Profesionalni razvoj učitelja za realizaciju ekoloških sadržaja u nastavi o prirodi i društvu

Abstract

The inclusion of environmental education into the curricula at all levels of education, from preschool to university, has imposed the issue of educating the teachers to be able to achieve its goals and objectives. Since the teacher has an irreplaceable role in the development of students’ environmental awareness within the class teaching period, this paper discusses the relevant issues about his/her ability to achieve numerous and diverse environmental objectives and tasks. The problem of this research, which we conducted for the purposes of this paper, is focused on the question of teachers’ competence to use the environmental learning topics in nature and society lessons. In line with the defined problem, the research goal refers to the actualization and definition of specific issues that exist within the field of professional development of teachers for their educational role in the efforts to protect and improve the environment. By applying the research techniques and procedures such as the descriptive empirical/non-experimental and theoretical analysis methods, surveys, scaling and the analysis of pedagogical documentation, on a sample of 455 primary school teachers in our country, it was established that the interviewees highly value their own professional skills and competences for environmental education of students. The analysis of curricula of all state faculties for teacher education in the Republic of Serbia has proven the existence of environmental learning topics, but also the insufficient representation of subjects that should allow for their integrated or independent learning. Moreover, there is an incompatibility of curricula in terms of the existence of compulsory and elective subjects that enable the environmental education of future teachers, as well as the insufficient integration of such subjects and their emphasized theoretical and informative approach focused on knowledge transfer and acquisition. The research findings provide the opportunities for additional studies and can be useful to education/pedagogy faculties who can use it to improve and innovate the learning program structure of initial teacher education in terms of their professional training for successful implementation of environmental education and development of environmental competencies.