Intergenerational, Community-Based Learning and Science Education
In the typical mode of formal schooling, adults and youngsters interact within boundaries of clearly defined roles in which teachers teach and students learn. An alternative format is one in which not only adults teach children, but children teach adults, as multiple generations work together on a topic of common concern to their community. Evidence of the benefits of an intergenerational, community-based approach to science education is emerging in various parts of the world.
Much service learning (Carver, 1997) is premised on the positive benefits of intergenerational interactions for participants and the community at large. For instance, collaborative work between children and adults in Thailand addressing reversal of deforestation has been reported by Wheeler, Gallagher, McDonough, and Soopakakit-Namfa (1997a), Wheeler, McDonough, Gallagher, Soopakakit, and Duongsa (1997b), and McDonough and Wheeler (1998). Children in eight upperelementary and lower-secondary schools, under the guidance of their teachers, identified ways of resolving forest-related environmental problems in their local communities. This required students to frame questions, collect and interpret data, refine data collection techniques, and report findings to the leadership and members of local communities. Using this information, students and adults identified a problem needing resolution and then formulated an action plan to address it. Finally, they collaborated to implement and evaluate the effects of the action plan.
A team of researchers monitored the actions and events that surrounded this work during a 30-month period, beginning with collection of baseline data. The results were very promising. Teachers changed their approach to teaching in very profound ways. Student achievement, motivation, and self esteem improved, as did school-community interactions. The collaborative actions of youth and adults in local communities precipitated a cycle of activities that holds promise for long-term improvement of forests, soils, and water supplies in the region. But most importantly, children and adults began to learn from each other. They learned to respect and communicate with one another in ways that were not evident at the outset of the project. And adults began to give serious thought to environmentally unsound practices that previously had been ignored.
In every part of the world, short-term goals of adults are having detrimental consequences for the long-term quality of the environment. Destruction of ecosystems including rainforests, aquifers, prime agricultural land, wildlife habitats, and fisheries occurs when immediate needs eclipse concerns with long-term effects. When governments or outsiders try to guide adults in local communities to make essential changes in forest management, protection of water supplies, land use, or protection of wildlife, frequently, the response is minimal. However, when children and adults work together to understand local problems and jointly make the case for protection of the environment, adults appear to be more responsive. As one village leader in Thailand put it at the close of a joint meeting of community members and school children, "People from the gov-