Using a systems thinking approach for a climate change education training program in teacher education

Abstract

One of the biggest problems threatening our present and future is the climate crisis. sincehuman activities are causing global climate change, it is important to educate citizens aboutclimate change, its causes, consequences and solutions. science teachers undoubtedly play akey role in teaching environmental issues. however, several studies have shown that there aregaps in science teachers’ understanding of climate change and that more research is neededin this area. therefore, in this study, we designed and implemented a climate change trainingprogram using a systems thinking approach to provide a structured framework for climatechange education for pre-service science teachers with 123 participants. the introduction ofclimate change case studies and systems thinking tools used in the training helped participantsrecognize unintended consequences in complex climate systems and improved their abilityto identify underlying patterns and systemic structures. the most significant impact of thisiteratively refined environmental education program is that it encourages the use of systemsthinking tools with practical applications in future environmental education professionaldevelopment programs.