ED53A-08 - Hazard Education and Resilience Awareness Task Force (HEART) Needs Assessment: Colorado teachers’ experience in and needs for teaching about natural hazards and community resilience

ED53A-08 - Hazard Education and Resilience Awareness Task Force (HEART) Needs Assessment: Colorado teachers’ experience in and needs for teaching about natural hazards and community resilience

ED53A-08 - Hazard Education and Resilience Awareness Task Force (HEART) Needs Assessment: Colorado teachers’ experience in and needs for teaching about natural hazards and community resilience

Presented by: Katie Boyd

Understanding natural hazards and increasing community resilience are important for all citizens in a warming world with increasing extreme weather events. Therefore, we need to prepare students now for upcoming challenges through education about resilience planning strategies (a topic rarely addressed in current curricula). In fall 2018, a needs assessment survey was conducted with a sample of Colorado teachers to identify current teaching practices around natural hazards and community resilience, as well as the needs teachers have with respect to training and resources on these topics. Using a deliberate sampling strategy of school districts in rural, suburban, and urban communities, we surveyed 279 teachers from across Colorado. We found that our sample was representative of various school settings, grade levels, and content subjects. Almost 70% of these teachers currently teach about natural hazards, while only about 30% address community resilience in their classes. The most common reasons teachers gave for not teaching about natural hazards and community resilience included a lack of alignment with their discipline, a lack of inclusion in the standards/curriculum, a lack of time, or a lack of personal background knowledge. Teachers who had personally experienced a natural hazard were more likely to teach about natural hazards and community resilience. Additionally, teachers reported needing more resources to teach about natural hazards and community resilience—specifically, professional development, classroom activities, and lesson plans. These results imply that teachers may be more willing to teach about natural hazards and community resilience once they acquire more knowledge, experience, and understanding. We need to equip teachers with these tools if we want a resilient future, with educated communities ready to respond to extreme weather events.

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