Identifying effective climate change education strategies: a systematic review of the research

Abstract

Increased interest in climate change education and the growing recognition of the challenges inherent to addressing this issue create an opportunity to conduct a systematic review to understand what research can contribute to our ideas about effective climate change education. An academic database, EBSCOhost, was used to identify 959 unique citation records addressing climate change education. Of these, 49 sources met the criteria of focusing on assessment of climate change education interventions. Analysis of these sources examined the intervention purpose, assessment methodology, and identified strategies that might result in effective interventions. Two themes were identified that are common to most environmental education: (1) focusing on personally relevant and meaningful information and (2) using active and engaging teaching methods. Four themes specific to issues such as climate change were also generated: (1) engaging in deliberative discussions, (2) interacting with scientists, (3) addressing misconceptions, and (4) implementing school or community projects. Suggestions for addressing controversial topics like climate change are offered.

Keywords:

• Climate change
• environmental education
• systematic review

Notes

1. Recognizing that literature reviews have the potential to identify, document, and share compelling evidence and research findings about effective environmental education, the North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE) embarked on a project to serve the field with their eeWORKS project, and identified climate change education as one topic for study (https://naaee.org/our-work/programs/eeworks). The impetus for this project comes from funders who want to know what is most effective and practitioners who want to put research findings into practice. The eeWORKS project began by synthesizing the literature associated with academic outcomes of environmental education (Ardoin et al. forthcoming) and is currently exploring how environmental education programs address conservation outcomes and the role of environmental education in early childhood. While each project uses similar strategies for a systematic literature review, the search terms and decision rules are different. As part of the eeWORKS project, summaries and suggested strategies for educators will be available on the NAAEE website.