Abstract
In this paper we present a literature review about the need for education to promote an understanding of climate change and its impacts, and the merits of teaching climate change in a multidisciplinary approach. We also refer to the external and internal multiplier effect of multidisciplinary education. We report on the results of a survey carried out by the Climate Change Platform (The Islands and Small States Institute of the University of Malta hosts the Climate Change Platform (CCP), with the objective of facilitating collaboration between University entities and individual academics in order to foster teaching and research initiatives relating to climate change, as well as strengthening cooperation with climate research centres outside Malta. During its three years of existence, the CCP, fully cognizant that the analysis of climate change involves various disciplines, has taken measures to encourage multidisciplinary teaching and research at the University of Malta, with a focus on small island states, which according the IPCC fifth assessment report (WGII, Chap. 29) are highly vulnerable to the harmful impacts of climate change. The paper will describe the approach adopted by the CCP in its endeavour to involve various Faculties, Institutes and Centres at the University of Malta to collaborate in teaching and research on climate change issues.) of the University of Malta, among lectures who teach subjects directly associated with climate change. It transpires from the literature and from the University of Malta survey that multidisciplinary climate change education is very important, given the complexity and the interlinkages of this field of study, but it also has a number of downsides, mostly related to the coordination work that will be needed when various disciplines are involved and the fear that the students could find it difficult to cope with many satellite subjects. The main message that emerges from the literature, as well as from the results of our survey, is that although a multidisciplinary approach to the teaching of climate change education is highly desirable, its success depends on the extent to which it is well organised and suitably coordinated.
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Notes
- 1.
The Paris Agreement’s central aim is to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change by keeping a global temperature rise this century well below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 °C.
- 2.
Admittedly, such an experiment would be very difficult to carry out, especially because this would need to be based on the assumption that the two tuition approaches will be imparted to similarly gifted students and with the same teachers. In the case of climate change, as indicated above, this internal multiplier effect is likely to be relatively high, given that climate change lends itself very well to multidisciplinary approaches due to its interlinkages.
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Appendices
Annex 1
Study Units Offered at the University of Malta
Study unit code | Study unit title | Department/institute |
|---|---|---|
EMP3007 | Climate Change Science, Social Impacts and Regulation | Environmental Management and Planning |
EMP3008 | Climate Change: Science and Social Impacts | Environmental Management and Planning |
ERL4000 | Climate Change and International Law | Environmental and Resources Law |
ERL5008 | International Energy and Climate Change Law | Environmental and Resources Law |
ERL5009 | EU Energy, Environmental and Climate Change Law | Environmental and Resources Law |
ERL5010 | Comparative Energy, Environment and Climate Change Law | Environmental and Resources Law |
EST5520 | The European Union and Climate Change | European Studies |
GEO1012 | Climate and Biogeography | Geography |
IEN5019 | The Science and Management of Climate Change | Environmental Management and Panning |
ISE5202 | Climate Change: Myths, realities and Action | Sustainable Energy |
ISS5011 | Climate Change and Sea Level Rise | Islands and Small States |
MSE2217 | Understanding Local Environmental Issues: Climate Change | Environmental Education and Research |
MSE3107 | Sustainable Development and Climate Change Education | Environmental Education and Research |
PHY3240 | Fundamentals of Meteorology for Climate Studies | Geosciences |
PHY3260 | A Multidisciplinary Approach to Climate Change | Geosciences |
SPI5701 | Climate Change | Spatial Planning and Infrastructure |
Annex 2
Questionnaire About a Multidisciplinary Approach in Teaching of Climate Change
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Briguglio, L., Moncada, S. (2019). The Benefits and Downsides of Multidisciplinary Education Relating to Climate Change. In: Leal Filho, W., Hemstock, S. (eds) Climate Change and the Role of Education. Climate Change Management. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32898-6_10
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