Integrating Environmental Education into the School Curriculum and the Use of Digital Tools in Ecological Awareness
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.63734/JNFDE.02.02.003Keywords:
Environmental education, Interdisciplinary curriculum, Digital tools, Sustainability, Erasmus+, Ecological awarenessAbstract
This study examines the integration of environmental education (EE) into the school curriculum and the contribution of digital tools to ecological awareness, drawing on research carried out within the Erasmus+ project Clean Environment – Clean School Climate with Creative Environmental Practices in School Education. Adopting a mixed-methods design, it combines a qualitative synthesis of disciplinary case studies with a quantitative survey of 244 participants concerning their sources of environmental information, self-assessed ecological knowledge, and perceptions of digital applications and games. The qualitative strand shows that EE can be embedded meaningfully across ten school subjects, from the natural sciences and mathematics to the humanities and the arts, provided that teaching is adapted methodologically and teachers are appropriately trained. The survey indicates that school remains the dominant source of environmental information (84.4%), that ecology-themed online games are widely regarded as effective (70.9%), yet that a majority (56.6%) judge the contribution of digital applications to durable behavioural change to be limited. These findings expose a recurring gap between ecological knowledge and ecological behaviour and suggest that digital tools are most effective as complements to experiential and community-based learning rather than as substitutes for it. The study concludes with evidence-based recommendations at the policy, institutional and technological levels, and argues that authentic interdisciplinarity, supported by adequate teacher training and school–community partnerships, is a precondition for effective and sustainable environmental education in formal settings.
References
Arp, H. P. H., Aurich, D., Schymanski, E. L., Sims, K., & Hale, S. E. (2023). Avoiding the next silent spring: Our chemical past, present, and future. Environmental Science & Technology, 57(16), 6355–6359, https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.3c01735. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.3c01735
Barwell, R. (2018). Some thoughts on a mathematics education for environmental sustainability. In P. Ernest (Ed.), The philosophy of mathematics education today (pp. 145–160). Springer, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77760-3_9. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77760-3_9
Campbell, C. (2023). ‘What do we talk about when we talk about climate change?’: Meaningful environmental education, beyond the info dump. Journal of Philosophy of Education, 57(2), 457–477, https://doi.org/10.1093/jopedu/qhad020. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/jopedu/qhad020
Carter, R. L., & Simmons, B. (2010). The history and philosophy of environmental education. In A. M. Bodzin, B. Shiner Klein, & S. Weaver (Eds.), The inclusion of environmental education in science teacher education (pp. 3–16). Springer, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9222-9_1. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9222-9_1
Fang, W.-T., Hassan, A. A., & LePage, B. A. (2022). Introduction to environmental education. In The living environmental education: Sound science toward a cleaner, safer, and healthier future (pp. 3–24). Springer Nature Singapore, https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-19-4234-1.
Gandotra, N., & Agrawal, S. (2020). Sustainability, civilization and women – An environmental study of The Overstory by Richard Powers. Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities, 12(5), https://rupkatha.com/rioc1s10n6/. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v12n5.rioc1s10n6
Gifford, R., & Nilsson, A. (2014). Personal and social factors that influence pro-environmental concern and behaviour: A review. International Journal of Psychology, 49(3), 141–157, https://doi.org/10.1002/ijop.12034. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/ijop.12034
Green, L. (2017). Music, informal learning and the school: A new classroom pedagogy. Routledge. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315248523
Israel, A. L. (2012). Putting geography education into place: What geography educators can learn from place-based education. Journal of Geography, 111(2), 76–81. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00221341.2011.583264
Jeronen, E., Palmberg, I., & Yli-Panula, E. (2016). Teaching methods in biology education and sustainability education including outdoor education for promoting sustainability – A literature review. Education Sciences, 7(1), 1, https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci7010001. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci7010001
Kato, M. (2015). Challenges of environmental problems to the philosophy of education. Policy Futures in Education, 13(1), 7–19. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1478210314566728
Liao, C. (2016). From interdisciplinary to transdisciplinary: An arts-integrated approach to STEAM education. Art Education, 69(6), 44–49, https://doi.org/10.1080/00043125.2016.1224873. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00043125.2016.1224873
Mujtaba, T., Lawrence, M., Oliver, M., & Reiss, M. J. (2018). Learning and engagement through natural history museums. Studies in Science Education, 54(1), 41–67, https://doi.org/10.1080/03057267.2018.1442820. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/03057267.2018.1442820
Otto, S., & Pensini, P. (2017). Nature-based environmental education of children: Environmental knowledge and connectedness to nature, together, are related to ecological behaviour. Global Environmental Change, 47, 88–94, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2017.09.009. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2017.09.009
Publicover, J. L., Wright, T. S., Baur, S., & Duinker, P. N. (2018). Music as a tool for environmental education and advocacy. Environmental Education Research, 24(7), 925–936, https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2017.1365356. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2017.1365356
Savva, A., Trimis, E., & Zachariou, A. (2004). Exploring the links between visual arts and environmental education. International Journal of Art & Design Education, 23(3), 246–255, DOI: 10.1111/j.1476-8070.2004.00404.x. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1476-8070.2004.00404.x
Sebastián López, M., Kratochvíl, O., & De Miguel González, R. (2023). Geographic education and spatial citizenship. In Re-visioning geography: Supporting the SDGs in the post-COVID era (pp. 177–191). Springer, DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-40747-5_10. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-40747-5_10
Teksoz, G., Sahin, E., & Ertepinar, H. (2010). A new vision for chemistry education students: Environmental education. International Journal of Environmental and Science Education, 5(2), 131–149.
Van Anh, H. T. (2019). Building environmental awareness through implementation of ecocriticism in literature teaching. In 2nd International Conference on Research of Educational Administration and Management (ICREAM 2018) (pp. 326–331). Atlantis Press, DOI: 10.2991/icream-18.2019.68, https://www.atlantis-press.com/proceedings/icream-18/55914268. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2991/icream-18.2019.68
Welch, R., Taylor, N., & Gard, M. (2021). Environmental attunement in health, sport and physical education. Sport, Education and Society, 26(4), 339–348, https://doi.org/10.1080/13573322.2021.1893683. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13573322.2021.1890009
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Journal of Non-Formal and Digital Education
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
