Research on Innovation of General Environmental Education in Korean Universities

This study is aimed to suggest a direction for the general environment education through analyzing current environment education curriculums and survey of educational needs for students in Korean universities. Since the result of this survey shows that most university students lack experience in environmental education in their secondary education, the basic educational programs as well as advanced educational programs should be included to develop a general environmental education curriculum for university students. So far, general environmental education for university students has not witnessed a clear and distinct object and direction. Since we live in a situation where environmental problems should be considered in every aspect of our society, the general environmental education curriculum for university students shall play a role to solve these problems. Additionally, we need to change the way of environment education from educating and raising the environment professionals to educating and raising people who comprehensively understand economy, society and environment under the sustainable development paradigm. Also the focus of environmental education should swift from natural science to over all perspectives. Recently, the need of interdisciplinary curriculum for the environment education field has been discussed in universities. However, it has not been integrated into the normal curriculum. In this regard, systemic improvement which enables general education curriculum to operate flexibly will be followed. The key to establish an interdisciplinary curriculum is a flexible educational curriculum system which can solve problems arising from departmental curriculums, and promptly respond to the demand of educational and social consumers. Additionally, the result of survey shows that students want diverse educational operations and teaching methods, equipping educational assistance system for these needs will be required.