Climate change, a challenging topic in the French curriculum (in 7th grade).

CLIMATE change; SUSTAINABLE development; SEVENTH grade (Education); CURRICULUM; CASE method (Teaching); TEACHING; ANTHROPOCENE Epoch; MIDDLE schools

As part of a renewed focus on current environmental concerns, the new geography programs set out for middle schools introduced new subjects on global change in 2015, subsequently replaced by a focus on climate change in 2020. The case study approach to teaching, imposed by official directives, makes it difficult for middle school students to understand these complex notions. This research attempts to analyze how students appropriate these notions and to verify whether they are capable of reasoning in a systemic way, i.e. of adopting the required approach for understanding such complexity. This article explores an epistemological analysis of global change and climate change, a didactic study of school textbooks and an examination of teachers' discourse and students' work in order to address this question. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Environmental Education Research is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)