The Study Of Environmental Ethics Education

Environment and development is the significant issue of the worldwide concern. To protect the environment for sustainable development is the foremost task confronted by the human society. Education comes before environmental protection, and ethics before education. Therefore, education on environmental ethics is vital for environmental protection, environmental awareness and scientific and cultural vision to promote ecological civilization for the realization of the Chinese Dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.The introduction chapter explores how environmental ethics comes into being and the significance of education on environmental ethics. The increasingly serious ecological crisis leads to the constant research on environmental ethics, and weak public environmental awareness aggravates ecological crisis. Therefore, it is urgent to strengthen the consciousness of environmental protection among the public. It is very important to strengthen education on environmental ethics to improve the public awareness of environmental ethics to ensure an overall development. Meanwhile, technology for environmental protection, strategy of sustainable development, Scientific Outlook on Development and the construction of socialist and ecological civilization must not be overlooked.Chapter Two is a discussion on the concepts in the research field of environmental ethics. First, it discriminates ethics from morality and defines their relevance and nature; second, it gives a systematic analysis of environmental ethics and its research method; third, it gives an outline of the concept, nature and research method of environmental education and education on environmental ethics, clarifying the internal link between environmental education and education on environmental ethics and defining the basic principles of education on environmental ethics and morality.Chapter Three is a summary of the development of education on environmental ethics and it falls into five parts. The first part is the reflection on different schools in terms of their theoretical framework, history and the status quo of the research on environment ethics, and such concepts as human centrism, animal liberation and rights, reverence for life, land ethics, natural value, deep ecological ethics, ecological feminism, and the ecocentrism are dwelt on. It reveals that environmental ethics has positive practical significance on changing human values, expanding moral realm and transcending ethics for harmonious and sustainable development between man and nature. The environmental ethics lies in the unity of the contradictory intrinsic values between man and nature, the unity of affirmative and negativity, the unity of the subject activity and object passivity. The second part gives a brief explanation on the simple ecological wisdom of ancient China, focusing on the traditional environment ethics of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism. It draws a special notice of the simple ideology of " man and nature in one " and the ethical value orientation of " be kind to all ". The third part is an outline of the evolution of the environmental ethics, starting from the initial stage of foreign environmental ethics, to the transformation of a series of the environmental ethics, including the environmental ethics of sustainable development, the environmental ethics of fairness and justice, the environmental ethics of moderate consumption and green consumption, and the environmental ethics of globalization. This part also presents the theoretical critics and value clarification of Chinese modern environmental ethics on the ecocentrism, the modern anthropocentrism, and the ecological Marxism, which advocate the construction of new harmonious ethical relationship between man and nature. The forth part is elaborates study of cognitive laws including Dewey’s moral cognitive theory, Piaget’s moral psychology development theory, Kohlberg’s moral cognitive development theory of three levels and six stages, Peters’s moral cognition development theory, Bloom’s cognitive level theory and master-study theory, Card’ s moral development stage theory as well as Borui’s development model theory. The fifth part enlightens on the modern environment education of the moral education theory research laws including teachable morality, the convergence of moral education between schools and society, the non-inculcation of moral education, teaching practice research on moral education in classrooms (for example, building up sincere and respectful classroom atmosphere, focusing on training empathy ability and clear education targets, the concept of integration of knowing and practicing, the combination of moral education and value education, focusing on choice of teaching materials and curricula, the universality and priorities of moral principles and the moral education for growth) and researches on the method of moral education practice (for example typical case method, moral concepts analysis method, games and situational simulation method).Chapter Four falls into five parts to give a review of the theories on environmental ethics education, mainly focusing on the definitions of the essential features, significance, elements, organizations, functional values and evaluation method of environmental ethics education in a scientific and intensive way to form a scientific and systematic theoretical framework.Chapter Five is a review of the development of education on environment education. The first part traces the whole process of the production and development of environmental ethics education in the world, from the emergence of environmental ethics education, to the growth stage labeled by United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, to the booming stage characterized by Tbilisi Conference, to the smooth staging of UNCED Conference and finally to the wide recognition of sustainable environmental ethics. The second part gives a brief review of the production and development of environmental ethics education in China, mainly focusing on the formation, historical background, scientific connotation, spiritual nature, great significance and fundamental requirements of Scientific Outlook on Development with Chinese characteristics. The third part gives a comparative study on the environmental ethics education in China and such countries as America, Britain, Australia and Japan.Chapter Six discusses the plan and implementation of strengthening the environmental ethics education in two parts. The first part is an analysis focusing on the major weak points and potential in the current environmental ethics education theory and practice in China. The second part, a study on the new progress under the environmental ethics theory, proposes the framework of constructing new mode of environmental ethics education and specific solution to the above-said problems. First, concern more about the development of moral cognition level, and carry on environmental ethics education practice according to different stages of thinking development. Second, pay more attention to the reform and innovation on the educational content. Third, in virtue of scientific teaching methods, increase academic integration and conduct case teaching method and class discussion teaching method so as to strengthen teaching practice, expand the second class and clarify environmental values. Fourth, bring news media into full play in terms of their functions of publicity and education, enhance public opinion and ethics guidance. Fifth, the government fully embodies its leading position in environmental ethics education, and improves its environmental regulatory responsibilities. Sixth, lay emphasis on the influence of non-governmental organizations and manufacturing enterprises on environmental ethics education. Seventh, vigorously advocate the environmental ethics education activities such as the building of green schools, green communities, green home and so on. Eighth, speed up the legal process of environmental ethics education, and advocate the thought of " there are laws to go by ". Ninth, lay stress on guaranteeing education and perfecting supporting measures, including support for finance, teaching stuff, organization and mechanism as well as curriculum and material development. Tenth, take notice of the flourishing of ecological culture and ecological civilization, " respect the nature, comply with the nature and protect the nature ", and accelerate the construction of a new civilized society of fast production, comfortable living and pleasant ecological environment.Chapter Seven is the conclusion, centering on the new points and weak points in this research to provide a good ground for further studies on new framework, effective measures and reliable mechanism for environmental ethics education.