Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Advanced Research in Education, Teaching and Learning
Year: 2024
DOI:
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Climate Literacy in Slovenian High Schools: A Hierarchical Clustering Analysis of Gymnasium Subject Syllabuses
Teodor Petrič, Marija Javornik, Maruša Lubej, Žiga Petraš, Monika Lamot, Andrej Kirbiš
ABSTRACT:
Climate change and environmental sustainability are becoming key components of educational curricula. This study investigates the integration of climate change education in Slovenian high schools by analyzing syllabuses from gymnasium subjects through hierarchical clustering. We compiled a list of bigrams relevant to climate and environmental issues, normalized these bigrams’ frequencies and classified them with weighted log-odds. The dendrogram grouped the syllabuses into clusters based on their similarity in addressing climate change topics. The results show that Geography, Environmental Education, and Biology closely relate due to their extensive coverage of climate change topics. Another cluster includes Mathematics, English, German, and Slovenian, suggesting a multidisciplinary approach to climate education. Chemistry and Physics closely align with this multidisciplinary cluster. The final cluster encompasses the social sciences: Philosophy, History, and Sociology. Additionally, we performed a topic analysis which indicated that Geography, Environmental Education and Biology had the highest frequency of climate change content included in their syllabuses. The study results reveal varying levels of climate change content integration across subjects. We discuss the implications of these findings for educational policy and curriculum development, advocating for comprehensive climate change education in Slovenian high schools.
keywords: Climate Change, Education, Hierarchical Clustering, Slovenia, Syllabuses