planet a better place?

On the day of the observed lesson, Ms. Carlson began by asking students to reflect on some prior learning and self-assess their work. Next, she provided a journal writing prompt: For the rest of this school year, we will focus on the connection between food and climate change: What are some connections you can make right now as we begin this unit?

After writing independently for a few minutes, students shared some of their answers, such as, “Climate affects temperature, which helps food plants grow,” and “quick changes in temperature can make plants die.” Ms. Carlson praised these responses and encouraged students to think about them as they completed the school year. Next, the class went outside to the school garden to harvest and wash radishes they planted earlier in the year. After the harvest was complete, she took the class back inside and explained they would be making an appetizer of sliced radishes on buttered bread made with herbs harvested from the garden earlier that week. The students eagerly prepared their appetizers and tasted them. Most students had not eaten radishes before and commented that the vegetables were spicy and sort of like raw potatoes. Ms. Carlson emphasized that sensory experiences of planting, harvesting, cleaning, and cooking were important for understanding the connection between food and climate more completely. After eating, Ms. Carlson introduced the idea of a “foodprint”, or measure of the carbon footprint of a given food. She sent the students on a webquest to learn about various factors that influence foodprints, such as the miles the food has traveled, whether it is plant- or animal-based, and whether waste from the food is composted or sent to a landfill. The class concluded with students self-calculating their personal foodprints and making suggestions for how they might decrease their own. Students recorded responses on a worksheet and shared their strategies with one another through discussion, including composting food waste and eating more plant-based diets.

7. Discussion

By situating Rogers’ (2003) model within the context of climate change education, the Characteristics of Climate Change Education as Innovation CCCEI (Table 1), a framework for unpacking the enactment of climate change instruction at scale, emerges. The observed early adopting teachers’ practices can shed light on how climate change instruction fits within the scope of these characteristics and can support future plans for adopting the innovation of climate change education at scale. Two of these characteristics—relative advantage and trialability—are somewhat different for the innovation of climate change education in New Jersey among teachers who fall into the “innovator” or “early adopter” category. It was a policy that demanded the integration of this new innovation (climate change education), thus taking it on was not a choice on teachers’ behalf. Though it is possible that teachers could choose to hold off before making changes to their instructional practice (i.e., innovating), these early adopters did not make that particular choice—instead, they opted to teach about climate change early after the new learning standards were announced. Furthermore, these early adopting teachers are already experimenting with different ways to integrate climate change; thus, trialability is inherent in their work. Therefore, we will not provide further unpacking of these two categories of the framework with this particular set of participants. Nevertheless, the CCCEI framework overall is helpful for understanding the way this innovation might diffuse at scale in New Jersey. Evidence for each of the other three characteristics—compatibility, complexity, and observability—was seen throughout the dataset and will be elaborated upon in this discussion.

7.1. Compatibility

Compatibility is a measure of how well an innovation is perceived with past practice and current needs. The observational data about these early adopting teachers’ climate change education practices indicates that teaching about climate change is compatible with their needs. The strongest evidence supporting this category is that a large majority of the observed lessons (64%) included science as one of the focus subjects. Since New Jersey uses the Next Generation Science Standards as its learning standards and has done so for a decade, and these standards address climate change explicitly beginning in middle school, it follows that the leap to including climate change in science is more manageable than in other subjects. Climate change is often seen as a science topic and not necessarily an interdisciplinary one, so it is not terribly surprising that nearly two in three observed lessons were science focused.

Further evidence that climate change education was a compatible innovation is the variety of instructional strategies observed. Teachers clearly felt comfortable using tried-and-true methods and formats for engaging students in climate change education. They were observed using strategies that were common across many content areas, such as writing and student presentations, as well as those unique to specific content areas, such as labs. From Ms. Young’s example, we saw that engineering design challenges, often a fixture of science classrooms using the NGSS, were a natural fit for exploring climate change solutions for cleaning contaminated drinking water. Similarly, in Mrs. Nelson’s classroom, the green space connections were a natural extension from social studies instruction focused on map skills.

7.2. Complexity

Complexity is a measure of how simple or difficult a new innovation is to include. The observed teachers in our dataset were able to use age-appropriate strategies to engage students in climate change education in a way that fit in with the scope of their instruction. The act of volunteering to be observed teaching about this topic is the first evidence—clearly it is occurring in a way that fits within the scope and sequence of their curriculum if they are willing to invite visitors into their classrooms. The fact that lessons across all subject areas and grade levels were included in the dataset suggests that it was possible to integrate the innovation of climate change education into a multitude of topics. Additionally, teachers’ frequent use of existing videos, readings, and models to teach about climate change suggests that the instructional materials needed for covering this topic are within the reach of many teachers already.

In the observation of Mrs. Nelson’s lesson, she was able to connect key social studies concepts, such as learning about the differences in urban, suburban, and rural environments and describing features using aerial photographs, to her instruction about green spaces—a critical climate change solution. In Mrs. Nelson’s interview, she noted that she does not want climate change to be seen as an “add on,” thus she was attempting to include many opportunities to integrate it across different kinds of lessons to keep it relevant to students’ learning. As she explained, “I’m trying to incorporate climate change and have separate lessons directly about it, but then also to incorporate it into different kinds of lessons so that it’s not something on the back burner. Climate change is something that we can continually refer to throughout my class.” This ability to integrate the innovation into her existing curriculum decreased the complexity significantly. Similarly, Ms. Carlson’s approach of starting with the sensory experience of eating the radishes her class grew before analyzing foodprints allowed the students to see the more climate-friendly approach of eating more plant-based diets and reducing food miles as positive and interesting before engaging in research about solutions. The recent lived experience and connection to learning helped ground the students’ explorations on the webquest that followed.

7.3. Observability

Observability is the visibility of the innovation. Within the context of classroom innovation, this can be seen in the work, commentary, and ideas shared by students. The vignettes help shed light on the way in which climate change education was observed in students’ work. In Mrs. Nelson’s class, the students suggested school-specific ideas (i.e., creating rooftop gardens) for increasing their city’s green space. The lesson was structured in such a way that the students felt empowered to personalize their connection to developing climate change solutions.

Similarly, the students in Ms. Young’s class were able to describe personal experiences with flooding—an effect of climate change that many in their community experience—before sharing about the work of environmental engineers and building solutions to this problem. These personalized connections and discussions provided incentive for exploring solutions and learning more about career paths for environmental engineering.

8. Conclusions and Implications

Understanding the way in which early adopters take on innovations is central to widespread adoption among the majority of the population [17]. This study’s teacher participants who were willing to invite observers into their classrooms early on were quick to adapt to the innovation of climate change education and are the early adopters of the practice. They were able to find ways in which climate change fit into what they were already performing (compatibility) and do so in ways that were not burdensome (complexity). Innovating in this way led to visible changes in their students’ discussions of the topic (observability).

Climate change is one of humanity’s greatest challenges. Teaching about our changing climate, the causes, effects, and mitigation of the problem is essential to building solutions. Early adopters of climate change education are needed as proof that the concept works—with their success, the majority can find motivation to make changes themselves. The CCCEI framework can provide structures for scaffolding implementation of climate change education at scale. Seeing the ways that the content can fit into existing curricula with simple changes can lead to observable changes in students’ knowledge and understanding. Though in New Jersey, this innovation is occurring because of policy change, that is not the case universally, and in other situations, considering relative advantage and trialability could also support adoption of the topic beyond the early adopting group.

Moving forward, these early adopters can hold the key to supporting their colleagues in teaching about our changing climate. Providing this group with tools for talking about their own experiences and work can scaffold wider implementation. Emphasizing the CCCEI framework, specifically compatibility, complexity, and observability, could be useful tools across the board.

9. Future Work

As time moves on, teachers across New Jersey will continue to implement climate change instruction in their classrooms, and this work will be performed by many more in the population—beyond the early adopter group. Future studies should follow up with continued observations, including those who may not have been early adopters, to shed light on what widespread implementation of this innovation entails. Additionally, further research could continue to unpack teachers’ instructional decision-making and choices behind the selection of observed strategies.