A Plan to Determine the Environmental Education Resource and Inservice Needs of Teachers in the Chaska School Distrct 112
File(s)
Date
1995-08Author
Wanless, Angela K.
Publisher
University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, College of Natural Resources
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
1994 draft of the Graduation Rule from the Minnesota Department
of Education issued a new set of standards for education. Among these
standards are required performances in several areas. In the area of
"applying informed decision-making processes", students must demonstrate
stewardship of the environment.
To help meet state standards, an Environmental Education (EE) needs
assessment was designed and distributed to all schools in the Chaska School
District during the spring of 1994. Results of the assessment showed that
75.3% of teachers claim they are teaching EE while 68.8% of teachers spend
less than 30 minutes per week teaching it. From research questions that
were made, a Pearson's r correlation and a logistic regression did not show
a significant correlation between teaching time vs. reference to the
curriculum. With regards to training, there was a significant positive
correlation between teachers who have received EE training and teachers
who are teaching EE. The item most frequently chosen by teachers to
strongly influence their teaching of EE however, was hands-on student
materials.
Included in the assessment was a form that asked respondents to
volunteer to serve on an EE Network. After several phone calls, a group was
formed. The group met to review and analyze the results of the
assessment. Based on the results and some discussion, the group decided to
focus on the acquisition of student/teacher resources and training to
improve the teaching of EE in the district. Barriers to this focus, as noted
by the network, were funding and time. From this, a plan was designed
that involved creating "Envirotrunks" to circulate throughout the district.
The
trunks were to contain materials and resources that teachers could
easily use, buy and/or copy. Future plans for the group included writing
grants for further support and integrating EE. Further studies with this
population could be done on the definition of EE and the methods teachers
use for teaching EE.