ASSESSMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION MATERIALS FOR CONTENT COURSES IN THE TEACHER EDUCATION

Abstract

The Teacher Education curriculum can serve as meaningful context for teaching the future teachers environmentally responsible behaviors. This study aimed to review the Content Courses in the Bachelor of Elementary Education curriculum in order to identify entry points of Environmental Education (EE) integration, to assess the available Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) EE materials, and to develop and validate exemplar session plans with EE integration. The developmental-descriptiveevaluative method of research was used. The data gathering techniques used were documentary analysis, assessment of DENR EE materials using an adapted rubric, and validation of proposed session plans using a researcher-made rubric. A total of 19 syllabi for Content Courses in BEED were analyzed, and 15 DENR EE materials and 22 session plans were assessed. Results showed that the EE concepts can be well-integrated in the Content Courses of the Bachelor of Elementary Education as indicated by the identified entry points for EE integration. The EE materials developed by the DENR were found to be highly appropriate, highly relevant, and highly flexible as instructional materials for EE integration in the different Content Courses. The proposed session plans integrated with EE were rated very good to excellent by the jurors, thus ready for delivery to teacher education students.