Laura Palmerio, Viviana Capozza and Riccardo Pietracci
How are European schools preparing students to face climate change and environmental challenges? Sustainability and Climate Change Education (SCCE) plays a key role in helping students develop not only knowledge about environmental issues, but also the ability and willingness to take informed action on them. This is what action competence is about, and teachers should be encouraged to use approaches that foster it.
The Impact assessment for action competence (IMP>ACT) Project explored how education systems across Europe support this goal. We conducted a policy review in each partner country to understand whether current educational policies allow to implement action-oriented sustainability education and to what extent these approaches are already present.
The review shows that SCCE is generally taught cross-curricularly, particularly within social and natural sciences, except for Serbia, where sustainability topics are mainly integrated within natural sciences rather than social science subjects. In some countries, however, it can be also taught as a stand-alone subject (the Netherlands, Flanders and the Czech Republic) or within project-based subjects. This is the case, for example, in the Netherlands, Flanders, the Czech Republic and Germany.
Another important aspect concerns the level of autonomy schools have in implementing SCCE. In most partner countries, schools have a high level of autonomy in curriculum design, pedagogical approaches and assessment. However, there are some exceptions: the Czech Republic shows only partial autonomy and Serbia has a more centralized structure.
Policies also differ in terms of the goals they emphasize in sustainability education. When looking at the goals related to action competence (knowledge, skills, confidence in one’s own influence, willingness to act, emotions, action taking), different patterns emerge across countries. In several education systems, sustainability education still focuses primarily on cognitive knowledge or skills. For instance, Germany and the Czech Republic are mainly focused on skills and Sweden on cognitive learning goals, while the Netherlands and Flanders combine both perspectives. More balanced approaches can be observed in Serbia and Italy.
To complement the policy review, the IMP>ACT project also examined indicators drawn from existing international large-scale assessments, such as ICCS, PISA and TIMSS. Although these surveys were not specifically designed to measure action competence, they still provide useful insights into how sustainability-related topics are addressed in schools.
Let’s look at two examples from TIMSS, a survey all partner countries participated in.
In the first indicator, teachers were asked how often they carry out activities such as encouraging students to develop positive attitudes toward the natural environment, discussing environmental issues like climate change, or reflecting on how students’ actions can contribute to environmental protection.
Results suggest differences across countries. Italian teachers report the highest frequency of these activities in most items, while the Netherlands generally reports lower frequencies. Overall, the highest scores for this indicator are registered, in order, by Italy, Serbia, Germany, the Czech Republic, Sweden, Flanders and the Netherlands.
The second indicator examines more hands-on and experiential activities, such as taking students to visit natural areas, involving them in environmentally responsible actions (for example, pick up trash), doing research or projects on environmental topics, or participating in outdoor environmental education programs.
Here again, differences across countries emerge. Sweden and Serbia report particularly high levels of these activities, while Italy and the Czech Republic also show relatively strong scores. By contrast, the Netherlands reports lower participation levels for several of these activities.
These results provide a useful snapshot of how sustainability and environmental topics are currently addressed in schools. However, it is important to recognize the limitations of existing databases. Not all countries participate in the same international surveys, which makes it difficult to build a fully comparable picture. In addition, current indicators were not designed to capture key aspects of action competence, such as students’ confidence in their ability to influence environmental issues or their willingness to take action.
This is precisely where the IMP>ACT project aims to contribute. By developing new tools and indicators specifically to assess action competence in sustainability education, the project aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of how schools can support students in becoming active and responsible agents of change in the face of challenges to preserve our planet.