The improvement of young people's ecological civilization literacy involves biological, social, psychological, and spiritual levels, which are both related and very complex, and constantly evolve, so there must be a spiral process.
Yin Houqing is the vice president of the 8th Council of the Chinese Society of Education and the president of the Shanghai Society of Education
(This article is based on the author's speech at the 6th World Education Frontiers Forum)
The experts just said that it was indeed very enlightening, and for the sake of time, I would like to introduce to you from the perspective of my work, the thinking and actions of our mainland education community and Shanghai in terms of climate change. What I'm talking about today is climate education and behaviour. We all feel that the issue of climate change is indeed a very urgent issue, and that climate change is a global crisis. The key is climate change education, not only to teach everyone some skills in life to deal with climate change in human society, but also to enable all students to form a set of values, core knowledge and key competencies needed to adapt to climate change, so as to drive their behavior change. Therefore, for such a purpose, we feel that climate education can be carried out mainly from two aspects: the first is the construction and implementation of the entire climate education curriculum. Previously, we have integrated the themes of carbon neutrality and carbon peak into the curriculum of national education. The problem is to face the psychological characteristics and receptivity of students of different ages, and integrate this content and theme. Therefore, we generally find that the improvement of young people's ecological civilization literacy involves biological, social, psychological, and spiritual evolution, which is both related and very complex at different levels, so there must be a spiral process, such as what the lower stage of primary school should be, due to the time relationship, there is not much to say. What should be the upper part of elementary school? What should be the focus of junior high school? High school, and college, the whole thing should be spiraling. In 2017 and 2022, the Ministry of Education released a curriculum plan for senior high school and compulsory education, and there are many provisions on climate-related content in the curriculum standards of various subjects, especially science education. I will demonstrate it here, so I won't say much, but it mainly refers to the compulsory education stage, how to educate the first and second grades, the third and fourth grades, the fifth and sixth grades, and so on. In teaching practice, there is a great emphasis on "valuing life experience". It is necessary to let children feel the weather and climate through hands-on practice, and understand the impact of the water cycle, rocks, and soil on human beings, so from this perspective, many 1st and 2nd grades, 3rd to 5th grade student experience courses are designed, for example, 7-9 grades should have students investigate the local water system, topography, climate, etc., to write a survey report, which needs to be carried out in this way, and this practical experience is very important.
There is also an emphasis on "observation", the first and second grades need them to observe and record the animals and plants produced in the surrounding soil, and observe the impact of weather changes on animals and plants; the third and fourth grades should learn to measure, etc.; the fifth and sixth grades learn about the climate situation or the weather in the school by establishing a virtual weather station on the network; and the seventh and ninth grades use temperature and precipitation data to draw a histogram to depict climate change, so that everyone can feel it, which is one aspect. The second aspect of the construction and implementation of climate education curriculum emphasizes the need to adopt a theme-based learning and Xi approach to promote Xi learners to move from factual knowledge Xi to conceptual understanding Xi, and at the same time let knowledge connect with life and the surrounding society, so as to implement the cultivation of ecological civilization literacy mentioned above. I once surveyed 236-year-old schools in Shanghai, all of which are conducting project-based Xi, including primary and junior high schools, and nine-year schools, and they have designed more than 400 science projects, about 20% of which are related to the environment. In my judgment, I feel that the proportion is not low, and the proportion of projects related to weather and climate is 2.5% of scientific research projects, which is not a large number. Of course, I feel that these topics are still very meaningful. We look at some of the topics that students are studying, such as setting up a weather station in the school, observing the weather and broadcasting the weather situation for the teachers and students in the school. There are also studies on the heat island effect with the development of urbanization, which affects the life and health of residents, and the high temperature accelerates the photochemical reaction rate. There are also studies on how weather changes affect our lives, and how to reduce carbon dioxide emissions to protect the environment on the earth due to the increasing environmental problems caused by excessive carbon dioxide emissions. Some children go to the movies, and the mountaineers climb Mount Everest in extremely bad weather, in the process, how to maintain a normal body temperature when the temperature plummets, and what kind of clothes to use? These are some of the questions that children study in comprehensive practice. Therefore, the education about climate change needs everyone to experience and feel, gain their experience in real learning Xi, and come back to deepen their understanding of this knowledge. I talked about the curriculum and curriculum implementation of primary and secondary schools, and the second thing I want to talk about is that Shanghai has formulated guidelines for green and low-carbon behaviors for primary and secondary school students, and uses the guidelines to guide children's actions. This guideline is a guide for everyone to practice green and low-carbon in their daily lives, starting from me, and promoting the sustainable development of mankind with practical actions. The guidelines focus on the five dimensions of "clothing, food, housing, transportation, and learning", covering a number of behaviors that primary and secondary school students should pay attention to and can practice, trying to promote carbon peaking and carbon neutrality from the child, starting from the surrounding life to establish a green and low-carbon awareness, and everyone to work together to deal with the extreme climate change brought about by greenhouse gas emissions.
In this guideline, it is advocated that "clothes" can choose what kind of clothing, take care of each of your clothes, and recycle old clothes. Reduce the use of disposable tableware, vigorously advocate the CD-ROM action, give priority to sustainable food, etc., save water, save electricity, garbage classification, adopt green energy-saving products, and use clean energy. "Travel", walking, cycling, cycling, choosing new energy vehicles. "Learning", reduce paper consumption, save electricity on computers and screens, continue to use stationery, turn off lights and save electricity, share books, etc. In short, we try to use these methods to make the behavior of the child invisibly develop. In general, there is a growing awareness of the importance of education, but I feel that it is necessary for us to raise awareness and promote education in this area. Thank you for your advice.
(The theme of the 6th World Education Frontiers Forum is "Climate, Education, and Xi: Turning the Tide, Starting with Me.") The forum was hosted by the China Education 30 Forum, co-organized by the Centre for Education Policy Studies of the University of Hong Kong, and co-organized by the Tin Ka Ping Foundation, the Centre for Hong Kong and Macao Studies of South China Normal University, the National and Regional Research Base of Universities of the Ministry of Education, and the School of Education of Guangzhou University. Thirty-seven experts and scholars from Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, the United States, Japan, Malaysia and other countries introduced their latest research results and effective practical explorations in climate change education around the theme of the forum. Link: How can education turn the tide in response to global "climate breakdown"? The 6th World Education Frontiers Forum was successfully held It is to focus on China's future