Climate change education in elementary grades

Abstract

This study aimed to evaluate an eight-week Understanding by Design-based climate change program implemented in 153 elementary schools across Türkiye (65 cities) with a total of 1350 teachers and 35000 students. 402 teachers from 77 schools in 35 cities filled out the teacher opinion form to evaluate the program. Additionally, three focus group interviews with a total number of 26 teachers were conducted in the three biggest cities in Türkiye. In focus group interviews and teacher opinion forms, teachers were asked to evaluate the curriculum in terms of context, input, process, and product. The transcriptions obtained from the focus group interviews and teacher opinion forms were analyzed with content analysis. According to the findings of the study, the curriculum effectively addressed the teachers' needs for climate change education, and the activities helped students to understand and transfer knowledge to their daily lives. However, due to physical limitations and a lack of time, sometimes the activities could not be completed as desired. As a result, this research found that climate change education developed using Understanding by Design is effective for students to comprehend and apply knowledge in their daily lives, which are the ultimate goals of climate change education.