Armstrong Hyacinth G
Buccoo Reef Trust, Cowie's Building, Carnbee Junction, Auchenskeoch Road, Carnbee, Tobago, West Indies.
Rev Biol Trop. 2005 May;53 Suppl 1:229-38.
Environmental education is a relatively new area on the primary school curriculum of Trinidad and Tobago. Because of the close relationship between human activities and the degradation of the natural environment in Tobago, environmental education will become increasingly important to the preservation and conservation of the island's fragile natural resources. Current teaching methods rely heavily on text books and utilise a lecture style that does not promote student interaction. Unfortunately, these methods are not very conducive to environmental education. As such, this paper examines a pilot program in which staff from the Buccoo Reef Trust taught students from 15 primary schools about coral reefs using interactive tools and hands-on methods as described in People & Corals: an Education Package for Primary Schools (People & Corals). The pilot program ran over an eight week period with prepared lessons being taught every two weeks and student evaluations taking place once before the first lesson and once after the last lesson. The lessons were supplemented with a field trip to a coral reef ecosystem. Despite several challenges that were faced in the implementation process, the overall outcome of the pilot program was successful. Teachers and students reacted positively to the information that was being shared, thereby reinforcing the effectiveness of using a dynamic, active method of teaching to advance environmental education.
环境教育在特立尼达和多巴哥的小学课程中是一个相对较新的领域。由于多巴哥的人类活动与自然环境退化之间存在密切关系，环境教育对于保护该岛脆弱的自然资源将变得越来越重要。当前的教学方法严重依赖教科书，采用的是不促进学生互动的讲授式。不幸的是，这些方法不太有利于环境教育。因此，本文考察了一个试点项目，在该项目中，布库礁信托基金的工作人员使用《人与珊瑚：小学教育包》（《人与珊瑚》）中所述的互动工具和实践方法，向15所小学的学生传授有关珊瑚礁的知识。试点项目为期八周，每两周进行一次备课授课，在第一节课前和最后一节课后各进行一次学生评估。课程还辅以一次前往珊瑚礁生态系统的实地考察。尽管在实施过程中面临了一些挑战，但试点项目的总体结果是成功的。教师和学生对所分享的信息反应积极，从而强化了采用动态、主动的教学方法推进环境教育的有效性。
