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Biodiversity Education for Sustainable Development
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Biodiversity Education for Sustainable Development

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Education and Approaches".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 June 2021) | Viewed by 17120

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Anna Uitto

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Education, 00014 University of Helsinki, Finland
Interests: biology education; education for sustainable development

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Biodiversity is essential to sustainable development. We are dependent on well-functioning and biodiverse ecosystems, but public awareness of biodiversity and its importance for sustainable development is scarce. For instance, the role of biodiversity in sustaining ecosystem services, such as in producing clean water and food; regulating climate; and in supporting nutrient cycles, health, and many other social and cultural benefits, are not well known.

According to the United Nations, the aim of education for sustainable development (ESD) is to empower learners to make informed decisions and take responsible actions for sustainable development. Biodiversity is included in the cognitive, socio-emotional, and behavioural learning domains and competencies for the sustainable development goals. Thus, biodiversity should be a crucial part of ESD. Nowadays, biodiversity is integrated, for instance, in the school biology or science curriculum, however, the effectiveness and best practices in biodiversity education (BE), especially in relation to ESD, need more research. Previous studies have also revealed other challenges for BE, showing that the biodiversity concept may be difficult to comprehend, BE does not reach various audiences, and there is a disconnection between people and nature.

The purpose of this Species Issue is to bring new knowledge on the cognitive, affective, value-related, and behavioural factors that are important for teaching and learning about biodiversity. We encourage researchers to submit empirical, theoretical, or methodological research articles or reviews in various fields considering BE, for instance, in the frameworks of formal and non-formal school and out-of-school education. Submissions using various qualitative, mixed method, or quantitative research approaches are welcome.

Prof. Dr. Anna Uitto
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Biodiversity education
  • Out-of-school education
  • Socio-scientific issues
  • Teaching and learning methods and approaches in biodiversity education
  • Evaluation of biodiversity education
  • Cognitive and affective factors in biodiversity education
  • Sustainability values, human–nature values in biodiversity education
  • Interdiciplinary/transdisciplinary education in biodiversity education
  • Biodiversity education and transformative pedagogy
  • UNESCO sustainable development goals for biodiversity education

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

21 pages, 3348 KiB  
Article
What Is Most Desirable for Nature? An Analysis of Azorean Pupils’ Biodiversity Perspectives When Deciding on Ecological Scenarios
by Flora Piasentin, Rosalina Gabriel, Ana M. Arroz, Alexandra R. Silva and Isabel R. Amorim
Sustainability 2021, 13(22), 12554; https://doi.org/10.3390/su132212554 - 13 Nov 2021
Viewed by 1700
Abstract
Understanding pupils’ biodiversity perspectives is essential to developing educators’ sensitivity to students’ multi-faceted views of the world, thus increasing teaching effectiveness. In this study, we asked 1528 school pupils in the Azores to choose between alternative schemes in three ecological scenarios and to [...] Read more.
Understanding pupils’ biodiversity perspectives is essential to developing educators’ sensitivity to students’ multi-faceted views of the world, thus increasing teaching effectiveness. In this study, we asked 1528 school pupils in the Azores to choose between alternative schemes in three ecological scenarios and to justify their decisions. The study’s objectives were to understand biodiversity perspectives underlying pupils’ choice of the most desirable schemes for nature and to examine whether gender and school level (middle school/high school) influenced their choices. Quantitative (frequency analysis and Chi-square statistics) and qualitative (thematic analysis) methods were applied for data analysis. The majority of pupils made appropriate choices, arguing from different biodiversity perspectives, which were classified in 10 categories and 24 subcategories. High school pupils did not exhibit significant differences among the main arguments employed, and mostly referred to ecological concepts, while middle school pupils exhibited different choices according to gender, emphasizing richness over the threats posed by introduced species. Biodiversity education should thus be strengthened, especially at the middle school level, where different complex issues would benefit from classroom discussion and systematization. The chosen methodological strategy proved to be effective in assessing pupils’ biodiversity perspectives, which may be useful to deal with other ill-structured problems. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biodiversity Education for Sustainable Development)
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16 pages, 2700 KiB  
Article
What Environmental and Personal Factors Determine the Implementation Intensity of Nature-Based Education in Elementary and Lower-Secondary Schools?
by Takahiro Yamanoi, Masashi Soga, Maldwyn J. Evans, Kazuaki Tsuchiya, Tomoyo F. Koyanagi and Tadashi Kanai
Sustainability 2021, 13(17), 9663; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13179663 - 27 Aug 2021
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2969
Abstract
As society becomes increasingly urbanized, children are becoming much less likely to experience nature. This progressive disengagement from the natural world, often termed the ‘extinction of experience’, has been viewed both as a key public health issue and one of the most fundamental [...] Read more.
As society becomes increasingly urbanized, children are becoming much less likely to experience nature. This progressive disengagement from the natural world, often termed the ‘extinction of experience’, has been viewed both as a key public health issue and one of the most fundamental obstacles to halting global environmental degradation. School education has an important role in mitigating and reversing the ongoing extinction of experience. Here, we examine the role of several factors that determine the implementation intensities of nature-based education by science teachers in the classrooms of both primary and secondary schools. We performed a large-scale questionnaire survey comprising 363 elementary and 259 lower-secondary schoolteachers. Several factors predicted the implementation intensity of nature-based education in schools. The most important predictor was teachers’ levels of nature-relatedness, with nature-orientated teachers being more likely to provide nature-based education in their classes. Levels of teachers’ ecological knowledge, frequency of childhood nature experiences, and greenness within the school were also positively associated with the implementation intensity of education. Our results suggest that, to promote nature-based education in schools, it is important to increase schoolteachers’ nature-relatedness and ecological knowledge, as well as to provide more green spaces within schools. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biodiversity Education for Sustainable Development)
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21 pages, 13740 KiB  
Article
An Approach to Prospective Primary School Teachers’ Concept of Environment and Biodiversity through their Design of Educational Itineraries: Validation of an Evaluation Rubric
by Hortensia Morón-Monge, María del Carmen Morón-Monge, Daniel Abril-López and María Paula Daza Navarro
Sustainability 2020, 12(14), 5553; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12145553 - 09 Jul 2020
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2742
Abstract
The aim of this work is to promote outdoor activities to bring students closer to the environment and the biodiversity of their surroundings. In this sense, educational itineraries are a very good educational resource that promotes skills developing (scientific, cartographic, educational, etc.) which [...] Read more.
The aim of this work is to promote outdoor activities to bring students closer to the environment and the biodiversity of their surroundings. In this sense, educational itineraries are a very good educational resource that promotes skills developing (scientific, cartographic, educational, etc.) which are necessary for the appropriate design of teaching proposals. The present study is carried out with the prospective primary teachers from the Universities of Sevilla and Huelva (Spain). Firstly, the purpose is to analyse what type of educational itineraries they can design after an outdoor activity. Secondly, a rubric is validated as an instrument of analysis and evaluation immersed in a qualitative methodology. The results show what kind of itineraries are designed, and what knowledge and conceptual difficulties the students display. Most of them do not recognize the minimal of elements making up the itineraries, and have difficulties in understanding the environment as a complex system. In summary, we think that the students’ lacking of knowledge about the environment and its biodiversity, the poor geographic-cartographic competencies that they have, together with their maintenance of traditional conceptions of teaching, do not allow them to design proposals of interest for teaching-learning processes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biodiversity Education for Sustainable Development)
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19 pages, 310 KiB  
Article
Species Learning and Biodiversity in Early Childhood Teacher Education
by Lili-Ann Wolff and Tuula H. Skarstein
Sustainability 2020, 12(9), 3698; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12093698 - 03 May 2020
Cited by 19 | Viewed by 4806
Abstract
To understand biodiversity, it is crucial to have knowledge of different species and their life conditions. Biodiversity learning for children starts with observing plants and animals in the neighbourhood. Therefore, it is important that early childhood (EC) teachers know the local nature. There [...] Read more.
To understand biodiversity, it is crucial to have knowledge of different species and their life conditions. Biodiversity learning for children starts with observing plants and animals in the neighbourhood. Therefore, it is important that early childhood (EC) teachers know the local nature. There are few studies on species knowledge among EC student teachers but results from a Norwegian study show that although EC student teachers had poor species knowledge when entering university, their knowledge increased remarkably during their studies. Based on these results, the current study investigates the implementation of species learning in an EC teacher education course in Finland. Our aim was to study the student teachers’ species identification skills, their views on the importance of species knowledge, and their experiences of species learning. The study used a mixed-methods approach and included species identification tests, a questionnaire, learning diaries, and focus group interviews. The results show that the student teachers were eager to learn about species. They found species learning important both for EC teachers and for sustainability, and they appreciated learning about species in a broad sense, from personal, educational, and social perspectives. Our conclusion is that implementing species knowledge in EC teacher education promotes an interest in the natural world and may form a significant contribution to nature and sustainability education for EC teachers. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biodiversity Education for Sustainable Development)
14 pages, 1517 KiB  
Article
Between Environmental Utilization and Protection: Adolescent Conceptions of Biodiversity
by Jennifer Schneiderhan-Opel and Franz X. Bogner
Sustainability 2019, 11(17), 4517; https://doi.org/10.3390/su11174517 - 21 Aug 2019
Cited by 15 | Viewed by 3292
Abstract
As human activities threaten biodiversity on a global scale, preventing further biodiversity loss requires scientifically literate and environmentally responsible citizens. Biodiversity education (BE) as part of education for sustainable development (ESD) may lay the foundation of fostering a sense of responsibility for biodiversity [...] Read more.
As human activities threaten biodiversity on a global scale, preventing further biodiversity loss requires scientifically literate and environmentally responsible citizens. Biodiversity education (BE) as part of education for sustainable development (ESD) may lay the foundation of fostering a sense of responsibility for biodiversity and its preservation among future generations. Meaningful learning depends on the integration of new knowledge into already existing student conceptions (i.e., students’ pre-instructional mental concepts and ideas of teaching subjects). Thus, assessment and consideration of student conceptions on biodiversity are of high relevance for the development of successful BE and ESD lessons. In the present qualitative study, we applied three open-ended questions in a paper-and-pencil format to assess adolescents’ pre-instructional conceptions on biodiversity, its benefits, and protection. Almost our total sample of 275 German 10th graders equated biodiversity with species diversity, revealing an only fragmented understanding of the scientific concept of biodiversity. Conceptions of the benefits of biodiversity were almost equally balanced between environmental and economic benefits. Notions of environmental preservation considerably outnumbered notions of environmental utilization in student conceptions of biodiversity protection. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biodiversity Education for Sustainable Development)
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