The Living World in the curriculum: ecology, an essential part of biology learning

Argues that biology should be learnt in the living world not in the classroom. Field ecological education is essential. Ecology is ideal candidate for implementing proposed transformations in science curricula. Ecology education is the missing link in educational reform . Crucial in developing biological literacy for citizen

Development and validation of a framework for the assessment of school curricula on the presence of evolutionary concepts (FACE)

Evolution is a key concept of biology, fundamental to understand the world and address important societal problems, but research studies show that it is still not widely understood and accepted. Several factors are known to influence evolution acceptance and understanding, but little information is available regarding the impacts of the curriculum on these aspects. Very few curricula have been examined to assess the coverage of biological evolution. The available studies do not allow comparative analyses, due to the different methodologies employed by the authors. However, such an analysis would be useful for research purposes and for the development of appropriate educational policies to address the problem of a lack of evolution acceptance in some countries. In this paper we describe the steps through which we developed a valid and reliable instrument for curricula analysis known as FACE: “Framework to Assess the Coverage of biological Evolution by school curricula.” This framework was developed based on the “Understanding Evolution Conceptual Framework” (UECF). After an initial pilot study, our framework was reformulated based on identified issues and experts’ opinions. To generate validity and reliability evidence in support of the framework, it was applied to four European countries’ curricula. For each country, a team of a minimum of two national and two foreign coders worked independently to assess the curriculum using this framework for content analysis. Reliability evidence was estimated using Krippendorf's alpha and resulted in appropriate values for coding the examined curricula. Some issues that coders faced during the analysis were discussed and, to ensure better reliability for future researchers, additional guidelines and one extra category were included in the framework. The final version of the framework includes six categories and 34 subcategories. FACE is a useful tool for the analysis and the comparison of curricula and school textbooks regarding the coverage of evolution, and such results can guide curricula development.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Framing environmental policy by the local press: Case study from the Dadia Forest Reserve, Greece

This paper critically examines the way environmental policy is framed by the press. Focusing on the Dadia Forest Reserve (Greece), we investigated the article content of a local newspaper across three subsequent periods of ecotourism development and three item topics, namely 'ecotourism', 'forest management' and 'environmental awareness'. Content analysis of newspaper articles was based on a pre-defined coding scheme. Overall, time trends as reflected in the local press implied a change in environmental policy stirring from an expert-led towards a more participatory approach. Gradually, balanced schemes dominated environmental policy, where both environmental and economic considerations were taken into account under a diverse spatiotemporal range. Social consensus seems to have been established during the second period of ecotourism development. Ecotourism as an item topic was less connected to environmentalist motives compared to economic ones; the opposite was revealed for the forest management topic. However, our reconstruction of environmental policy in the local press, showed that environmental and economic motives did hardly intercross. Additionally, the ability of the local press to produce and limit meaning was manifested by the sealing of any production process including the one that apparently produces the ecotourism product. Implications for environmental policy and forest management are discussed.

Mapping the signaling environment between sustainability-focused entrepreneurship and investment inputs: A topic modeling approach

The need for climate action has increased attention to sustainability-focused entrepreneurship. In this context, entrepreneurial firms play a fundamental role in developing high-technology solutions for decarbonization but face funding gaps due to the liabilities of newness and smallness. Despite the importance of signaling in entrepreneurship, little is known about what and how to effectively signal to attract investor interest in small ventures that develop sustainable technologies. To address this gap, the present study is anchored in signaling theory and suggests a topic modeling solution to identify signals presented in company self-descriptions and areas of activity, alongside their investment inputs. Using data extracted from Crunchbase, a corpus of 5099 self-descriptions of small sustainable technology ventures over a period of 10 years, this study provides novel insights into the signaling environment of sustainability-focused entrepreneurship. The study's findings have implications for the sustainability ecosystem, namely, start-ups, small- and medium-sized enterprises, investors, and policymakers

Environmental Representations of Local Communities’ Spokespersons in Protected Areas

Despite the popularization of the environmental discourse, rural environmental belief-systems should not be viewed as homogenous. Focusing on the largest protected area in Greece, we examined heterogeneity in local environmental views. Local spokespersons elicited word associations to two stimulus terms, namely, ‘environmentalists’ and ‘protected area’. Based on association categories for both terms, we identified two sample segments. ‘Naturalists’ appealed to a naturalistic image, which shaped the core compartment of their representations. On the other hand, ‘skeptics’ provided both environmentalist claims and critical accounts. Our findings revealed that the environmental discourse was widely diffused among local spokespersons. Issues of power and participation in decision-making processes within protected areas are discussed. For instance, dimensions of power and legitimacy were reflected in the frequency of association categories and their allocation among sample segments. Specifically, environmentalist accounts were overtly expressed by both ‘naturalists’ and skeptics, while a more socially, politically and critically inclined view was revealed by a small percentage of associations that were all elicited by ‘skeptics’. We conclude that appreciating the heterogeneity of rural environmental views can reinforce the democratic mandate in environmental policy-making. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

“Post-truth” challenges and associated science education responses

The goal of this study is to identify the challenges of “post-truth” that science education needs to address and to suggest how these can be met. Based on the literature, four types of challenges are identified: (1) people’s lack of knowledge and skills to assess the reliability of information and recognize misinformation, or common tactics used by conspiracy theorists, (2) lack of commitment to objective facts, (3) lack of a shared understanding of ways of helping people to decide which ways of knowing are more reliable than others, and (4) a lack of understanding that all science knowledge is socially constructed. As a response, respective knowledge and skills need to be taught to students in order to “vaccinate” them against wrong, or biased information before they begin to believe in it. More attention must be paid to the development of well-established science identities and virtues by students. Epistemic disagreements on which ways of knowing are reliable must be seen as educational opportunities for learning to undertake critical analysis. And finally, updated meaning and more importance need to be given to educational approaches demonstrating the interplay between science, technology and society in science classrooms. Based on these four highlights, six teaching-learning modules on controversial issues such as viruses, climate change, evolution, etc. are developed and tested in the Erasmus+ project EVIDENCE for students (age group 15-18

“Post-truth” challenges and associated science education responses

The goal of this study is to identify the challenges of “post-truth” that science education needs to address and to suggest how these can be met. Based on the literature, four types of challenges are identified: (1) people’s lack of knowledge and skills to assess the reliability of information and recognize misinformation, or common tactics used by conspiracy theorists, (2) lack of commitment to objective facts, (3) lack of a shared understanding of ways of helping people to decide which ways of knowing are more reliable than others, and (4) a lack of understanding that all science knowledge is socially constructed. As a response, respective knowledge and skills need to be taught to students in order to “vaccinate” them against wrong, or biased information before they begin to believe in it. More attention must be paid to the development of well-established science identities and virtues by students. Epistemic disagreements on which ways of knowing are reliable must be seen as educational opportunities for learning to undertake critical analysis. And finally, updated meaning and more importance need to be given to educational approaches demonstrating the interplay between science, technology and society in science classrooms. Based on these four highlights, six teaching-learning modules on controversial issues such as viruses, climate change, evolution, etc. are developed and tested in the Erasmus+ project EVIDENCE for students (age group 15-18