My town/my village : curriculum pack for the EkoSkola programme

Abstract

Environmental education is considered to be a vital clement in every individual's education. It takes place in many different forms but having it as a subject in itself can have repercussions, as it would be competing for time and space in the already crowded curriculum. Thus if environmental education has to be effective, it must be well integrated into the classroom curriculum. Such experiences should be complementary to, rather than competitive with, classroom learning. This study is aimed at designing a curriculum pack about the theme 'My Town/My Village' that can be used to facilitate meaningful integration of environmental education since such teaching resources are lacking. This pack is intended to go hand in hand with the EkoSkola programme, which seeks to integrate environmental education within School Development Plans. In order to be able to design the curriculum pack, the authors decided to interview ten teachers and carry out a curriculum audit to identify activities that are suited for the primary school. The activity pack in this study offers teachers a range of activities which will aid pupils learn and develop their knowledge about their town/village. These interactive activities were aimed to engage the learners in thought-provoking and stimulating tasks and encourage reflection, debate and decision-making. Once the pack was completed, it was trial tested in an EkoSkola school. An evaluation was carried out revealing that a cross-curricular approach to environmental education is definitely the best way to ensure its implementation