Environmental education from the point of view of information science

Abstract

The goal of the article is to analyze some questions of environmental education from the point of view of information science. It starts with a short definition of information science and then it clearly clarifies the main areas of information and communication theories.
It compares two different concepts of information: as universalia in rebus and post res. It shows that environmental education works with both of these types of information, that symbolic information plays a more important role for some activities and ‘structural’ information for others.
In the second part it differentiates between mathematical and hermeneutical communication theories and clarifies the connection between communication theories and educational models. In the example of a selected environmental education program it analyzes how the program can be shaped by constructivist educational models.
In the last part the article a discussion opens on the vertical and horizontal modus of communication. This discussion is connected with the question of authenticity of communication and legitimacy of environmental education. It touches on the phenomenological views of human authenticity, as an active being open to the being. The question of authenticity is linked to areas of environmental education, which is asked to be open, dialogic and authentic.