Chance for schools to take part in EU projects

Considering the amount of energy and resources invested in worldwide environmental education projects in schools and the relatively poor impact they have left on the educational system, one may erroneously conclude that environmental education has failed in reaching its goals.

However, a closer analysis reveals that in most cases this apparent lack of success is actually the result of an inherent incompatibility between the principles of environmental education and the predominant cultures of certain formal educational institutions.

Formed over the years, these cultures define, within an institution, what constitutes good education, the characteristics of a proficient teacher, the role of the learners and adequate assessment procedures. Owing to their deep-rooted nature these practices are difficult to eradicate overnight merely as a result of the introduction of a new idea. It is a pity that a large part of the projects aimed at improving educational practices are doomed to fail from their very start because they opt for the easy "starting-with-a-clean-slate" approach, failing to address or taking these cultures for granted.

Evaluation is one of these cultures. The evaluative methods used and how they are applied are dependent on what a school (or educational authority) considers as valid. Educational systems that value accreditation and certification over other evaluation objectives tend to spiral into an examination-oriented pedagogy that not only impacts negatively on the curricular content but also impinges on the teachers' professionalism. Getting through examinations becomes the main target of teaching/learning experiences and curricula adapt to suit this need by replacing opportunities that promote the development of a variety of cognitive and psychomotor skills with chunks of knowledge requiring simple recall.

The worst spin-off of this situation is that class teachers are "forced" to comply with these conditions, whether educationally sound or not, because it becomes customary to measure a teacher's proficiency by the number of her/his students that get through their examinations. Moreover, the success or failure of a curriculum development initiative becomes dependent on its "relevance" to the examinations' syllabi.

TEPEE (Towards a European Portfolio for Environmental Education) is a Socrates Comenius 3 Network of the European Union set up to identify and define a scale of competencies in environmental education and propose appropriate methods and instruments to develop a system of accreditation based on formative evaluation that acknowledges and respects a variety of school cultures. It aims to achieve this by banking on the diverse experiences and expertise of schoolteachers, teacher educators, research centres, universities, NGOs and local authorities from different European countries.

The first phase of the project essentially consisted in the gathering of data about different environmental education methodologies and evaluation instruments used in schools throughout the European territory. The results of this research and interpretation phase were discussed during a transnational meeting held at the Galaxy Hotel, Sliema between June 25 and 28.

The meeting was structured around a Comenius 1 Contact Seminar aimed at facilitating the development of new Comenius environmental education projects, hence strengthening and extending the size of the TEPEE network. The contact seminar was open for headteachers and teachers from different European primary and secondary schools and presented a unique opportunity for schools to find partners for the development of environmental education Comenius 1 projects. The 60 delegates that attended the meeting came from Germany, Ireland, Italy, Malta, Portugal, Romania, Sweden and Turkey.

An unfortunate matter that marred the event was the noticeably low number of Maltese delegates attending the meeting. Although invitations had been prepared for all schools, the relevant education authorities failed to circulate them because "June is not the best time for hosting such an event for schools".

I found it hard to understand how such unilateral decisions could still coexist alongside efforts by education authorities to foster school autonomy. Taking full advantage of the educational benefits offered by programmes funded by the European Commission requires flexible managerial structures and a wider notion of the role of teachers in schools. Trying to accommodate new structures within archaic forms of management and control is akin to storing new wine in old wineskins! We would be running the risk of losing both!

Nevertheless, the contact seminar was a big success. Seven new Comenius 1 projects have been identified (see box below) and will be submitted for approval by the European Commission next year. The proposed projects go beyond traditional environmental concerns and focus on various environmental perspectives (aesthetic, economical, natural, political, social and cultural). The methodology proposed is interdisciplinary and caters for different learning styles and cultures. A major feature of each proposed project is the emphasis given to project evaluation, particularly through portfolio development.

Dr Pace, from the Faculty of Education, is the local TEPEE Network partner and the convener of the meeting