The assessment of environmental education concepts and skills in Grade 10 Geography

Abstract

Sustainable development and environmental crises have been recognised globally as relevant to education and teaching. This research explores opportunities and challenges to assess environmental education content, skills and values in the latest Grade 10 Geography curriculum policy document in South Africa. Geography has been lauded as the ideal vehicle to raise awareness and to sensitise learners to environmental issues. The subject’s curriculum contains the best opportunities to address environmental and sustainability issues. However, it is unclear whether teachers develop and assess the skills and values needed by learners to identify environmental issues and to solve them. Qualitative research was undertaken with data collected through document analysis and interviews were held with purposively selected participants. The findings reveal that though there are ideal opportunities to develop environmental skills and competences through assessment, these are not realised in practice. The teachers involved in the research have inadequate knowledge of the concept ‘environment’ and limited familiarity with appropriate pedagogical approaches. Recommendations are made to address the identified shortcomings.