This is the title of an OECD blog by Cassie Hague and Mathias Bouckaert, analyst and former analyst within the OECD’s Directorate for Education and Skills. Their key points are:

  • Young people are at the forefront of calling for and taking action on climate crisis.
  • Education systems can support young people to enable them to develop the scientific and environmental knowledge and creativity and critical thinking skills needed to create and evaluate responses to climate change.
  • Empowering young people with creativity and critical thinking skills during their lessons at school is key to supporting their role in the green transition

The post says that:

“the consequences of climate crisis are global, complex and interrelated with critical impacts in diverse fields. Not only do students need nuanced understandings of the science underlying climate change and its consequences, they also need strong creativity and critical thinking skills to be able to use that knowledge to generate and evaluate ideas for mitigation, adaptation and action.”

PISA studies show that looking after the global environment is important to a large majority of 15-year-olds in OECD countries and economies and 57% think they can do something about the problems of the world. But how can education systems support more young people to translate that belief into action? With some now calling for climate education to be compulsory in all schools and universities, the OECD brief, Teaching for Climate Action, has called for a reimagination of climate education.

The new PISA report, Are Students Ready to Take on Environmental Challenges? shows a link between scientific knowledge and pro-environmental attitudes. The more students know about science, the more likely they are to be concerned about the environment. However, this is no guarantee of climate action. Students need support to mobilise their knowledge into action, develop a sense of purpose and agency, and maintain that over time. PISA tells us that coming from environmentally active families and schools helps this. Paying attention to how science and climate change are taught is also important.

In order to support teachers in implementing teaching for climate action on the ground, OECD has published example lesson plans showing how the science related to climate can be taught in a way that provides opportunities to young people to develop their creativity and critical thinking. The post says:

“Whilst broad initiatives are needed around action for climate empowerment, these lesson plans aim to support the kind of teaching and learning that enables more young people to harness scientific knowledge to come up with innovative ideas and solutions in face of the urgent and complex problems they are likely to face over their lifetimes. Empowering young people with creativity and critical thinking skills is key to supporting them to be at the forefront of the green transition to inclusive low-emission economies.”

The plans were developed for the OECD by Emily Adah Miller, University of Georgia, and Alice Severson from Huegel Elementary in Madison, Wisconsin, United States with a team from the CREATE centre at Michigan State University, United States, and are part of a broader OECD initiative to support teachers to foster and assess creativity and critical thinking. The project worked with teachers to develop conceptual rubrics setting out a common language on what is involved in these skills in particular subjects. These lesson plans represent a meeting of climate education and the OECD creativity and critical thinking rubrics. The project’s methodology is currently being implemented in higher education as part of its second strand.

Below are links to a number of related publications:

Category: Blog

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