TEACHERS’ COMPETENCY NEEDS IN THE MULTIDISCIPLINARY APPROACH TO IMPLEMENTATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION CURRICULUM

ABSTRACT

The study was undertaken to determine the competency needs of teachers in the multidisciplinary approach to implementation of environmental education curriculum in Cross River State, Nigeria. The study sought to find out whether teachers possess content knowledge of EE curriculum and also determine whether teachers` factors such as gender, subject specialization, qualification, experience and their location significantly influence their basic knowledge and competency needs in the implementation of environmental education. Seven research questions were posed out of which six hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. The study adopted the descriptive survey design. The sample consisted of 737 teachers proportionally sampled from 67 public secondary schools in the three education zones of Cross River State. The teacher competency needs questionnaire in the implementation of environmental education curriculum containing competency needs and content knowledge items was used for data collection. The data were analyzed using means, standard deviation, t-test, chi-square, analysis of variance (ANOVA) and multiple regressions. The data analyzed showed that majority of the teachers possessed adequate knowledge of environmental education concepts in the four broad areas: ecological foundation, human environment, environment change and impact and sustainable development. The result revealed that teachers however do not have adequate knowledge in components of the solar system and sources of earth’s energy. The results showed that the teachers need competency in 8 areas out of 37. The results revealed that teachers possessed the input capability needed to implement EE curriculum. The results revealed that teachers’ years of teaching experience, educational qualification and school environment significantly influence their competency needs. The results revealed that teachers with 6-15years are better prepared to implement EE curriculum. The results also revealed that teachers’ subject area and gender have no significant influence on their competency needs in the implementation of environmental education curriculum. Based on the findings, it was recommended among others that the multidisciplinary approach should be adopted in the implementation of EE curriculum. Teachers’ qualification and experience must continue to receive constant attention through training, retraining and incentives so as to have competent teachers who will implement the EE curriculum. In-service training programmes should be organized on the basis of teachers’ competency needs.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background to the Study

There is an increasingly global consciousness on the quality of the environment and this has reached an all-time high priority drawing international attention. For instance, the United Nations (UN) Earth Summit in 1992; the 1994 UN convention to combat desertification; Kyoto protocol in 1997 and the 2003 UN decade for sustainable development are concerted efforts by the international community to save the environment. In the face of all these efforts, there has been a global tidal wave of environmental degradation occurring in a most consistent and most often irreversible manner.  Humans are confronted daily with several environmental misdemeanours ranging from local to global problems. The United Nation Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005) and the Convention on Biological Diversity (2005) reported that the world’s biodiversity is declining at an alarming rate requiring important efforts and new thinking on conservation.

The vision 2010 committee (Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1997) catalogued Nigeria’s environmental problems to include erosion (sheet, gully, coastal), flooding (coastal, river, urban), drought and desertification, oil pollution, urban decay, industrial pollution and waste, municipal solid waste and loss of biodiversity. These problems have also been identified by some researchers (Asthana &Asthana, 2003). United Nation Education Scientific and Culture Organization (UNESCO) (1983 &1985) has also listed famine, soil erosion, diseases and poor sanitation as problems confronting the less developed countries, like Nigeria.

Human activities are largely responsible for environmental change and degradation. The degradation of the environment in part has its antecedent from the human frontier mentality based on two assumptions. First is that the earth has an unlimited supply of resources for human use to which Miller (1975) advocated full exploitation to advance human civilization. Based on this assumption, people have employed advanced and sophisticated technology for the intensification of the exploitation of resources within the environment. According to Emeh (1997), there is a gradual but painful realization of the falsehood of this assumption evidenced from the myriads of environmental problems. The second assumption is that humans see themselves as separate from the environment rather than being a part of it. This anthropocentric view of humans has led to a seemingly biological terrorism; an attempt to overcoming nature to fulfill their needs with little regard for the consequences (Omoogun, 2004).

It is generally recognized that though immense attention is being paid to the environment (United Nations conferences\ summits), the quest for a better environment seem far from being proportionately satisfactory. Many ways of curbing environmental problems have been proffered and various reforms suggested.  Many actions have been taken to halt degradation of the environment. For instance, there are  remedial approaches through improved technology that should reduce emission and conserve energy use. There are also the industrial approach through auditing, monitoring and information;  the scientific approach which provide quality guidelines e.g. water quality, rate of emissions etc; and then public approach through the activities of Non-governmental organizations, legislation and green consumerism (Ryding,1998  ). However, all these approaches have not been able to halt environmental degradation. Newson (1992:81) citing Caldwell observed that “Environmental crisis is an outward manifestation of a crisis of the mind, the kind of creatures we are and what we must become in order to survive.” Timmerman and Burton (1990) similarly noted that our attitude towards the environment does predict a variety of our behaviour towards the environment.

It is common knowledge that schools are the custodians of society’s culture, and they perform a variety of functions in a given society. Johnson, Dupuis, Musial and Hall (1994) have enumerated these school functions as follows:

1. Reproduction: Schools act to preserve tradition and heritage, and they carry out decisions about what to teach based on the customs and traditions of the past.

ii          Readjustment: Schools alter programmes in response to social change.

iii.        Reconstruction: Schools are agents of change in the society.

Citing the colonial reliance on education to transform the natives, Emeh (2002) affirmed that the educational system and its institutions have always functioned as revolutionary, reformationary, and conservationary. This perhaps informed the world wide conviction that environmental education is vital for achieving success in the domain of environmental conservation and sustainability (Michaelis,1980;Duguet,1992;Emeh,2002;UNESCO,2003). Environmental education also emerged as a cultural response to international awareness that human beings were having negative impact on their environments and causing ecological and social crises.

The intergovernmental conference on Environmental Education convened by UNESCO in cooperation with United Nation Environmental Programme [UNEP] in Tbilisi, in 1977 recommended the development of school curriculum in Environmental Education with the following three goals:

1. foster clear awareness of and concern about economic, social, political and ecological interdependence in urban and rural areas;
2. provide every person with opportunities, to acquire the knowledge, values, attitudes, to improve the environment; and
3. create new patterns of behaviour of individuals, groups and societies as a whole towards the environment (Eguabor, 1999).

Environmental Education (EE) is concerned with teaching conceptual knowledge and skills for monitoring and measuring environmental quality, and also with the development of the values and attitudes which will motivate and empower individuals and groups to work and promote the sustainability of natural and social environments. Thus, the important attributes of Environmental Education include the creation of environmental awareness, strong concern for the environment and active participation in promoting environmental conservation.  It is a subject necessary for every individual in the society, since every member of the society has something to do with the environment. This is perhaps why Gifford, Hay and Boros (1982) opined that a well-educated populace is the best insurance for  preservation of  the environment. Similarly, Ezeanya (1999) asserted that environmental education is essential to change the destructive relationship between human and the rest of nature. Ukpong (1993) emphasized the importance of environmental education in achieving the goals of environmental protection and management. He stressed various educational strategies such as analysis, sensitization, information and education among others that can provoke knowledge that would change the attitude and values towards the environment.

To prepare students with positive attitude towards the environment underscores the advocacy for Environmental Education. Environmental Education is seen as a viable means of solving environmental problems. Jacobson (1985) summed up the aim of Environmental Education to include: helping individuals to acquire an awareness of and sensitivity to the total environment and to develop a basic understanding, skills, values of the total environment and the interrelationship between man and the environment

The development of Environmental Education Curriculum appears cogent and realistic at this time, since ignorance has been identified among the major problems hindering popular participation in environmental conservation. In furtherance of the UNESCO/UNEP (1977) recommendation, the Nigerian Education Research and Development Council (NERDC, 1998) developed the Environmental Education Curriculum for all the tiers of the education system-  primary , junior secondary , and senior secondary schools and the non-formal education. The curriculum has three major objectives:

1. acquiring knowledge and understanding of the environment.
2. developing skills for solving environmental problems.
3. developing attitudes and values for the environment.

global consciousness on the quality of the environmen