Democratizing education: Open schooling engaged the less privileged in environmental sciences.
Democratizing learning is essential for environmental sustainability. Less privileged areas are crucial in this regard. Informal education has great such potential, but often fails to reach the less privileged, and to document learning. With the objective to identify and counter these issues, we her...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:8de796e7e2564a15a1e166bfe3d96085 2023-05-15T15:06:16+02:00 Democratizing education: Open schooling engaged the less privileged in environmental sciences. Hilde Karine Wam Agata Goździk Paul Eric Aspholm Tomasz Juńczyk 2022-01-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0266655 https://doaj.org/article/8de796e7e2564a15a1e166bfe3d96085 EN eng Public Library of Science (PLoS) https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0266655 https://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203 1932-6203 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0266655 https://doaj.org/article/8de796e7e2564a15a1e166bfe3d96085 PLoS ONE, Vol 17, Iss 4, p e0266655 (2022) Medicine R Science Q article 2022 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0266655 2022-12-31T03:10:03Z Democratizing learning is essential for environmental sustainability. Less privileged areas are crucial in this regard. Informal education has great such potential, but often fails to reach the less privileged, and to document learning. With the objective to identify and counter these issues, we here report on EDU-ARCTIC, an informal open schooling course in environmental science, aimed at European teachers with teenage pupils. Of the 1,181 teachers who enrolled, 73% were females and 43% were from less privileged nations (according to UN Human Development Index). This is a higher share of less privileged (females) than is the case for the general population of Europe. Teachers from less privileged nations also participated in more project activities than did those from more privileged nations, apart from in urban areas. For the project period, the teachers reported a significant increase in all the three categories of aspired learning outcomes for their pupils. We conclude that courses like ours can increase teenagers' literacy and engagement in science and environmental issues, not the least in less privileged areas. Deliberate efforts are required to reach these target groups, who may be less inclined to join on their own. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic PLOS ONE 17 4 e0266655 |
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Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
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Medicine R Science Q |
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Medicine R Science Q Hilde Karine Wam Agata Goździk Paul Eric Aspholm Tomasz Juńczyk Democratizing education: Open schooling engaged the less privileged in environmental sciences. |
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Medicine R Science Q |
description |
Democratizing learning is essential for environmental sustainability. Less privileged areas are crucial in this regard. Informal education has great such potential, but often fails to reach the less privileged, and to document learning. With the objective to identify and counter these issues, we here report on EDU-ARCTIC, an informal open schooling course in environmental science, aimed at European teachers with teenage pupils. Of the 1,181 teachers who enrolled, 73% were females and 43% were from less privileged nations (according to UN Human Development Index). This is a higher share of less privileged (females) than is the case for the general population of Europe. Teachers from less privileged nations also participated in more project activities than did those from more privileged nations, apart from in urban areas. For the project period, the teachers reported a significant increase in all the three categories of aspired learning outcomes for their pupils. We conclude that courses like ours can increase teenagers' literacy and engagement in science and environmental issues, not the least in less privileged areas. Deliberate efforts are required to reach these target groups, who may be less inclined to join on their own. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Hilde Karine Wam Agata Goździk Paul Eric Aspholm Tomasz Juńczyk |
author_facet |
Hilde Karine Wam Agata Goździk Paul Eric Aspholm Tomasz Juńczyk |
author_sort |
Hilde Karine Wam |
title |
Democratizing education: Open schooling engaged the less privileged in environmental sciences. |
title_short |
Democratizing education: Open schooling engaged the less privileged in environmental sciences. |
title_full |
Democratizing education: Open schooling engaged the less privileged in environmental sciences. |
title_fullStr |
Democratizing education: Open schooling engaged the less privileged in environmental sciences. |
title_full_unstemmed |
Democratizing education: Open schooling engaged the less privileged in environmental sciences. |
title_sort |
democratizing education: open schooling engaged the less privileged in environmental sciences. |
publisher |
Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0266655 https://doaj.org/article/8de796e7e2564a15a1e166bfe3d96085 |
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Arctic |
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Arctic |
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Arctic |
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Arctic |
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PLoS ONE, Vol 17, Iss 4, p e0266655 (2022) |
op_relation |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0266655 https://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203 1932-6203 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0266655 https://doaj.org/article/8de796e7e2564a15a1e166bfe3d96085 |
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https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0266655 |
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