Hiroki Fujii

Teacher education plays a crucial role in preparing teachers to teach about climate change and its impacts on nature and society. This study analyzes the pre-service teacher education curricula at the Mongolian National University of Education (MNUE) to determine the current state of integrating climate change education (CCE) into teacher education in Mongolia. This study aims to identify CCE current practices, gaps, and challenges. Terms related to climate change and/or climate change education have been extracted from the learning objectives of the SDG 13 “Climate Action” according to United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and the extent of their occurrence in the syllabi of all courses offered by the MNUE’s undergraduate schools has been analyzed. The analysis has revealed that the terms only appeared in 24 courses, mostly professional education courses, and CCE is not emphasized in the curricula. According to the findings, CCE is found in only two course syllabi, and the extracted terms have not been directly incorporated into any of the five sections of those syllabi. However, the study has identified some good practices that can be built upon to enhance the integration of CCE into teacher education. The findings of the study provide a foundation for further research and development of strategies to mainstream CCE in the teacher education schedule.

A professional teacher is a teacher who masters professional knowledge and skills. Increasing their professionalism is needed to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This research attempts to analyze the effectiveness of teacher training programs in environmental education that focus on identifying the challenges and strategy for the future training program. The research method was triangulation, combining quantitative and qualitative data analysis, including document analysis, questionnaire, and interview results. Sixty-five teachers with experience in environmental education were surveyed, and seven were interviewed. The results show that the sustainability context (environmental, economic, and sociocultural dimensions) needs to be embedded into environmental education teacher training. All training materials are currently oriented toward the environmental context. The provided training focuses on imparting knowledge on environmental education and has not yet expanded to include raising awareness or fostering sustainable action. As a result, future teacher programs must emphasize not only knowledge, but also awareness and action to attain sustainability. Schools and other relevant parties must fully support the rollout of the teacher-training initiative.

生活科において，児童が動植物の立場に立って考えることは，自然と人間との共生についての学習の出発点になる。そして，自然と人間との共生では，物事を考えるときの価値の基準を，人間を中心としたものから動植物の生命・生態・自然を中心としたものへと広げることが大切である。したがって，児童が動植物の立場に立って考えるとき，その考えは動植物の生命・生態・自然を中心とした考えであるかが重要となる。そこで本研究では，昆虫を取り上げ，学校で昆虫を飼育してきた小学校第2学年の児童を対象にして，①昆虫の立場に立って考えることができるか，②もしできるとすれば，その考えは昆虫の生命・生態・自然を中心とした考えであるかについて，質問紙調査を通して明らかにした。その結果，次のことがわかった。（1）昆虫の立場に立って自分の考えを記述した児童は，カマキリでは全体の25.0％，コオロギでは23.1％であった。こうした児童は，昆虫には家族や仲間がいると捉えたり，昆虫の姿や様子から推測される昆虫の気持ちに共感したりするなど，昆虫を対象として視点取得を身に付けていることがうかがえた。（2）上記の児童のうち，昆虫の生命・生態・自然を中心とした考えを記述した児童は，カマキリでは全体の13.5％，コオロギでは8.7％であった。こうした児童の考えは，自然との共生を図る上で大切な自然（昆虫）についての理解，自然（昆虫）と人間（自分）とのつながりについての理解，そして自然（昆虫）に対する感性や情動を含んでいた。以上を踏まえると，生活科の授業において，昆虫と直接触れ合う活動の中に，昆虫の立場に立って考える場面を設け，その場面で児童が発する昆虫の本来の生命・生態・自然についての考えを取り上げることは重要である。そうした機会は，児童が生活科から理科へと学習を進め，自然と人間との共生についての認識を深めていく過程において，その基礎の形成に役立つと考えられる。