Role-playing game about Urban Solid Waste (USW) Incineration as a methodological strategy to deal with socio-environmental problems at secondary education

Abstract

Nowadays, the main socio environmental problems, which are key topics in the development of Environmental Education (EE) programmes, are tackled from a transversal perspective in formal education. Pre-adolescents and adolescents do not perceive this difficulties as part of their reality and they neither feel responsible for the current environmental crisis. On this matter, the EE constitutes the key to develop a conscience, a knowledge, attitudes and responsible behaviours towards the environment. Therefore, methodological strategies should be developed in order to integrate the EE into the official curricula through activities which arouse students’ curiosity, encourage their inquisitiveness for the investigation, promote critical thought and reflexion, and generate positive environmental behaviours. This work presents the role-playing game as a strategy to the EE in formal education, which is capable of answering to the methodological necessities that appear nowadays when dealing with socio-environmental problems in class at secondary education. The key objective of this paper is evaluate the contribution of the role-playing game, as a methodological strategy at secondary education, to reach the objectives for the EE defined by the Belgrade International Seminary and related to: awareness-raising, understanding of the environment and development of favourable attitudes and aptitudes towards it.