Christel Persson - Research

Cooperation between the spheres investigated through the education system
The starting point for this project is the children's development of concepts in environment for sustainable development. One aim of the study is to develop the analysis instrument: the Earth System Science model (the ESS model) and the research groups are pupils aged 9-18 as well as students in different programs at university level. Read more

Landscape study: Finnish and Swedish ¬students´ drawings of the landscape
A research project in collaboration with the University of Turku, Finland. It is a qualitative study with phenomenographical features, while the focus is to study students' conceptions of a landscape and environment worth preserving as a phenomenon. The aim is to analyze the drawings of a group of Finnish and Swedish students in age of 7-15 years old and to identify the landscape they would like to conserve and also to find out students' conceptions of the environment. The project was expanded in 2013 to also include student teachers as the target group.

Biodiversity and species identification
The research project includes an extensive empirical material from the Nordic countries and Lithuania, where the informants are student teachers. The aim of this study is to investigate student teachers' knowledge of species, their interest in and ideas about species identification, and the importance of species identification for biodiversity and sustainable development. Student teachers from primary schools were tested using an identification test and a questionnaire consisting of fixed and open questions. A combination of quantitative and qualitative methods was used to get a more holistic view of students' level of knowledge.

Media and environment
Environmental information most frequently comes from media sources. The most popular media has been newspapers, TV and internet. This study aims to find students' perceptions about the environmental issues in media and how they use media in relation to environmental issues. The quantitative study includes a questionnaire to get the answers to the research task and administered to students in Finland, Lithuania and Sweden.

Research Project
Symphony of the spheres in change? Learning in environment for sustainable development in primary school with a scientific and longitudinal approach.

This research deals with learning in science, including learning in environment for sustainable development. Learning in environment and sustainable development are obligatory perspectives in science as well as in other school subjects. The longitudinal study started in 2003, concerning 28 pupils nine years of age in a city in southern Sweden. Data collection has been caught in the pupils' science lessons from year 2003 to 2006. In order to analyse the pupils' development of concepts in science and in environment for sustainable development, I have videotaped a lot of sequences from the science lessons and followed up with questionnaires and questions in interviews. Stimulated recall is used to find the teacher's intentions and reactions on the outcome of the lessons. The results are analysed according to the Earth System Science (ESS) model. It is a model, which describes the relations and interactions between the natural spheres: the atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere as well as the biosphere, including man, and the technosphere/anthroposphere.

The longitudinal approach resulted in important findings regarding the changes in the pupils' answers over time. They develop complicated 'concept webs'. The concepts found among the pupils in this study are e.g. the hydrological cycle; life; soil; water in every day life; pollution; non-polluting busses as well as waste; collecting batteries; corrosion; greenhouse and the increasing greenhouse effect. Some concepts e.g. the hydrological cycle, life and soil can from the beginning be classified as concepts used in science, but also to describe what happens in the environment. Concepts as pollution; non-polluting busses; collecting batteries; corrosion; greenhouse and the increasing greenhouse effect are used by the pupils to express relations and interactions in and between the natural spheres including man. The relation between man and nature is for the pupils an area of conflicts through the entire study when the pupils from a scientific approach will be aware of the impact on living ecosystems including themselves, today and in the future. The concepts are often connected to each other in a more or less complicated network, 'concepts webs'. The obtained results indicate that the Socratic dialogue is a possible and successful method to use for the development of pupils' concepts in environmental questions and issues.

Another finding in the study is how different methods, e.g. Play and learning, support environmental learning and learning for sustainable development during the science lessons. Play is important in integrated learning and gives opportunity to understand others' perspectives, Theory of mind. The results indicate an integrated learning process by the pupils, implying in what way they express human impact on nature.

Keywords: Science education, Learning in environment for sustainable development, Primary school, Earth System Science, Socratic dialogue, Integrated learning, Stimulated recall, Play and learning, Longitudinal study

Link to Christel Persson's Doctoral Dissertation: Symphony of the spheres in change? Learning in environment for sustainable development in primary school with a scientific and longitudinal approach.

English summary: Symphony of the spheres in change? Learning in environment for sustainable development in primary school with a scientific and longitudinal approach.

English Summary (PDF-dokument, 465 kB)(pdf, 465 kB)