Uitto, Anna

Saloranta, Seppo

Subject Teachers as Educators for Sustainability

A Survey Study

Education Sciences

7

2017

25-43

Abstract: Sustainability education (SE) is included in school curricula to integrate the principles, values, and practices of sustainable development (SD) into all education. This study investigates lower secondary school subject teachers as educators for sustainability. A survey was used to study the perceptions of 442 subject teachers from 49 schools in Finland. There were significant differences between the subject teachers′ perceptions of their SE competence, and the frequency with which they used different dimensions of SE (ecological, economic, social, well-being, cultural) in their teaching varied. Teachers′ age had a small effect, but gender, school, and its residential location were nonsignificant factors. Teachers could be roughly classified into three different subgroups according to their perceptions of the role of SE in their teaching; those who considered three SE dimensions rather often and used holistic sustainability approaches in their teaching (biology, geography, history); those who considered two or three dimensions often but were not active in holistic teaching (mother tongue, religion, visual arts, crafts, music, physical and health education, and home economics) and those who used one SE dimension or consider only one holistic approach in their teaching (mathematics, physics, chemistry and language). Subject teachers′ awareness of their SE competence is important to encourage them to plan and implement discipline-based and interdisciplinary SE in their teaching. The specific SE expertise of subject teachers should be taken into account in teacher training and education.

Table of Contents
About the Special Issue Editor ..................................................................................................................... v
Preface to ″Teaching Methods in Science Subjects Promoting Sustainability″ .................................... vii
Lili-Ann Wolff, Pia Sjöblom, Maria Hofman-Bergholm and Irmeli Palmberg
High Performance Education Fails in Sustainability? —A Reflection on Finnish Primary
Teacher Education
Reprinted from: Educ. Sci. 2017, 7(1), 32; doi: 10.3390/educsci7010032 ................................................. 3
Anna Uitto and Seppo Saloranta
Subject Teachers as Educators for Sustainability: A Survey Study
Reprinted from: Educ. Sci. 2017, 7(1), 8; doi: 10.3390/educsci7010008 ................................................... 25
Irmeli Palmberg, Maria Hofman-Bergholm, Eila Jeronen and Eija Yli-Panula
Systems Thinking for Understanding Sustainability? Nordic Student Teachers′ Views on the
Relationship between Species Identification, Biodiversity and Sustainable Development
Reprinted from: Educ. Sci. 2017, 7(3), 72; doi: 10.3390/educsci7030072 ................................................. 44
Harish H. Ratnayaka
An On-Campus Botanical Tour to Promote Student Satisfaction and Learning in a University
Level Biodiversity or General Biology Course
Reprinted from: Educ. Sci. 2017, 7(1), 18; doi: 10.3390/educsci7010018 ................................................. 65
Eila Jeronen, Irmeli Palmberg and Eija Yli-Panula
Teaching Methods in Biology Education and Sustainability Education Including Outdoor
Education for Promoting Sustainability—A Literature Review
Reprinted from: Educ. Sci. 2017, 7(1), 1; doi: 10.3390/educsci7010001 ................................................... 77
Sirpa Kärkkäinen, Tuula Keinonen, Anu Hartikainen-Ahia, Kirsti Vainio and
Katri Hämeen-Anttila
An Internet-Based Medicine Education Intervention: Fourth Graders′ Perspectives
Reprinted from: Educ. Sci. 2017, 7(2), 46; doi: 10.3390/educsci7020046 ................................................. 96
Jorma Joutsenlahti and Pirjo Kulju
Multimodal Languaging as a Pedagogical Model—A Case Study of the Concept of Division in
School Mathematics
Reprinted from: Educ. Sci. 2017, 7(1), 9; doi: 10.3390/educsci7010009 ................................................... 111
Anastasia Sofroniou and Konstantinos Poutos
Investigating the Effectiveness of Group Work in Mathematics
Reprinted from: Educ. Sci. 2016, 6(3), 30; doi: 10.3390/educsci6030030 ................................................. 120
iv
Rodrigo Drumond Vieira, Viviane Florentino de Melo, Lucy Avraamidou and
João Avelar Lobato
Reconceptualizing Scientific Literacy: The Role of Students′ Epistemological Profiles
Reprinted from: Educ. Sci. 2017, 7(2), 47; doi: 10.3390/educsci7020047 ................................................. 135
Maija Aksela, Xiaomeng Wu and Julia Halonen
Relevancy of the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) about Sustainable Energy for Adolescents
Reprinted from: Educ. Sci. 2016, 6(4), 40; doi: 10.3390/educsci6040040 ................................................. 154

↑ http://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/7/1/8/pdf

10.3390/educsci7010008

24.01.2018