Environmental Education as a Key Element for Values Education

Abstract

Environmental degradation and destruction and the disappearance of natural habitats can create many problems. Education, with the objective of achieving a comprehensive development of the individual, plays an important role, without forgetting those values which result from the individuals’ interaction with their environment. In this sense, we can state that in the school context there is a great concern about Environmental Education, which is considered as one of the most important source of values in the classroom: respect and care, protection and interest in all that surrounds us (natural environments). Environmental Education is of crucial importance in the school context, due to the present progressive environmental degradation, since it promotes the development of basic skills related to the students’ active involvement and values development. Therefore, although legislative and social changes should go hand in hand, in Spain Environmental Education came from cross-cutting approaches (what is called Education for…(Perrenoud, 2012), with the Education System General Order (Ley de Ordenación General del Sistema Educativo Español (LOGSE, 1990). This order tried to promote educational practices which dealt with environmental problems in an interdisciplinary manner, promoting, in this sense, values education in students. Although it is an open approach, this paper aims at justifying the importance of the treatment of Environmental Education, as an educational value, in values education.