University-Community Partnerships for Promoting Social Responsibility in Higher Education by Sengupta Enakshi;Blessinger Patrick;Mahoney Craig;

Author:Sengupta, Enakshi;Blessinger, Patrick;Mahoney, Craig;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Emerald Publishing Limited
Published: 2020-06-06T00:00:00+00:00

RATIONALE FOR UNIVERSITY–COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIP DESIGN

Both of our community partners are involved in K-12 education. One is a public school system; the other is a nonformal educational institution. Both organizations serve public school sixth graders through this partnership. The university students involved in the project are education majors (preservice teachers) or biology/environmental studies majors who are interested in educational careers in the nonformal sector, such as leading educational programing at zoos, nature centers, or aquariums. Here, we describe our rationale for choosing to collaborate with these institutions using the university students and courses that we did.

A criticism of traditional K-16 science instruction is that it often fails to create a connection between students and real-world environments and phenomena (Scherz & Oren, 2006). In contrast, environmental education (EE) is based on understanding and forging connections with the environment in students’ own neighborhoods and communities (Bodzin, Shiner Klein, & Weaver, 2010). Teaching outdoors offers a captivating location for students, which can help them become more engaged with the topic and materials and generally more excited about learning. This increased engagement and excitement results in increased attention to schoolwork (Chawla, 2015). Additionally, research has indicated that being in nature can have positive impacts on children’s cognitive, physical and social development (Coon, Boddy, Stein, Whear, & Depledge, 2011; Rook, 2013). It follows, then, that preparing future educators to integrate teaching strategies that involve outdoor learning would be beneficial to their students.

Our university–community partnership is located in the state of Maryland in the United States. Our state has emerged as a leader in EE over the past few decades, leading many other states to model their own EE initiatives after those put in place by state of Maryland EE leaders and organizations. These include:

The implementation of a state environmental literacy plan for K-12 students.

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