Discovering the Environment around School, with Local Communities: A Reflection Approach of Required Skills

Abstract

A Cretan Lyceum, with local communities, materialized an Environmental Education Project, with the subject of “Forest, Biodiversity and Quality of Life” based on the principles of the Education for the Sustainable Development. The project aimed to update, aware and mobilize students on issues related to the forests, wetlands, biodiversity, sustainability and quality of life, to develop an anti-consumer model by highlighting the traditional way of life and to involve them in the care-management of natural ecosystems. The project activities took place in two different natural ecosystems of Greece, in the north and south.
Objectives of the research were to draw attention to the skills that teachers and students need and cultivate for the implementation of Discovery Teaching method in projects of Education for the Sustainable Development which aim to cultivate the future environmentally and science literate active citizens. This research is a case study of content analysis of the project’s archival material by using the Evaluation Tool for the Application of Discovery Teaching Method in the Greek School Project of Environmental Education (Kalathaki, 2015). Were coded 7 research categories, such as the promoting of Critical Thinking and Problem Solving, Communication and Collaboration, Establishment of Requirements for Lifelong Learning, Promotion of the Sustainable Development, Cultivation of Active Environmentally Literate Citizens, Inquiry Skills, Use of ITCs.