Preservice Geography Students’ Exposure to Systems Thinking and Cooperative Learning in Environmental Education

Abstract

Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is a cross-curricular approach that needs to be accommodated in all subjects in the training of students as recommended by UNESCO. This South African case study of preservice geography students is presented for the purpose of understanding how they experienced systems thinking and a cooperative teaching strategy. A qualitative research approach was applied as the research design. Interpretation of the data was done through thematic analysis, which indicated that exposure to the pedagogic approach bore positive results. Teaching and learning strategies promoting the integration of ESD should form part of the training of geography students.

Key Words:

• environmental sustainable principles
• systems thinking
• cooperative teaching and learning
• Education for Sustainable Development (ESD)