Teaching climate change: understanding the intellectual and emotional challenges

Introduction and AimsThis study aims to evaluate the relationships between emotions and learning in the context of climate change, a ‘wicked’ subject that has profound and worrying implications for the future. It explores barriers to engagement and the possible emotional obstacles to deep learning. as climate change is both a multi-disciplinary and troublesome subject. The relationship between knowledge, emotion and positive action is explored. The literature on effective teaching of complex subjects is also examined and how lessons from this can be applied to teaching climate change.Materials and MethodsA questionnaire was designed with the aim of exploring students’ knowledge about and emotions towards climate change and their subsequent change in action after climate change teaching. A total of 207 (life science and sociology) students took part with 69 life science students completing the pre-learning and the post learning questionnaires. A focus group with three first year students and four in-depth interviews were also conducted.Summary of ResultsThe results for the main quantitative phase showed an overall increase of concern and emotional awareness from the pre-to the post stages. An overall score for each respondent for knowledge and for emotion was calculated showing a weak correlation between the increase of knowledge and an increase in expressed concern. There were differences between course type and gender in terms of knowledge and qualitative findings show that although there are emotional problems when teaching climate change this should not prevent students learning but emotional resilience should be taught in tandem