Success in Fulfilling Greek Teachers’ Needs in Environmental Education through an In-service Training Course in the Maraslios Teacher Training School

Abstract

This paper illustrates a 4-year case study (2008 - 2012) regarding a course in environmental education that was designed for the training of 58 practicing Greek in-service elementary teachers.  The aim of the study was to reveal if a six-month Environmental Education training course succeeded in fulfilling Greek in-service teachers’ needs in Environmental Education. This was achieved through an assessment of the course by the participants. Their answers to four open-ended questions were analyzed following the principles of content analysis. Results revealed that in-service teachers considered their participation in the course as useful for their professional development and mostly valued their active engagement in learning activities, the experience they gained being a learner, the fact that the course was designed so that they could – with minor adjustments –transfer it to their classroom. They also valued the fact that the course was designed trying to connect theory with practice and it was based on collaborative group work and experiential activities according to appropriate methods and approaches. Challenges in developing the course included the teachers’ different previous experience in environmental education and teachers’ need for practical work.