Los futuros maestros ante problemáticas sobre la conservación de la biodiversidad y su utilización en las aulas de Educación Primaria

Abstract

Abstract In this research, the future teachers' learning on biodiversity conservation issues are analyzed, as well as the teaching strategies which are considered appropriate to address these issues on Primary Education. Specifically, we are intended to study two main questions: - How do future teachers reach the connection between the biodiversity and their lifes and close social contexts? - Which teaching strategies do they value and propose in order to address effectively the problems of biodiversity conservation at school? In the first question, we analyze the enhancement of future teachers about four key issues related to some socio-environmental problems: the value they bring to biodiversity, the socio-environmental perception about the consequences of their loss, the recognition of the influence of human activities in these problems and the assumption of individual responsibilities. In the second question, we try to assess other key issues which are the methodological criteria, proposed from the Education for Sustainability, taken into account when analyzing activities and design their proposals. With this aim, a research was designed in which the planning and the implementation of an educational proposal was conducted, based on a strategy and problem solving approach and developed in the course of 2012/2013 in Primary Education Grade. Our proposal consists of four socio-environmental problems related to biodiversity loss, by means of which students may develop a set of key issues and assess or design proposals for Primary Education regarding these contents. The responses of 78 future Primary teachers were analyzed about the 60 items which comprise the proposal, basically consisting on open questions and those obtained from the remaining tools. This means the assessment of numerous responses from the future teachers about the key ideas regarding the biodiversity conservation and it teaching in Primary Education. The results indicate that the teaching strategies in relation to the problem statement and solving approach were adequate and they allowed the significant evolution of the students' ideas. We can conclude that: - The greatest difficulties were found regarding the socio-environmental perception, but it can be promoted by recognizing the value of biodiversity for people, which also allows the establishment of complex relationships between nature and society. - Regarding the influence of human beings, students were able to demonstrate that their daily activities, especially related to their consumption, may affect the conservation of biodiversity, and they were able to identify some necessary changes in their lifestyle. - Despite of the fact that future Primary teachers need to improve their competences in designing activities; they are capable of assessing whether some of the methodological criteria established from the Science Education in the selection of proposals for Primary Education. - When they design, they focus on the promotion of interactive learning and on the fact that children specify and confront their ideas. However, they do not contextualize their proposals, nor they offer opportunities for reflexion about the causes or the assessment of socio-ecological consequences involved in the biodiversity conservation problems. It is considered necessary to continue studying how to make significant the conservation of biodiversity for future teachers, as well as they recognize its essential role as citizens but, especially, how to improve their skills to promote environmental attitudes in school.