탐구 중심 환경교육의 개념과 의미

A Study on the Concept and the Meaning of Inquiry-Based Environmental Education

The purpose of this study is to elucidate the concept of the internal value of environmental education (EE), and to present a new concept of 'Inquiry-Based EE' as a method to realize the internal value of EE. Since the introduction of EE, the 'external' value has been overwhelmingly present, as is shown in the commonly expressed purpose of EE. The ultimate goal of EE has been considered as to solve environmental problems through educational approach, which is important, but external value in relation with education. Generally, education has its own value, which may be more important than external value. But in EE area, that idea has not been discussed much. So, this study argued that EE has, or should have, the internal value of education. This study also examined the concept of inquiry, and presented it as two types of inquiry: the scientific inquiry and the 'insightful inquiry', and argued that the insightful inquiry is important as well as scientific inquiry in EE. Then, this study presented a new concept of 'inquiry-based EE', which can be defined as EE that is based on both the scientific and insightful inquiries, and makes the student be able to 'see' the world with the environmental world view. Lastly, this study presented also a new concept of 'Environmental Studies for EE, (ESEE)'. This means that the traditional environmental science is considered to be not well developed under the perspective of EE. From this viewpoint, this study presented the needed contents of the conceptually presented ESEE. In short, this research asserts that 'inquiry-based EE' is needed to make students 'see' the world environmentally, which is the very important value of EE, the internal value of EE, not very much examined. The 'inquiry-base EE' is considered to possibly advance EE as a new paradigm.