Local Renewable Energy Development: School Teachers’ Perceptions, Attitudes and Teaching Intentions

This study investigated factors that might influence teachers’ intention to choose Renewable Energy Sources as an optional module. The research involved 454 Greek teachers working in the archipelagos of the southern Aegean region in Greece, an area with significant potential for the development of Renewable Energy Sources (RES). This potential however remains largely unexploited partly due to local community reluctance towards RES development in the area. Although renewable energy education is considered to be necessary for further RES development, RES are not among teachers’ first choice as an environmental module. We found that, despite teachers demonstrating highly positive attitudes towards RES, they consider local communities to be rather non-supportive of local RES development. A relationship between teachers’ moderate intention to teach RES and teachers’ perceptions of locals as non-supportive towards RES was found. We also found that local teachers feel more competent to teach about RES than non-local teachers. The latter are more motivated to comply with social pressure than locals. These findings emphasize the need for renewable energy education policy makers to take into account local communities’ role in influencing the teaching of RES and to provide teachers with the appropriate skills in order to competently handle potential oppositions

Second Life: A Virtual Learning Center for the Study of Sharks

In this work the educational capabilities of the virtual world Second Life are researched and tested. A virtual world is constructed to support education for sustainable development. The life and characteristics of the shark is studied as this fish has received a lot of negative publicity and is in the danger of extinction. A virtual museum was developed for this purpose. The research question is focused on whether it can be used effectively in a modern classroom and how difficult is for an educator to develop such an application. To achieve that, a number of learning activities were developed, a number of on line questionnaires were issued and a series of virtual meetings were held. Teachers used the application and answered the questionnaires. The entire effort was attempted through Internet exclusively