A CASE STUDY OF AN ESD PROGRAMME FOR COLLEGE STUDENTS IN JAPAN: PILOT PRACTICE AND EVALUATION

A CASE STUDY OF AN ESD PROGRAMME FOR COLLEGE

STUDENTS IN JAPAN: PILOT PRACTICE AND

EVALUATION

2_{Center for Research in Education and Human Development, Oita University, Japan} 3_{Emeritus Professor, Kobe University, Japan}

Abstract: Since the United Nations Decade of ESD commencement, science education for ESD has manifested a new energy. While the Cabinet Office of Japan notes that one of the objectives of ESD is to raise public awareness of the need for SD, many students are not conscious of this necessary growth path. Hence, this study seeks to develop a pilot programme with the educational objective of increasing SD awareness. As a result, it appears that students found concrete issues and subjects of SD in everyday life by the end of the programme, while their knowledge of this subject was poor at the beginning. Moreover, the students came to understand SD-oriented issues as familiar occurrences in their daily lives. To conclude, it is suggested that a positive outcome was obtained by the pilot programme in promoting student awareness of SD. In addition, it is pointed out that activities of SD and ESD in Japan have mainly progressed in environmental aspects for students.

Keywords: Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), Higher Education, Public Awareness, Practice and Evaluation

INTRODUCTION

The United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) began in 2005 (UNESCO, 2005). Since its commencement, science education for ESD has manifested a new energy in Science Education (Fensham, 2008). For instance, in Japan, ESD has become an important theme that has attracted the attention of the Japan Society for Science Education (see, for example, Abe, 2007; Nogami, 2010). Ogra (2008) suggested that practical programme development is expected in consideration of the local context in ESD. The importance to consider the local context are also described in assessing scientific literacy as PISA 2006 (OECD, 2007) . Furthermore, the educational projects of universities and colleges are flourishing (see, for example, Dawe et al., 2005;Itoh et al., 2008). ESD focuses on a range of subjects such as the environment, human rights, and health and safety (UNESCO 2005). Therefore, its educational objectives and content may differ by country and area.

What is required for ESD in Japan? The Cabinet Office of Japan (2008) notes that one of the objectives of ESD is to raise public awareness of the need for sustainable development (SD). However, many students are not conscious of this necessary growth path, since both SD and ESD are new social concepts.

RATIONALE

The Cabinet Secretariat of Japan indicates, ‘As an outcome of ESD, it is expected that people can change unconscious decision-making into concrete social action. It is also a key to reform education and the value norm (2008)’, and ‘ESD is the education for every people to recognize that they live in the global world, and have the relationship with the future generations and environment (2009)’. UNESCO (2009) calls attention to the necessity to

‘raise public awareness of the concept of sustainable development’. Burns et al. (2003) define public awareness of science (PAS) as ‘a set of positive attitudes towards science (and technology) that are evidenced by a series of skills and behavioural intentions’. In sum, awareness of SD may be the key issue for an ESD programme. However, few studies clarify student awareness of SD. What is SD for Japanese students? Do they know about SD, and can they identify it and the issues related to it in their surroundings? In this regard, it is important to raise the SD awareness of students who will lead society in the future. Incidentally, it is indispensable to use an effective information and communication technology (ICT) tool when developing a scientific educational programme (Fensham, 2008). Hence this study seeks to develop a pilot programme with the educational objective of increasing SD awareness and to employ an effective ICT tool in this process.

PURPOSE AND PROCEDURE OF THE STUDY

Purpose

In this study, the design and practice of a pilot SD awareness programme for college students is first outlined. Then, the results of the pre-tests and post-tests of the students’ SD awareness are revealed in terms of the evaluation of the pilot programme. In addition, characteristics of concrete SD images among the present students are considered based on the programme contents.

Design of the Programme

The programme was performed 15 times in 90-minute weekly sessions. The contents of the programme included (1) introduction and lectures for five weeks, (2) class-work and fieldwork by students for five weeks, and (3) student group discussions and a summary of the programme for five weeks.

The ‘ClipGallery’ was developed by one of the authors as the effective ICT tool of for the fieldwork in the activity of (2) (Takenaka et al., 2005). The system configuration of the ClipGallery is shown in Figure 1. Students took photographs of SD-oriented issues on their mobile phones and sent them to the ClipGallery. They discussed ‘Of what’, ‘Where’, and ‘Why’ they took the photographs within their groups.

Period of Investigation and Target Students

Period: 20 April 2010–27 July 2010 (pre-test: 27 April; post-test: 27 July) Target Students: 34 students in Kobe College, Japan

Contents of Investigation for Students’ Awareness of SD

Key word/phrase: ‘Sustainable development is’ Time to answer: 5 minutes

(2) Multiple questionnaires in four scales (pre-test and post-test)

‘4: strongly agree’; ‘3: slightly agree’; ‘2: slightly disagree’; and ‘1: strongly disagree’

(3) Photographs in the ClipGallery by students

Students write (a) the title-‘Of what’, (b) the place-‘Where’ and (c) the reason ‘Why’ to the photographs that they took in the web list of the ClipGallery.

RESULTS & IMPLICATIONS

The results of ‘Word association’ and ‘Multiple questionnaires’ are respectively shown in Tables 1 and 2. Using ‘Word association’ (Table 1), it appears that students found concrete issues and subjects of SD in everyday life by the end of the programme, while their knowledge of this subject was poor at the beginning. For example, the number of association words is significantly increased in the post-test. The same trend is clearly shown in the average, the minimum and the maximum number of words per person. From Table 2, we find that the scores of the post-test are higher for almost all questions than those of the pre-test. These facts reveal that students gained a concrete sense of SD after their fieldwork using the ClipGallery, and they came to understand SD-oriented issues as familiar occurrences in their daily lives.

The total number of photographs registered in the ClipGallery is 249. Examples are shown in Figure 2. A student took a photograph of ‘Recycle boxes’ as SD issue. She described a reason as ‘we can prevent to use new resource by recycling so that good environment will be kept. (Figure 3(1))’. Another students showed an ‘eco bag’ as SD oriented issue and explained ‘Eco bags are reusable. They reduce rubbish of plastic bags. This also reduce damage for environment.(Figure 3(2))’

Table 3 shows the association words and reasons expressed by ten or more students. Majority of the students, over 70%, are reminded of the term of ‘Recycle’. They also noted ‘Recycled paper’. This fact shows that the most represented words and images of SD among students is ‘Recycle’. Moreover, there are the terms of ‘My chopsticks’, an ‘Eco bag’ and ‘My tumbler’. These words mean that students are conscious of bringing their own chopsticks, bags and tumblers, instead of using the disposable items offered by the shops. Therefore, these terms may indicate a common consciousness in students that they need to reduce disposable item use. The idea of reducing disposable item use is reflected also in the word of ‘Ziploc®1_{’. In}

addition, students may understand the phenomenon relevant to power generation and energy savings as SD, because they find solar-power generation, wind-power generation, a solar panel, energy saving and an eco car as SD oriented terms. Bicycles and ‘EcoNavi2_{’ are also}

raised with the reason of energy saving. The word of ‘Organic’ is represented as health issue as well as environmental friendly.

The above issue points the notes that students tend to consider of taking environment-friendly action, such as to avoid disposable item use, recycle and energy saving, as SD. Some students chose photographs and described words of goods and product names. This issue means that the advertisement and promotion by private companies may be a factor to form students’ SD images. From this study, it may be suggested that activities of SD and ESD in Japan have mainly progressed in environmental aspects for students.

SD is a modern slogan in the promotion of science education. I would like to investigate students image of SD and to develop effective educational programme for ESD towards students.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

This study is supported by the Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists(B) No. 22700795 and for Scientific Research(A) No. 20240068 from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports and Technology in Japan.

NOTES

1. ‘Ziploc’ is a registered trademark of Asahi Kasei Home Products Corporation. (Products http://www.asahi-kasei.co.jp/ saran/products/ziploc/, access date 19th September 2011) 2. ‘EcoNavi’ is a power saving technology with which the products of Panasonic Corporation

are equipped. (What is EcoNavi http:// panasonic.jp/econavi/about/index.html access date access date 19th September 2011)

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