Environmental Education and Environmental Change

The Case of Italy

Abstract

This paper illustrates the central role of environmental learning in the recent national programs (1986) for Italian primary schools. Italian society has undergone impressive social and economic changes in the last 30 years. The influence of such phenomena on children's life and education are briefly presented. In particular, the recent sensitivity to the historical, artistic, and scenic value of the Italian environment is expressed in special teaching programs. In these curriculas, teachers first reinforce and generalize children's direct experiences within their environment. They then amplify children's knowledge of the world by presenting more "distant" information. It is suggested here that currently in Italy the conditions exist for an ecological experiment concerning children's environmental knowledge.