Promoting responsible action for climate change through socio-scientific inquiry-based learning

Abstract

SSIBL requires teachers and students to raise authentic questions and carry out investigations that can lead to taking action to address the SSIs explored. SSIs can be explored from a personal, local or global dimension, but if students are to take responsible action then personal relevance is essential. One such issue is that of climate change. The aim of this study is to present and discuss a case study of a pre-service teacher (PST), who took part in a professional development programme for SSIBL and who chose to focus on teaching SSIBL using the context of climate change, which is one of the most important SSIs related to environmental citizenship, and has been shown to pose challenges for citizens attempting to act as agents of change (Barr, Gilg & Shaw, 2011). This study adopted a case study design using qualitative methods collecting data from lesson observations, interviews and the lesson plans designed by the PST. The analysis of the qualitative data collected indicated that the PST (male, mid-20s) was able to address climate change at a global, local and personal level. For instance during a lesson observation with 14-15 year olds, he asked students to compare how climate change affects various countries, what their communities could do to address it, and in this way he used effective strategies for teaching about climate change (Busch & Osborne, 2014). However, the lesson observation and the interview revealed that addressing climate change at a personal relevance level was a challenge, as there was an over-emphasis on the global dimension of climate change. This suggests that when teaching about climate change personal relevance needs to be a starting point for investigations so as to allow students to relate to the issue, and consider explicitly how to take responsible action