Teaching Controversial Issues in Environmental Education

Many teachers steer clear of controversy in the classroom and therefore do not discuss environmental issues which can be controversial with their students. Controversy provides opportunities for increasing the quality of students’ thinking and their ability to solve problems. It is intellectually stimulating. Jean Piaget, Lawrence Kohlberg, and other learning theorists address the importance of cognitive disequilibration in intellectual and moral development. Students benefit from opportunities to consider other people’s view points and to defend their own. Productive conflict (as many scholars call controversial; debatable issues) tend to promote the development of cognitive and moral reasoning; it thus has a valid place in a learning environment. This paper explores controversial issues in environmental education and how environmental educators can utilize the opportunities these issues presents in the classroom situation for the teachers to guide the learners into higher thinking and communication skills that can help them get involved in practical ways of solving existing environmental problems and issues, and the commitment to ensuring that future ones are mitigated.