Environmental Sustainability in Practice

Problem-Solving Approach

A focus on problem-solving emerged in the 1970s as a response to an increasing awareness of the ”extent, gravity, and growing acceleration of environmental problems” (Sauve, 2005, p. 15). The goal of this approach is to inform or help people to inform themselves about environmental issues, and develop attitudes and skills to solve them. Included in this goal is a call for action, either for changes in individual behaviour or collective action.

To develop problem-solving skills, learners practice the following steps (Hungerford et al., 1992):
  1. Identify an environmental issue
  2. Investigate this issue
  3. Diagnose the problem
  4. Search for solutions
  5. Evaluate and choose the optimal solutions
More recently (Jensen & Schnack, 1997; Jensen, 2004), the participation of learners in the implementation of the solutions has also been included as a core step in the process.

To give meaning to the actions undertaken, learners are encouraged to develop a vision of what they want the future to look like (remember the futures thinking competency?).  This reminds us of why we are solving the “problems” in the first place.


Examples

1. The problem-solving approach to education is evident in the Nord Anglia Education (international organization of 46 schools) curriculum, developed in collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Read the following news story for more details.

2. Check out how several schools in the United States are engaging students in solving real-world problems:

 

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