Reviewer: Chris Maas Geesteranus, met med Cooperation van Gerben de Vries and André de Hamer[1]
Background
The book "Nature Education Insightful" already refers to the didactics book "Practical Didactics for Nature & Engineering"; and vice versa. Both are used, in relation to each other, in labs. Not surprising, then, that they are linked in a review.
The nice thing about the third book, "Wonderful," is that it shows the daily handling of technology, based on, often invisible, forces of nature in one's own home. Much of it, by the way, seems applicable in the school itself. A practical source of information for both students and teachers that, in my opinion, fits well with both of the above-mentioned, somewhat more formal books.
These are the reasons for treating these three books in relation to each other. In doing so, I consider the didactic book to be the core of how a teacher works in practice. And that probably raises so many questions that, in scope of the text, I pay most attention to that. Both other books I see more as reference books and resources.
Practical didactics for Nature & Engineering
What the book offers
This comprehensive book, more than 460 pages, houses a wealth of information on how to deal with the subjects of "nature" and "technology" in the classroom/group. Definitely a big job, as the table of contents shows.
The book has five parts: Setting course, Preparing for departure, Castles Off, Along with the ship and Shifting the horizon. And within these, a total of 22 chapters. The first chapters are mainly about the connection between nature and technology, as well as the relationship with other subjects and areas of education. Soon after that it is about observation and about discovering and investigative learning.
A basic
The latter is recognizable from the SLO project "Nature education in elementary school[]. and related works from the 1970s. These laid the foundations for a systematic basis of nature education. This, not explicitly expressed, relationship is evident from such terms - found in the didactics book - as 'discovery corner', 'free exploration', 'inquiry-based learning', 'inspiration table', 'fiddling'. And also, section 3.3.2: 'collect', 'compare', 'select', 'organize', 'identify' and 'classify'.
That is the systematics developed, mostly in SLO context, in those years. Jos Elsgeest, a teacher at the same time, laid out an important pedagogical basis for teaching nature to young children by encouraging their encounter, interaction and dialogue with nature. In the Jenaplant magazine "People-Children" 9(1993)2 he wrote a famous article about the ant lion, from which the following quote:
'When the children observed this insect and saw what it did, they came up with a lot of questions:
- What is that?
- What is it doing in those dimples?
- How does it get there?
- How does it move?
- What does it eat?
- How does it catch its food?
- How does it make its little dimple?
The children asked many more questions and to all these questions the ant lion can best answer himself. So we have to keep telling the children: 'Ask the ant lion himself. He will always give you an answer'.
That idea, generalized, has become an important pedagogical starting point for discovering, observing and investigating "things" in nature: 'Just ask nature itself'. In a few places in the book this saying recurs, in some variation.
Getting Started
The many chapters that follow introduce the reader to a host of questions and assignments (for the reader himself), suggestions and examples of how, as a teacher, one gets the N&T ship off shore. This, as mentioned earlier, is no easy task. Thus, and not only in preparation, you have to deal with age ranges, learning styles, perceptual interpretations, processing questions, resistance, administering stimuli - and so on - but then also with the reality of teaching itself. Such as: how does my own "teaching model" work out in practice, what didactic principles do I need for this, what forms of work satisfy best, how can I get students curious and enthusiastic?
The authors leave little to chance. From front to back, the reader is "guided" with many examples of how to prepare, build and implement lessons - with suggestions, experiments, little investigations, warnings, directions and the like.
The final chapter addresses another important element: planning. These considerations will be of considerable help to the reader, once working in practice after the pabo course. The school plan provides many aspects that comprise that planning. The book lists: the contributions of the various subject and form areas, structure of the N&T program, support of the "methods," organization and what the school wants to distinguish itself with.
Assessment and usability
The suggestions below are intended primarily for the reader. But since this book was published five years ago, they could perhaps also be used in a possible update or revised edition. Moreover, after political approval of new core objectives, work will also be carried out at SLO on, among other things, the Po curricula for Man & Nature and other relevant core objectives; the same applies to these.
The previously mentioned aspects of discovery, observation, research and design are extensively discussed in the book. In addition, strikingly enough - but somewhat understandable from the point of view of the core objectives (still the current ones when written) - it is mainly about knowledge (acquisition). Emotion, conscience, value formation, reflection on personal involvement, inner conflicts and the like are discussed rather sparingly. And these are precisely the aspects that are so important in these areas of education, health and sustainable development. From the book "Plan Beta."[3] is much to be learned in that regard - though written for secondary education.
The last part ("Expanding the Horizon") deals with, among other things, the areas of health education and learning for sustainable development. These come off rather poorly; not only in scope and content, but they are also not systematically elaborated pedagogically-didactically. For example, while (p. 403) the "person-centered approach" (subjectification) is mentioned, the treatises on it by Gert Biesta[4] themselves are unfortunately not mentioned. Also missing are references to important, albeit somewhat older, publications by, for example, the SLO[5] and others[6].
In terms of competencies, a teacher has to have quite a lot "in house" to know all this, be able to do it (and have the necessary energy for it). Author Marell pointed out to me[7] including to this topic on the Coutinho website[8].: '.... which is referenced several times from Chapter 20. In addition to additional documents to chapter 20 (including on teacher competencies sustainability), additional resource lists with numerous links to the Internet can be found there for both paediatric students (and other users of the book) and paediatric teachers (upon request).
These include suggestions for concrete work forms, teaching models, activity schedules and many other aspects of didactic approaches. Furthermore, there are a number of publications on the Sustainable PABO website that also address competencies, such as its "own" work "A Rounder Sense of Purpose[9]..
All in all, this is a particularly comprehensive and detailed, often inspiring, book, with many references to supporting websites. That inspiring is not least due to the smooth and accessible writing style. That certainly works to lower the threshold for the reader.
On the other hand, the multitude of work suggestions does lead one to wonder about the ease of use, the application, of the book. It is conceivable that the reader (often a paediatric student) will occasionally find himself confronted with a jumble of issues of a substantive and methodical nature that is difficult to untangle. After which the question arises as to whether this perhaps also does not stimulate enough of one's own creative efforts.
Finally, what remains is the question of how, in practice, with so little preparation time and teaching hours for nature and technology, a teacher can bring the many aspects to maturity in students. One will have to make sharp choices in this regard. But not only that: in the preface to the book the authors write: 'In summary; too little time is allocated to N&T, the level leaves much to be desired, and teachers need more curricular training'.
And because there is as yet little (central government) facilitation in this, the principle of nature education is applicable here as well: Ask the politicians themselves!
Nature education insightful
What the book offers
This book is a comprehensive reference and resource book in the field of nature (science) - broadly speaking, engineering and, finally, weather and stars/planets. It is divided into about seven comprehensive chapters, with the main sections being "Nature(science)."[10], "Technical Insights," and "Weather Phenomena and Celestial Bodies. The nature (science) section includes not only plants and animals but also humans, physical phenomena, ecology and sustainability.
The style of the entire book is informative/knowledge-oriented; not opinionated, nor does it make value judgments.
Overall, this is a thorough, systematically and accurately formulated and resource-laden book. Moreover, it has not forgotten to keep the reader on their toes, both by asking questions about the texts (in boxes), as well as providing "Insights" at the beginning of the paragraphs.
As for the focus on sustainable development, here too (see the didactics book) attention to it is modest, if not below par. Of course, it was written in a period when the old core objectives for primary education (from 2006[10]) still apply. And those do not excel in attention to this. The book follows those core objectives with some rigor.
Incidentally, one might wonder whether precisely an "independent" book such as this could not have paid more in-depth attention to ecological issues (with a social edge), in relation to the main themes of the book - more than the prescribed core objectives.
Assessment and usability
The book has a traditional structure: roughly speaking, plant, animal, human, and then ecology and sustainability (the other main components - see above - are discussed afterwards. Surely this must come across to the reader as: the individual is so important, compared to, say, ecological cohesion or diversity/diversity. But there is also something to be said about the (ecological) position of man as indicated in insight 1 in section 4.3.
If one argues there that man is "part of nature," then a one-way approach, as happens immediately after, by definition does not fit: 'On the one hand, we are part of nature ...... On the other hand, we can radically change nature'. If you are 'part of something,' then every human action is inherently to, and thus part of, that position. Therefore, the terminology in the book still seems to point to the natural vision of humanity as "steward over the Earth. The question is whether the authors really mean it that way.
Nature education - and thus the book - is, as the introduction states, also about non-living nature. It is then hard to understand why important topics are missing that really belong in this, such as: geology/soil, landscape formation and ecology, vegetations and plant communities in the Netherlands.
This last point shows that this book is primarily, let's call it that, basicdeals with biology. And has less attention to the current, more systemic (biotic as well as abiotic) view of the Earth as a whole. This need not immediately lead to acceptance of the Gaiac concept (Lovelock) or something similar. But, more generally, one can say that three main features of ecology, from a classic paper for biology education[12]: diversity, cohesion and change, in their mutual interaction are therefore somewhat underexposed. And certainly because it lacks the human (predation) aspect. The latter would be more like a social issue - but not if one sees man(s) as one species in the ecosystems. This view of nature and humanity is not explicitly addressed in the book, by the way.
But the chapter on ecosystems and sustainable development, in section 4.1.1, for example, discusses what an ecosystem is. There is nothing to suggest that the authors see humans as an inseparable part of it. This may be because only "smaller" ecosystems, areas we normally call "real nature," are covered: a (deciduous) forest, meadow, heathland, urban garden, ditch, dune area. That is indeed a scale of description in which the grotesque, superdominant (extent) of human, planetary influence does not immediately capture the imagination. It is particularly unfortunate that this very point is not explicitly addressed in this book.
Sections 4.3 and 4.4 do discuss humans as influencers of the Earth (the word "predator" does not appear, by the way, nor "Anthropocene") in more detail. Only, the picture of sustainable development that emerges is, as previously reported, rather limited. Hhe important thing when interpreting sustainable development is to mention all its components, in balance with each other: people, planet and prosperity. Using the space and time dimensions: here and now, but also elsewhere and later. Focusing too unilaterally on the planet-business leads to imbalance.
The foregoing is perhaps understandable from the fact that these are natureeducation is concerned. But for this very reason, at least an adequate literature reference at the end of that chapter would be appropriate. For example, the authors could have cited the book by Bram Wondergem[13]: 'Sustainable Development. An Introduction', could be cited. This would also allow the global element, especially in the upper grades, to be explored more deeply.
However, one of the authors reveals, "In our future revision, we will include the latest core objectives, and then certainly the chapter on ecology and sustainability will be scrutinized. This is also where the biggest social developments are taking place".And that is certainly hopeful.
Miracle
What the book offers
"Welcome to the house of the future" is the subtitle of this book. And that's exactly what it's about: sustainable technology in the home, and a little in the garden. But that subject is not brought without obligation. In the foreword, the president of Techniek Nederland says, "As president of Techniek Nederland, I would like to invite you to choose a future in engineering.
Regardless of this appeal, this book seems appropriate for elementary education - and not just because of the nice, smooth design, including the illustrations.
A personal response from one of the authors: "We [have] for readers of the Wonderwel book the relationship .... trying to establish the relationship between nature and technology in the provision of our basic services. That's what amazes me: how have people still been able to manipulate the forces of nature around them in such a way that we can now live in our homes as we do today. We have tried to convey that wonder in such a way that children can begin to feel part of that rich tradition. This in such a way that they feel like using their inventiveness for 'sustainable' inventions".
The topics are Drinking Water, Sewer, Electricity, Food, Natural Gas, Waste and Internet; and these are simply "home, garden and kitchen" topics. Which can be addressed at home as well as at school - and therefore researchable during the educational process. And the texts are written in such an accessible way that a student at the end of middle school can probably handle them well.
The structure of each chapter is identical: brief introduction, examples, "WonderWelWeetjes" here and there, a "Ask the Omniscient" section, an interview, and the "Dive into History," "House of the Future," and "Test It Out at Home. With a good number of assignments.
A website is also available that includes the book, lessons for elementary schools and activities for parents and grandparents and their children and grandchildren at home.
Assessment and usability
In relation to the technology part of the above books, this practical booklet seems a nice addition to it. If only to indicate its relevance to students - they themselves deal with it every day.
This book seems quite suitable for (research-based) group work by the students themselves, especially in the higher grades. But then they will all have to read the book - or at least the relevant topic. The question then is whether the school can afford to buy several copies. Fortunately, it is also available, free of charge, digitally[14]..
What is a bit lacking is a "critical note. For example, on the subject of Food, there is little reference to current issues in arable farming (pesticides) and animal husbandry (nitrogen, CO2, global transportation). But perhaps that is the intention and the authors want to leave just that to the teacher.
There is something to be said for that, given often the sensitivity and increasing polarization, even in education. And in any case, especially with young children, one will look very carefully at the perceptions of that age group - and adjust (the depth of) themes accordingly.
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[1] Both are working for Sustainable PABO
[2] See https://bronnen-voor-nme.nl/kennisbank/zoeken#sort=name&sortdir=asc&attr.fulltext.value=grabbel-
*Related: https://bronnen-voor-nme.nl/images/PROJEKT_LANDSCHAPPEN- MAP.PDF.
*And the classic work: https://bronnen-voor-nme.nl/bronnen-nme/het-gebruik-van-de-schoolomgeving (Authors: Kees Bleijerveld, Kees Both and Pieter Teernstra, who thus also gained great fame in NME circles).
*For very concrete nature experiences and observations, see https://stichtinggroenepedagogiek.nl/2023/11/01/ nature-experience-by-kees-both/ and https://stichtinggroenepedagogiek.nl/2023/11/02/serie-natuur-van-de-maand-door-jan-nijkamp/.
[3] Kamp, Marcel (ed.) et al, 2022. Plan Beta. STEM education for sustainable development. NVON, Zwolle, the Netherlands.
[4] See, for example, Biesta, Gert, 2012. Good education and the culture of measurement. Boom Publishers, Amsterdam.
*For a future edition, it might be useful to also use the (pedagogical) views
from, for example, the book "World-centered teaching - Biesta in practice" by Eidhof, Bram, Maartje
Janssens and Jelle Ris, 2021. Nivoz Foundation, rotterdam.
[5] See: Source, Jeroen, Marjolein Haandrikman and Mieneke Langberg, 2009. Learning for sustainable development;
A practical guide. SLO, Enschede.
*See also, for example: Remmers, Ton, 2007. Sustainable development is learning to look ahead. Core curriculum Learning
For Sustainable Development. Early childhood education 4-16 years. SLO, Enschede.
[6] Frijters, Stan, 2016. Learning for Sustainable Development. Just Do It! Aeres University of Applied Sciences, Wageningen.
*See also, for example: Künzli David, Christine et al., s.j. Making futures through learning for sustainable development. Didactic guide for change in primary education. Vert. SenterNovem, PABO Deventer
(Saxion Colleges) and Sustainable PABO.
*See also: Wagenaar, Henk (ed.), 2007. Sustainable development for the elementary school. A domain description.
As a result of a cultural pedagogical discussion. Cito, Arnhem.
*See also: Hammer, André and Peter Heres (ed.), 2015. 32 Lessons for the future. Idea & Value Publishing.
[7] These references on that website in which, in all sorts of areas and arranged by chapter, there is an extraordinary amount of
suggestions for teachers and students stand, did not initially - wrongly, it now appears - lead me to
consultation thereof prompted.
[8] Accessed by a code that appears in the book.
[9] See https://duurzamepabo.nl/overzicht/publicaties/. This includes that organization's "proprietary" product
extensively discussed (https://nl.aroundersenseofpurpose.eu/).
*Interesting also, because of its comparison with other competency models, is the report "Competencies for
learning for sustainable development within pabos' (https://duurzamepabo.nl/competenties-voor-leren-voor-duurzame-ontwikkeling-binnen-pabos/).
*Internationally, the (former) project report on competencies of the ENSI (Environment and School Initiatives - disbanded as an organization) is of interest, see https://www.ensi.org/global/downloads/Publicati ons/303/CSCT%20Handbook_11_01_08.pdf. Here the competencies of teachers in three roles are addressed (in school, in society and as individuals/citizens).
[10] Not indicated as such in the text.
[11] It is somewhat wondrous that the book's introduction states: 'If you have studied and processed this book,
have an understanding of the key learning content ..... as set out in the core objectives for primary education(2006)word and further developed into proposals for a revised curriculum (2019)'. While the latter is now -
February 2025 - are still in a phase of content development and assessment by the SLO and the
education itself. Politics has not decided on it for now.
[12] Bleijerveld, C.A., C. Both and P.J. Teernstra, 1977. The use of the school environment. Biology Curriculum Modernization Committee.
[13] Wondergem, Bram, 2021. 'Sustainable development. An introduction'. Publisher Gompel & Svacina, Oud-Turn-
wood (Belgium)/'s-Hertogenbosch.
[14] See https://wonderwel.nu/boek.
