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Department of Education and Science

I
MAJESTY'S T TIONERY OFFICE
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©Crown copyright 1989
First published 1989

ISBN 0 11 270664 9

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Contents
Page

Preface v

Environmental education: Its scope and purpose 1

The objectives of environmental education 3

Criteria for the selection of content 7

The planning of environmental education 8

Teaching and learning approaches 11

Assessment 14

Appendix 1 Some links between environmental


education and other areas of the curriculum 16

iii
PREFACE

Preface
Since 1984 HM Inspectorate has published a number of
Curriculum Matters papers designed to stimulate discussion about
the curriculum as a whole and its component parts. In some cases
readers' responses to these papers have also been published. The
details of the series are shown at the end of this publication.

Environmental education from 5 to 16 is the thirteenth in the series.


It sets out a framework for schools in formulating their policies
and practices in environmental education. The paper is addressed
to heads and teachers, school governors, local education authority
(LEA) members and officers, parents, employers and the wider
community outside the school. It discusses ways of fostering
environmental education; it establishes objectives; it identifies
criteria for the selection of content; and it considers planning,
styles of teaching and learning and the assessment of pupils.

Matters to do with our environment are very much in the air


at present. In particular, in May 1988 the Council of Education
Ministers of the European Community agreed 'on the need to
take concrete steps for the promotion of environmental education
. . . throughout the Community' and adopted a Resolution on
Environmental Education to that end. Consequently this
publication seems particularly apposite intended as it is to help
LEAs and schools consider how best to organise and carry out
environmental education.

Like the earlier publications in the Curriculum Matters series,


this paper is intended to stimulate professional discussion and
to contribute to the debate about national agreement on the
objectives and content of the school curriculum that is taking
place as a consequence of the implementation of the National
Curriculum set out in the Education Reform Act 1988.

.'
The National Curriculum Council has the task of taking forward
the work ofindividual subject working groups, through consultation
with the education service and others. It has also been asked by
the Secretary of State to consider and advise him by 31 March
1989 on 'those cross-curricular issues which should be included
in the curriculum of maintained schools . . . and the extent to
which those issues can be included in attainment targets and
programmes of study for the core and other foundation subjects'.
Environmental education is one such cross-curricular issue.

v
PREFACE

This document should be read as a whole, since all


sections are interrelated.

If you have any comments on this paper please send them


to HM Inspector (Environmental Education), Department of
Education and Science, York Road, London SE1 7PH by 31 May
1989.

vi
ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION: ITS SCOPE AND PURPOSE

Environmental education:
Its scope and purpose
1. From an early age children are curious about the people,
places, animals, plants and materials around them. They learn
about their environment through their own first-hand experience,

from t ir parents, through-the media and from a variety of other
sources. Schools have a role in helping their pupils make sense
of these experiences and in developing their knowledge and
understanding of the physical and human processes which interact
to shape the environment. Schools can also help to foster a
reasoned and sensitive concern for the quality of the environment
and for the management of the earth's resources. These are, of
course, matters of increasing social concern.

2. The Curriculum from 5 to 16: Curriculum Matters 2 suggested


that environmental education forms one of the essential issues
to be addressed in the curriculum of schools. It rarely appears
as a subject on the school timetable; nor does this paper argue
it necessarily should. But the understanding of processes and
issues which it seeks to promote ought not to be left to chance
or to individual initiative. This paper tries to identify its
distinctive contribution to pupils' learning, to set out objectives
and to outline planning and teaching approaches.

3. In exploring and explaining inter-relationships in the environ­


ment, environmental education draws on, and contributes to, the
concepts, skills and knowledge underpinning a range of subjects
or areas oflearning and experience. Particularly through fieldwork,
it enriches children's understanding by providing contexts in
which it can be developed or applied at first hand.

4. Environmental education has four overlapping components:

(a) curiosity and awareness about the environment;

(b) knowledge and understanding;

(c) skills;

(d) informed concern.

Curiosity and awareness


5. Developing awareness of the environment means building on
and reinforcing pupils' curiosity about the natural and man-made

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ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION FROM 5 TO 16

world. Awareness and curiosity take different forms: recognition


of beauty in a stretch of countryside; the appreciation ofline and
proportion in buildings; or the wish to know more about the
world's natural resources. An essential element common to all
these examples is the desire to understand why things are as they
are and what may be needed to maintain or, where necessary,
to change them.

1
Knowledge and understanding
6. As pupils grow older they should come to appreciate how
people and other living things, materials and places are inter­
related, and to acquire a sense of responsibility for aspects of the
environment, especially those close to them. The knowledge and
concepts which will help them develop this understanding are
present in part in a number of subjects and cross-curricular
studies. When pupils study the topic of water, for example,
geography can contribute to the understanding of land forms,
drainage basins and the nature of water-courses and can help them
appreciate how the presence of water has affected patterns of
settlement over time. The sciences can deal with water purity
and knowledge of how this is affected by activities such as the
use of chemicals in agriculture and industry; technology and
design can help pupils understand the man-made environment
such as buildings, sluices, weirs, bridges and sewage works,
and consider how design and implementation draw on natural
patterns.

Skills
7. To investigate particular environments and to be able to make
informed judgements about them, pupils need to develop a range
of skills. Mapping and map-reading, along with observation and
description of locations, are needed to interpret the features of
a given area; historical evidence helps to establish the background
and the changes which have occurred over time; quantification
and the interpretation of statistical data are needed as well as skills
associated with economics and science; understanding and
reconciling conflicting points of view draw on political
competence. Linguistic competence is necessary to enable pupils
to reflect, to present coherent arguments and to recognise the
strength or weakness of others' rhetoric. Non-verbal, graphical
and artistic forms of expression offer other means ofanalysis and
communication. fIt is also possible through environmental
education to dev clOp and practise social skills, for example the
ability to work in groups and to participate constructively in the

2
THE OBJECTIVES OF ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION

activities of community groups. Environmental education serves


as one of several means of providing a focus for the application
ofknowledge, skills and understanding drawn from other subject
areas.

8. Fieldwork in country and city is an essential part of environ­


mental education. Often, this is enhanced by an element of
adventure and may involve some physical challenge in which first­
hand knowledge of the environment is essential: for example the
stability and fragility of rocks, the behaviour of the sea, or sudden
changes in weather.

Informed concern
9. Environmental issues are of genuine personal concern to many
pupils and can act as a useful means of exploring moral, social
and political values. Pupils should be equipped to bring to the
study of controversial issues - environmental and others - a respect
for evidence, an understanding of others' concerns, and a growing
realisation that choices are rarely clear-cut. The siting of roads,
railways or power stations, the closing down of old industry and
the opening of new, the supply and treatment of water, all may
raise intense debate; issues such as these - which may not always
be controversial- require the application of understanding. Pupils
may be encouraged to engage in activities in which the ideas for
change and improvement can be tested. This may take the form
of practical work in the school grounds; conservation work outside
school; writing to the local council about a local issue; raising
money to alleviate the effects of natural disasters in other parts
of the world. Pupils may come to form definite views about such
matters as the use of pesticides and fertilisers or nuclear energy
and may wish to make these known in some way. If they are led
to consider different points of view they are, in the context of
the school community, being introduced to the political process
and are showing social responsibility. To avoid bias and
indoctrination it is necessary for young people to acquire an
informed and critical understanding of all the views held about
such issues and an appreciation of how actions and decisions now
and later affect the environment.

The objectives of environmental


education
10. The extent to which early experiences lay a foundation for
the development of awareness, skills and understanding depends

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ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION FROM 5 TO 16

on how teachers plan experiences to enable pupils to exploit their


perceptions and ideas. As children progress through school, their
environmental experience should widen and their interpretation
of evidence become more coherent as they are helped to make
use of knowledge and skills exemplified across the curriculum.
Activities such as urban and rural studies related to local
and more distant environments, scientific and technological
investigations and contact with an increasing number of lay and
professional people will all add to their experience.

11. They should also come to realise that people are not simply
at the mercy of impersonal forces and that, throughout history, they
have often been - and are still - driven and enthused by necessity,
belief or the vision of a better life; have crossed seas, drained
swamps and cleared wildernesses, built cities and developed the
rule of law, irrigated deserts and put man on the moon. While
they should be aware of the less desirable consequences of these
actions they should be excited by human endeavour and skill as
well as have respect for the forces and conditions of the natural
world. They should begin to grasp the complexity of the inter­
relationship between mankind and the environment.

Objectives at age 11
12. However the curriculum is organised the programme of
study in the primary school should enable pupils to:

• gain, at first hand, knowledge of their local environment, for


example, its weather, surface features and the human
influences upon it in the form of buildings, roads, etc;

• know of the use of materials and energy in the environment;

• compare the main features of their local environment with


others they have visited, and, as far as possible, with more
distant places;

• relate the present to the past environment;

• gain some understanding of the life-cycle of animals and plants


and the way these interact with one another and influence
the environment;

• begin to understand how decisions are made about environ­


mental issues, including the means through which people
express their views and the power they have to influence and
make decisions.
THE OBJECTIVES OF ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION

• apply to environmental matters their developing skills as in:

(a) making careful observations, looking for relationships,


developing and testing hypotheses, making inferences and
predicting consequences;

(b) raising questions :;lod designing investigations and enquiries;


/

(c) using a variety of sources of information and interpreting the


information gained;

(d) communicating their findings in a variety of ways;

• become aware of how they and other people cause changes


in the environment and therefore have some responsibility
for it;

• develop clear views about what they value in the local environ­
ment and others they have visited and how, where necessary,
changes might be brought about;

• begin to appreciate that within any area, particularly the


locality of the school, there are people with different beliefs,
values and attitudes which influence the way they interact
with others and with the environment;

• develop an understanding of the interdependence of people


and their environment;

• begin to develop a commitment to the informed care and


improvement of their environment and that of others.

Objectives at age 16
13. Between the ages of 11 and 16 pupils' environmental
experience should widen and lead to an increase in understanding
through the study of a range of core and foundation subjects
supported by cross-curricular activity such as fieldwork. Pupils
should also become more able to visualise past and present
environments and appreciate the ways in which people of different
cultures interact with their surroundings.

14. By the age of 16 pupils should be able to:

• appreciate the nature of the world's resource base and its limits;

5
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ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION FROM 5 TO 16

• be able to justify their views, attitudes and decisions on the


basis of informed, reasoned argument;

• gain a basic knowledge of ecological relationships and


principles and of the effects of physical processes on the
environment;

• have some understanding of the economic, technological and


social factors and of the political processes affecting the
planning and use of the environment;

• gain some insight into other people's environments, life-styles,


predicaments, values and attitudes;

• appreciate the relationship between economic factors such as


costs and prices and environmental decisions;

• refine and apply their general skills in:

(a) making and ordering accurate observations;

(b) developing and testing hypotheses, including the proper


consideration of variables;

(c) defining questions for investigation and carrying out such


enquiries carefully and self-critically;

(d) obtaining information from a variety of sources and inter­


preting such data to arrive at suitably warranted generalisations
or conclusions;

(e) communicating their findings, ideas and feelings about


environmental topics in a variety of ways;

• develop a critical appreciation of their surroundings;

• develop a commitment to the care and improvement of their


own environment and that of others;

• be aware of the interdependence of communities and nations


and some of the environmental consequences of that inter­
dependence;

• be aware that the current state of the environment depends


on past decisions and actions and that its future depends
significantly on contemporary actions and decisions including,
in some measure, their own.

6
CRITERIA FOR THE SELECTION OF CONTENT

Criteria for the selection of content


15. The wide range of knowledge which forms the basis of
environmental education and the fact that much of it resides in
other areas of the curriculum means that the body of content
needs careful selection and planning if pupils are to achieve a
balanced understanding of the environment. The following
criteria are suggested for the choice of content across the
curriculum.

(a) By the time they leave school all pupils should have studied,
in different ways, environments on local, national and world
scales.

(b) Content should be chosen to allow balanced development of


understanding about:

• people and their activities;

• places and conditions;

• plants and animals;

• materials and resources, including energy.

(c) The material chosen should illustrate environmental principles


and ideas, to be understood at levels appropriate to the age
of the pupils. It should include:

• similarities and differences and the reasons for them;

• change and development;

• the human and non-human factors influencing change such


as need, community considerations and cost;

• the inter-relationship of the various factors such as ecology,


climate, population, beliefs and ideas.

(d) The contexts and ideas chosen for study should enable a range
of skills to be developed, particularly those of investigation,
application and synthesis.

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ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION FROM 5 TO 16

The planning of environmental


education
16. If education for and about the environment is to make a
distinctive contribution to the total curriculum that pupils receive,
careful planning is essential. As such education is usually mediated
through various individual subjects or topics, it is important that
teachers review periodically the activities undertaken in different
year groups across the primary and secondary curriculum and,
where necessary, undertake further consultation and planning
to ensure coherent cross-curricular development. Those with
responsibility for subjects or areas of the curriculum might be
asked to state how far the objectives and content of their schemes
of work contribute, or might contribute, to developing pupils'
environmental understanding. This could be done, for example,
by using a grid which lists environmental issues or topics
alongside the contribution of individual subjects. Such reviews
may reveal overlaps, gaps or inconsistencies which can be
remedied. A range oflinks between environmental education and
other areas of the curriculum is suggested in Appendix 1.

17. Both subject-based and topic-based approaches can contribute


to achieving the aims and objectives of environmental education.
At the primary stage children should engage in thematic work
so that they come to appreciate inter-relationships within the
environment; equally they need to learn some of the specific skills,
concepts and subject matter associated with areas of study such
as history, geography and science. These might sometimes be
taught in the context of separate subjects, and applied to broadly
based environmental topics. In the first three years of secondary
education environmental work may be pursued through the study
of separate subjects provided that adequate links are made between
these and environmental issues and that the pupils have the chance
to study the environment at first hand. Alternatively, subjects
may be drawn together in composite or integrated courses which
focus on the environment as one of a number of important areas
or themes for study. In the fourth and fifth years of secondary
education pupils often have very different programmes of study
as a result of option schemes. Such variation makes it difficult
to ensure that all pupils have adequate experience of environmental
education.

18. In the primary school one teacher should take a lead in


working with colleagues to arrive at an agreed view of aims and

8
THE PLANNING OF ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION

objectives and at a scheme of work which gives guidance on


attainment targets to be pursued and the topics to be studied and
environments to be explored through the different stages of the
school. Schemes of work should help to ensure that objectives
are achieved, whatever the form ofcurriculum organisation used.
Co-ordination should include the organising of resources, drawing
on people outside school with particular experience or expertise
to contribute; and deciding on the range of local and distant
environments to be included in studies. Co-ordinators should give
advice on teaching approaches and on assessment, preferably by
working alongside other class teachers from time to time. Advice
on detailed planning depends on the particular focus of each study
and the specific expertise of the class teacher or the staff group
responsible who work with the children away from the school.
The planning needs to be modified as work proceeds and as use
is made of opportunities as they arise: for example the sudden
pollution of a stream near a school may, quite properly, become
the focus of the children's enquiries for a time.

19. In planning and organising environmental work all teachers,


helped by the co-ordinator, need to consider:

• whether the topic or issue has been tackled before, in some


form or other, by their pupils, and how the work builds on
what has gone before;

• whether it is relevant, of interest and of value to children;

• the main objectives in studying the topic or issue;

• how its study further develops pupils' understanding, skills


and ability to conduct an enquiry and to draw warrantable
conclusions from it;

• the balance of direct and indirect experience and ofideas, skills


and areas of knowledge;

• the differentiation of activities and experience for particular


children;

• the points at which and the degree to which children should


be developing their own lines of enquiry or areas of interest;

• at what stages the children should work individually, in groups


or as a class;

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ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION FROM 5 TO 16

• the resources needed;

• how the work each child undertakes is to be recorded and


what use should be made of these records;

• how the learning undertaken by the children is to be evaluated.

These considerations are as important in project work in


secondary schools as they are in primary schools.

20. In secondary schools teachers co-ordinating the work need


to encourage involvement in environmental education on the part
of separate subject departments and individual teachers. Co­
ordinators should relate objectives outlined in subject schemes
of work based on attainment targets and programmes of study
to environmental issues and suggest how these might be
complemented by objectives more specifically related to environ­
mental education. They should be responsible for seeing that the
school has the necessary resources, including outside expertise,
to tackle environmental issues. They should also play a major
part in helping formulate policies about the ways in which work
outside the school, including residential experience, can be
planned and implemented progressively through the secondary
years.

21. In a secondary school timetabling arrangements should be


flexible enough to allow pupils, on occasion, to work with a
number of teachers on an environmental theme and to enable
some of these activities to take place over an extended period
oftime. Schools might arrange for such themes as energy, resource
use or famine to feature in every class in a variety of subjects
over a period of time; or, very occasionally, they might suspend
a year group's normal timetable for up to a week and devote the
time to environmental education, perhaps through fieldwork.
Whatever timetable arrangements are employed, it is important
that, over a period of terms or years rather than weeks, a balanced
programme of activities in environmental education is provided
for secondary pupils. It may be that a specific time can be set
aside for environmental education in order to co-ordinate the
contributions of different subjects; this could occur weekly or
less frequently. At its simplest this could take the form of
timetabling in such a way that different specialist teachers could,
if they felt it necessary, work together with pupils in the same
year group. Or there may be other times when a greater range
of expertise is required and special arrangements can be made.

10
TEACHING AND LEARNING APPROACHES

Teaching and learning approaches


22. If their awareness, understanding and skills are to be
developed, pupils will benefit from first-hand experience of a
range of environments, beginning with the school itself, its
grounds and its immediate locality and progressing to work in
more distant settings, through, for example, the use of field study
centres, exchanges with other schools and visits abroad. Such
experience needs to be complemented increasingly by information
gained across the curriculum through sources such as films,
photographs, audio-tapes, correspondence, books and maps.

23. Teachers should take into account, and seek to build on,
children's perceptions and questions. Before starting particular
enquiries pupils should be given opportunities to explore aspects
of the environment with a view to framing questions which will
focus their work. They should be encouraged to make their own
observations and to comment on those of others but they will
also need their attention drawn to important features which they
might otherwise ignore. There may be occasions when individual
pupils are able to take a leading role for part of the work because
of their particular knowledge or experience. Through discussion
pupils should be encouraged not only to develop their intellectual
curiosity and the types of work which they might undertake but
also to express their feelings as a result of their personal
experiences, for example following their first night walk or 'watch'
at a field study centre.

24. Above all, teachers should help pupils plan and carry out
investigations by providing a structure which avoids over­
prescription or insufficient guidance. As part of the structure
pupils should:

(a) define clearly their area of study, the relationships to be


explored and, where necessary, the hypotheses to be tested;

(b) determine the techniques and resources required for their


investigation;

(c) list the sources of data to be drawn upon, e.g. documents,


people with particular experience or expertise;

(d) draw up a provisional timetable;

(e) consider the ways in which their findings might be presented.

11
ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION FROM 5 TO 16

Teachers can help direct children's learning in various ways: by


acting as discussion leaders, evaluators and, particularly, as more
knowledgeable and experienced learners who do not have all the
answers but know how best to proceed.

25. Study of the environment should give children opportunities


to collect and analyse different kinds of data - biological, historical,
geographical, economic, demographic and other. For example,
a group of older primary children or young secondary pupils
might undertake a village study where they analyse the types of
housing, the age-structure of the population, the occupation of
inhabitants and other data, including the range of impressions
they have formed themselves as visitors. Pupils should also have
the chance to synthesise their findings by bringing together the
work of different groups within the class, seeking inter­
relationships within the issues raised in their study. This may
involve presenting the results of their investigations to fellow­
pupils or to those living in the areas being studied.

26. In the light of their knowledge of children's previous


experience and abilities teachers have to make judgements about
the scope of the work, the objectives to be pursued and the time­
scale involved. It may be necessary to limit the complexity of
the environment to be studied - a single tree, house or field may
be sufficient for some young children, while with more experience
they could study a street, a farm or a whole village. The time­
scale can also be varied from enquiries lasting a few hours to
longer-term ones to which a series of mini-investigations and data­
gathering activities can contribute. With younger children it may
be appropriate to limit objectives at different times, emphasising
for example exploration and communication on one occasion and
planning and the conduct of investigations in small groups on
another. For example, primary children might be asked to explore
the locality and to communicate their ideas of what they like and
dislike through making posters, displaying them publicly and
discussing them with fellow-pupils and passers-by; here, objectives
would be limited to observation, communication and personal
evaluation of aspects of the environment.

27. Whatever the age group, tasks and teaching approaches have
to be differentiated to meet the learning needs of different pupils.
At primary level, for example, able children may quickly learn
to extract information from books, archives and other sources,
while others may need much more help as well as partly-processed

12
TEACHING AND LEARNING APPROACHES

data which they can handle. At the secondary stage, able pupils
may be motivated by complex issues such as the economics of
farming or the ecology of urban and rural sites, while others
may respond better to work involving practical tasks such as
conservation projects. In both primary and secondary schools low­
achieving pupils can produce work of quality when helped to
follow up their own questions related to a local or more distant
environment.

28. In addition to giving children plentiful first-hand experience


from which they can acquire knowledge, schools need to
communicate environmental ideas and skills in a variety of ways.
There are occasions when information is best provided by
demonstration. Well-prepared expository teaching on subjects
such as world energy supplies for secondary pupils or the
local mining industry for primary children can be appropriate
as a stimulus to future work. Such teaching can help prepare
pupils for exploratory work or help them in following it up.
Teachers may need to teach well-tried techniques such as those
used for measuring waterflow, analysing slopes or identifying
plants. Using photographs, documents and other resources to
improve understanding of distant environments is valuable,
as are simulated planning meetings, public enquiries and
interactions between pressure groups. Information technology
can be an important aid to teaching about the environment.
Microcomputers can monitor the weather or other natural
phenomena such as the flow of streams and present the
information graphically on a screen. They can be connected to
databases via the telephone network and hence make available
to children centrally stored information. In these cases, pupils
can manipulate the data on the screen, often comparing
information from different sources. This cannot replace
practical experience, but it can stimulate pupils because
it calls for their active participation and provides them
with opportunities to explore situations and the data describing
them.

29. People from outside the school, some of whom may be


parents of the pupils, should be encouraged to provide opinions
and specialised information. Teachers and children need access
to experts such as planners, architects, industrialists or wardens
and to lay-people who live in the places they visit, since it is not
possible for a teacher or group of teachers to know every important
feature in the area under study.

13
ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION FROM 5 TO 16

30. When tackling controversial issues in environmental education


teachers should not preach or condemn; their task is to explore
ideas with pupils and help them become better informed. The
purpose of discussing controversial issues cannot be to give young
people a complete understanding or knowledge of them; no one
has this. But misunderstanding and distortion can be lessened
through the provision of well-founded information, and ill­
informed value judgements can be avoided by giving pupils
practice in considering the messages bombarding them from the
various groups interested in the matters concerned. In general, if
teachers are asked for their own opinions, it seems sensible that
they should give them, while at the same time making it clear
that other reasonable and serious people, including the pupils'
parents and other pupils, may legitimately hold different views.

Assessment
31. Assessment is an integral part of the teaching required to
achieve the objectives of environmental education. It involves
far more than the grading of pupils' written work. Monitoring
children's performance as work proceeds can provide the pupils
with valuable comments on their progress and can help teachers
appraise the effectiveness of their teaching. For example, the
learning approaches described earlier require the assessment of
the quality of pupils' questions, of the design and conduct of
their investigations and of the conclusions they reach. Such
assessment can help the teacher plan more effectively the next
stages of the teaching of that particular group and can help him
or her reappraise the value of the approach with subsequent
groups of pupils.

32. Primary teachers need to identify the ideas and skills children
are developing and to reappraise from time to time how they
are responding to experience. This can be achieved through
conversation with pupils as they work, through observation of
them in classroom and field and through evaluation of the end­
products of their activities. Assessing children's performance
while work is in progress is important as groups can happily work
in a way which does not publicly reveal the lack of progress of
particular individuals.

--
33. Secondary teachers need to know what pupils' experience
of environmental education has been and to assess what awareness,
14
ASSESSMENT

skills, understanding and values have been developed. If grids


have been used in considering what is being achieved in subjects
and in cross-curricular studies, these can also form a basis of
record-keeping which can be helpful in recording pupils'
attainment and in re-appraising the curriculum. Methods of
assessment should be closely matched to objectives. This means
using more unusual methods of assessment in addition to well­
established ones. Environmental work is particularly suited to
'process' assessment because it is essentially concerned with
awareness skills and the formation of attitudes and values.
Progress and understanding can be ascertained, at least in part,
by dialogue between teachers and pupils in field and classroom.
This form of assessment needs to be complemented by carefully
designed record-keeping which is neither too detailed nor
perfunctory. Many of the skills and much of the understanding
achieved are likely to be assessed in subject terms and may include
some self-assessment, which can be a useful part of a pupil's record
of achievement.

34. External examinations are available in both environmental


science and environmental studies. Schools use them to assess
either specialised courses taken by a minority of pupils or, less
commonly, core courses which are taken by all and in which the
threads of environmental education are brought together. The
place of external examinations in environmental education is a
matter of dispute: some teachers welcome them, whilst others
believe that the results of environmental education are best
considered in terms of the general development of citizenship
and that specific skills, knowledge and understanding are better
examined within the framework of separate subjects. The
assessment arrangements for the national curriculum offer the
opportunity to develop attainment targets having an environmental
frame of reference.

15
ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION FROM 5 TO 16

Appendix I
Some links between environmental education
� and other areas of the curriculum

English
1. Skills of communication, e.g. the ability to discuss
2. Research skills: the ability to find and select information
3. Response to literature: in particular an appreciation of material
about the environment

Geography
1. Mapping skills
2. Field study skills
3. Use of aerial and ground photographs and of satellite imaging
4. Investigation of physical and human conditions
5. A grasp of local, national and global scales of activity

History
1. A sense of time and chronology
2. A sense of continuity and change
3. Use and respect for evidence
4. Understanding the historical development of the environment

Religious education
1. The attitudes of different religions to environmental issues
2. Moral considerations- e.g. on the use and sharing of resources

Art and craft, design and technology


1. Awareness and appraisal of the environment, e.g. its aesthetic
qualities
2. The concept of design as it affects the environment
3. Identification of the needs of individuals and groups
4. The choice and use of resources
5. Technological concepts, e.g. efficiency
6. The consequences of technology for the environment

Mathematics
1. Statistical techniques: recording, displaying and interpreting
data
2. Understanding patterns and shape
3. Operational research

16
APPENDIX

r
Science
1. Skills of scientific investigation
2. An understanding of materials, energy, ecology, living things,
scientific laws
3. Scientific aspects of the provision and use of energy, the water
supply, waste disposal, biotechnology in food production and
other industries
4. Conservation and pollution

Music and drama


1. The expression of ideas and responses to the environment

Foreign languages
1. The exploration of other cultures and environments

Physical education
1. First-hand experience of the environment through outdoor
activities in various settings

In addition to the links with the subjects outlined above, there


is also much overlap with other cross-curricular themes such as
political education, health education, education for economic
understanding, consumer education and personal and social
education.

Printed in the United Kingdom for Her Majesty's Stationery Office

Dd 001418 C650 118914073

17
Curriculum Matters:
an HMI series
Titles already published are:

1. English from 5 to 16 second edition incorporating


responses. HMSO, 1986. £2.50. ISBN 0 11 270595 2

2. The curriculum from 5 to 16 HMSO, 1985. £2.00.


ISBN 0 11 270568 5

3. Mathematics from 5 to 16 second edition incorporating


responses. HMSO, 1987. £2.95. ISBN 0 11 270616 9

4. Music from 5 to 16 HMSO, 1985. £1.50.


ISBN 0 11 270579 0

5. Home economics from 5 to 16 HMSO, 1985. £2.00.


ISBN 0 11 270580 4

6. Health education from 5 to 16 HMSO, 1986. £2.00.


ISBN 0 11 270592 8

7. Geography from 5 to 16 HMSO, 1986. £2.50.


ISBN 0 11 270606 1

8. Modern foreign languages to 16 HMSO, 1987. £2.00.


ISBN 0 11 270612 6

9. Craft, design and technology from 5 to 16 HMSO, 1987.


£2.00. ISBN 0 11 270642 8

10. Careers education and guidance from 5 to 16 HMSO,


1988. £2.00. ISBN 0 11 270648 7

11. History from 5 to 16 HMSO, 1988. £2.00.


ISBN 0 11 270660 6

12. Classics from 5 to 16 HMSO, 1988. £2.50.


ISBN 0 11 270663 0

English from 5 to 16: The responses to Curriculum


Matters 1 HMSO, 1986. free. ISBN 0 85522 195 X
The curriculum from 5 to 16: The responses to
Curriculum Matters 2 HMSO, 1988. free.
ISBN 0 85522 182 8

Mathematics from 5 to 16: The responses to Curriculum


Matters 3 HMSO, 1987. free. ISBN 0 85522 199 2
,

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<'
-

Curriculum Matte : an HMI series ..
"
�e
n
Thi eries of HMI discu ion documents is intended as a �
contribution to the process of devclllpi n" general agreement about (")
"
curricular aims and objectives. :::
Comments from readers on papers in the Curriculum Matters series ,i"
::..
would be w�komc and should be sent to: "

HM Inspeclorate "
Department of Education and Science !s:
Elizabel h House �
r
York Road •

London SEI 7PH

ISBN 0 11 270fl64 9

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