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- 2008 Ano Internacional do Planeta Terra: Terra, saúde e alterações climáticasPublication . Amador, Filomena; Oliveira, Carla Padrel de; Cardoso, Abel; Antunes, Ana PaulaAs causas ambientais de alguns problemas de saúde, relação entre alterações climáticas e saúde e as dinâmicas de algumas doenças emergentes no quadro das relações humanas com o meio ambiente. Visita ao Jardim Tropical de Lisboa, com os Professores Carla Oliveira, docente da Universidade Aberta e Jorge Atouguia, médico especialista em Medicina Tropical.
- Field activities within an environmental sciences program: a b-learning case studyPublication . Caeiro, Sandra; Oliveira, Carla Padrel de; Amador, Filomena; Martinho, Ana Paula; Caetano, Fernando J. P.A reflection on the use of fieldwork in environmental science programmes is conducted in this paper. It is generally agreed that for fieldwork to be effective, it must serve a clear purpose in the curriculum. For a good curriculum design, a fieldwork course must complement, enhance or extend an existing part of the curriculum or fulfil some major objective of the curriculum as a whole. Thus a successful integration of fieldwork within an undergraduate degree programme is particularly important. For an environmental science course delivered through online methodology, it becomes evident that special attention should be devoted to the design and implementation of such a course. If we consider the more general definition where the field is seen as the location, outside the classroom setting, where learning takes place, then fieldwork is the set of activities that will facilitate students’ learning. It is generally agreed that a field course is much more difficult to integrate than a set of activities closely related to a specific subject. However, in a distance-learning university it is not plausible that students perform this type of activity very often. Therefore, the field courses are designed as a stand-alone module. The current work analyzes the design of the course entitled Fieldwork II which is integrated in the undergraduate degree in Environmental Sciences at Universidade Aberta. Many issues have to be taken into account when designing such a course that encompasses legislative, pedagogical and logistical matters. An overview of the research work that has been developed on the pedagogical value of fieldwork is given. Taking into account the specific learning methodology adopted at Universidade Aberta, we also present a fieldwork model for environmental sciences in a context of a blended learning (b-learning) undergraduate programme. The organizational effectiveness of the model and students’ participation was assessed in two scholar years of a fieldwork course at Universidade Aberta. Also, the project assignment synopses were assessed in the context of education for sustainability. Finally, it should be stressed that fieldwork should be regarded as a form of learning which exploits the unique characteristics of the field environment to improve the student learning experience.
- Education for sustainable development in higher education: evaluating coherence between theory and praxisPublication . Amador, Filomena; Martinho, Ana Paula; Nicolau, Paula Bacelar; Oliveira, Carla Padrel de; Caeiro, SandraUniversities are an important part of the process of change taking place in society. However this is often overshadowed by the fact that institutions give priority to technocratic models in the relationship between science and society. In this context, according to Jϋrgen Habermas’ perspective, theories can serve to clarify practical questions and guide praxis into the right actions (social emancipation and rational autonomy). Habermas introduces the need to evaluate the particular contexts in which scientific arguments are made and assessed. The aim of this paper is to develop a set of assessment criteria for education for sustainable development in higher education curricula. These were developed in line with the Habermasian idea and introducing also further adaptions within the context of Education for Sustainable Development. These criteria were tested in a b-learning Master programme in Environmental Citizenship and Participation at the Universidade Aberta, Portugal. The following research tools were used: i) a questionnaire survey to the graduates; ii) content analysis applied to the information guide and to the abstracts of the dissertations that were produced. The application of the criteria on the case study revealed that on Higher Education curricula, an absence of theoretical frameworks could lead to inconsistencies between theory and praxis. Improvements to curricula are then drawn from this study.