Volume 17 (2015): Edition 1 (June 2015)

The concepts of sustainability and sustainability competence are controversial, complex, difficult to define and measure, and have varied meanings for different people and practices. Given the complex nature of sustainability, there is limited availability of paradigmatic frameworks to guide educators in assessing sustainability competencies. This paper introduces the Dispositions, Abilities and Behaviours (DAB) framework, which influenced the design of an intervention in 2013-2014 that profiled sustainability competencies among final year undergraduate students in a higher education institution. The results of the mixed methods study indicate that the DAB framework has good potential as a guide to educators or researchers in understanding and profiling sustainability- related abilities, attitudes and actions (areas of performance) of cohorts of students within higher education settings.

Education for sustainable development (ESD) challenges traditional curricula and formal schooling in important ways. ESD requires systemic thinking, interdisciplinarity and is strengthened through the contributions of all disciplines. As with any transformative societal and technological shift, new questions arise when educators are required to venture into unchartered waters. Research has led to some interesting findings concerning digital literacies in the K-12 classroom. One finding is that a great deal of digital media learning is happening outside the traditional classroom space and is taking place in the afterschool space (Prensky, 2010). Understanding the nature of learning in the afterschool space and bridging the current divide between formal schooling and the learning happening online is critical to the establishment of core ESD values and skills, namely ethical online communities and the development of respectful, tolerant global digital citizens.

This study investigated stress levels of pre-service teachers (PSTs) across three categories of teaching context: early childhood, primary and secondary. This paper focused on exploring the stressors in the completion of tasks in teaching practicum in the three categories of teaching context and an awareness of and access to support systems. The Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) and an online questionnaire were used to measure the nature and level of stress. Significant results were found in relation to the school climate and the stress levels of PSTs across the three different teaching contexts. These findings have implications in terms of understanding different PSTs’ stress levels across the three teaching contexts and ways they could be supported to reduce their stress level and achieve better study outcomes.

The marine environment represents a central component of Maltaís local environment, and its ecosystem services play a vital role in supporting the economy as well as human well-being. Plans have been made to protect the unique ecology found within Maltese waters through the institution of five marine protected areas (MPAs). This quantitative study assessed the environmental knowledge and attitudes of the Maltese public towards the local marine environment, MPAs and education for sustainable development (ESD). A questionnaire was administered to members of the public (n = 200) at three different locations. The study found that although the Maltese public strongly appreciates the beauty of Maltaís marine environment, the level of knowledge surrounding the marine environment is low. Furthermore, the research indicates that while the public agrees that the marine environment should be protected, there is a notable lack of awareness of the five local MPAs. Based on the research findings, a model linking ESD to MPAs and aiming to foster a sense of ownership among the public by encouraging their involvement in the management of local MPAs is proposed.

Well-organised waste management is an essential part of sustainable development. The saving of resources and energy is everyone’s concern and environmental education is vital to guarantee a sustainable lifestyle in the long run. To find out what similarities and differences in views regarding waste management exist between grammar school pupils and comprehensive school pupils in England, questionnaires were designed and distributed in two schools in the same English city. The questionnaires aimed at quantifying and establishing students’ knowledge, attitudes and behaviour regarding waste management. The results illustrate that students from the grammar school had higher levels of knowledge, were more likely to recycle and used more sources of information regarding waste management. Waste reduction was considered important by almost all students. However, students in both schools considered composting and waste reduction as less important than recycling and thereby did not fully agree with sustainable waste management.

The importance of pre-service teacher training regarding environmental education (EE) has been vastly demonstrated. This systematic review examined the existing evidence from studies evaluating and analysing the relationship between EE, including environmental competences and pre-service primary school teacher training. The literature review performed included 24 documents (22 peer reviewed journal articles and two doctoral theses). The strategy followed consisted in locating documents by a reliable search strategy; establishing the criteria for the selection of documents to analyse from the documents located and rigorously analysing the documents selected based on clear and precise criteria and dimensions. In general terms, the literature review analysis has emphasised the lack of environmental competences amongst pre-service teacher students and the gaps in the teacher training curriculums regarding EE. The overall scarcity of research in this area, jointly with certain gaps and methodological limitations, affirms the need for strengthening the evidence base.

Research on teacher training often focuses on learners’ perceptions of that training. The focus of this paper, which uses a research-to-practice approach, is instead on the views of the trainers. It evaluates the perceptions of university lecturers teaching classes as part of primary teachers’ training degrees and assesses their views of the communication skills developed by their students to be used in their future careers. The study uses a 17-item ad-hoc questionnaire, completed by 152 lecturers from the University of Granada. Descriptive and inferential analyses are then carried out on the data collected using SPSS. The analysis results show how important lecturers believe it is for trainee teachers to develop communication skills, which they often lack. Although lecturers believe communication skills are very important, they also think that they are not developed as much as they should be in their classes, so trainee teachers cannot communicate as effectively as they should.

Over the last decades the nature and form of what children can choose to read has changed radically, partly as a consequence of rapid technological advances and the increasing dominance of the image. The research questions were: 1) How do children learn to read and write by computer? 2) How can one support children’s learning during the transition from pre-school to primary school? and 3) How can we support learning during the transition from pre-school to primary school in the future? This work is based on a questionnaire that was sent to kindergarten and primary school teachers in the Helsinki area. Only 27 teachers in the pre-school or primary school answered the questionnaire. Following this, the questionnaire was also sent to kindergarten and primary school student teachers. The results show that that it is easy for children to acquaint themselves with the computer keyboard and that children actually enjoy playing by writing on computer. The respondents said that children must, at first, train to write by hand, then by computer.