地理教育における環境認識と環境教育 : 地理学的方法との関係から

As environmental problem has become a serious issue on a community scale as well as global scale, there has been the strong demand for environmental education in society. Generally speaking, environmental education has two objectives; (1) to acquire an awareness of nature in general and environmental issues and deepen an understanding of the relationship between human beings and environment. (2) to develop the social action skills necessary for becoming effective partipants in keeping the health of the environment and creating the possible environmental development. "Environment" is likewise a fundamental concept to geography education whose major objective is to study humane phenomena within the same context. Though geography education is considered to have a leading role, it has not accepted enough credit yet. Why is that? This paper is aimed at not only clarifying the reasons but also presenting how geography education should deal with environmental cognition especially with reference to the methodological framework of geography. In the pursuing process of changing images of geographical cognition of environment within the historical and social context, possible and preferred environmental cognition is first discussed. Next with the comparison of environmental cognition in geography education with that in environmental education, the above-mentioned reasons are clarified from the viewpoints of two major geographical methods: systematic approach as well as regional approach. As the results of research, it becomes clear that enhancing learners" awareness of environmental conditions is a big factor leading to the development of an informed understanding of environment and the sympathetic and active awareness of environment. Finally as for the future orientation about the viewpoints or methods in geography education, four points are stressed; (1) to clalify the important impact of human awareness or activity in geographical phenomena. (2) to consider the environmental conditions of nature. (3) think of not only nature and its disaster but development and its environmental destruction (pollution). (4) to know the importance of involvement consciousness (cognition) of learners together with scientific cognition