Introduction to Strand 9: environmental, health and outdoor science education

Abstract

The field of environmental, health and outdoor science education has been increasing worldwide and this has also been found in the number and quality of the proposals to ESERA Conferences. In ESERA 2015 the strand “Environmental, health and outdoor science education” was focused on the following proposed areas of research: Ecological and Environmental Education, Education for Sustainable Development, environmental health, health education and health promotion; Lifestyles and attitudes towards health and the environment; Developing and evaluating the impact of programmes and experiences outside classrooms, including those organized by institutions other than schools. In this ESERA 2015 proceedings edition, 26 papers are included, with a majority (12) dedicated to environmental education issues and sustainable development, by looking at: young children’s and secondary students’ conceptions and attitudes towards the environment; syllabuses and textbook analyses of the environmental education perspective; developing and applying models in environmental education; teachers’ training and pedagogical practices in environmental education, including teachers trainers’ views about their role in the training process and its relevance in lifelong learning.