The Organization and Tasks of 'Ecosystem & Environment' Subject In the 7th Curriculum for High School Students in Korea

제7차 교육과정의 고등학교 '생태와 환경'의 구성과 과제

The ‘Ecosystem St Environment’ subject is included in the 7th revised curriculum for high schools in Korea, which ‘Environmental Science’ subject in the 6th curriculum was changed to. The 6th curriculum was announced in 1992 and has been applied till now, and the 7th revised curriculum was announced in the late of 1997 and will start to be applied in school education from 2001. The ‘Ecosystem & Environment’ subject is an integrated subject for liberal arts and science, which deals with environmental problems with approaches of natural science and social science. Its significance lies in understanding and solving environmental problems, and thus improving the quality of human life. And it is aimed to achieve the goal of environmental education in connection with ‘Environment’ subject in middle schools, which is one of the three optional subjects. This subject consists of six domains: human being and environment, ecosystem and environment, environmental pollution, global environmental problems ＆ their measures, environment and society, and environmental preservation. Compared with ‘Environmental Science’ in the 6th curriculum, in this subject less emphasis is put on environmental technological approach and more emphasis is put on environmental ethics and environmental social approach. On the contrary, one unsatisfactory point is as the following: locally integrated solutions of environmental problems are omitted: the organization of the textbook is more or less sporadical and sometimes overlapping; practical solutions are not concrete in writing the textbook and teaching it. The ‘Ecosystem & Environment’ subject which has been organized with new contents according to the 7th revised curriculum for high schools will be successful in achieving the given goal only when a lot of high schools select this subject and are taught effectively.