CONCEPT OF ECOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT OF EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS IN KOSOVO

Abstract

We are witnessing the accelerated scientific and technological progress that determines our present and future. We are aware of the advantages of technological development and the dangers that pose a serious threat to our development and thus make our future increasingly uncertain. That is why the protection of the environment today is one of the primary tasks of humanity. New concepts of social, economic and environmental development are slowly being introduced into curricula aimed at protecting the human environment. Environmental education is moving from the current traditional concept to innovative learning. Although the importance of environmental education and the need for its implementation as a regular subject in educational institutions is often emphasized, these concepts are not fully implemented. Education policy, however, believes that environmental content in primary school should be addressed in regular classes, individual subjects, such as Nature and Society, The World Around Us, and not as a separate topic. Until now, in the Republic of Kosovo, they have been processed in the form of elective courses called Ecology. Vocational high schools have a compulsory subject Ecology. Traditional teaching is slowly giving way to project-based learning in environmental education, through a form of problem-based learning and teaching in the form of a simulation in teaching that has concepts with environmental topics. Traditional learning, which is basically reduced to the acquisition of ready-made knowledge, in order to solve environmental problems of education, as well as problems focused on existing curricula, must give way to new ways of working in education. Taking into account all the complexity of modern life, which is accompanied by frequent changes and discontinuities, innovative learning that has its advantages over the traditional way of  working must be of increasing importance. Innovative learning is basically future-oriented, has a problem-solving function and needs to be included in the implementation of environmental education, problem-solving in the implementation of the teaching process. Educational institutions need to prepare students to live and work in the society of the future, a fact we all agree on. Today, students live in a new scientific and technological environment, often insufficiently known, surrounded by constant social and economic changes, but also by numerous risks for healthy growing up and development. Ecological development has a responsible role towards health and the environment, as well as in all responsibilities arising from education. Schools should constantly improve the quality and adopt the concept of ecological development, regardless of the possibilities, the means at their disposal. The integration of ecological contents into the teaching of natural sciences provides students with factual knowledge about learning ecological thinking. Ecological workshops at school, extracurricular and practical classes, student work as an organized way of teaching directly affect the creation of a culture of preservation and protection of nature that is important to every individual being. The younger generations will be able to preserve nature with their developed ecological awareness, knowing the ecological value.