Regression from meaning? Ecological concepts as opaque empty shells–Redux

Tom Puk

doi:10.29333/ijese/17443

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Tom Puk ¹ ^*

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¹ Faculty of Education, Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, ON, CANADA^* Corresponding Author

Abstract

In 2000 the Ontario Ministry of Education decided to integrate environmental education into all subject areas rather than create a distinct, compulsory subject area K-12 for ecological literacy. The current study is a follow up to a 2010 study to determine whether the ability of teacher-candidates to define key ecological concepts has improved over the previous fifteen years while they were students during the Ontario Ministry of Education’s policy of integration. The results of the current study are very similar to that of the 2010 study. For the concepts of the environment, sustainability, green, fossil fuels, and entropy, there were no consistent shared definitions for any of these concepts. Teacher-candidates appear to have quite varied understanding of these concepts. The suggestion is made that the results of both studies may indicate a “regression from meaning” and that for many teacher-candidates the words they use often represent “opaque empty shells.”

Keywords

meaning
communication
teachers
education
concepts
ecology
literacy

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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Article Type: Research Article

INTERDISCIP J ENV SCI ED, Volume 21, Issue 4, 2025, Article No: e2521

https://doi.org/10.29333/ijese/17443

Publication date: 19 Nov 2025

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Article Downloads: 4

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How to cite this article

APA

Puk, T. (2025). Regression from meaning? Ecological concepts as opaque empty shells–Redux. Interdisciplinary Journal of Environmental and Science Education, 21(4), e2521. https://doi.org/10.29333/ijese/17443

Vancouver

Puk T. Regression from meaning? Ecological concepts as opaque empty shells–Redux. INTERDISCIP J ENV SCI ED. 2025;21(4):e2521. https://doi.org/10.29333/ijese/17443

AMA

Puk T. Regression from meaning? Ecological concepts as opaque empty shells–Redux. INTERDISCIP J ENV SCI ED. 2025;21(4), e2521. https://doi.org/10.29333/ijese/17443

Chicago

Puk, Tom. "Regression from meaning? Ecological concepts as opaque empty shells–Redux". Interdisciplinary Journal of Environmental and Science Education 2025 21 no. 4 (2025): e2521. https://doi.org/10.29333/ijese/17443

Harvard

Puk, T. (2025). Regression from meaning? Ecological concepts as opaque empty shells–Redux. Interdisciplinary Journal of Environmental and Science Education, 21(4), e2521. https://doi.org/10.29333/ijese/17443

MLA

Puk, Tom "Regression from meaning? Ecological concepts as opaque empty shells–Redux". Interdisciplinary Journal of Environmental and Science Education, vol. 21, no. 4, 2025, e2521. https://doi.org/10.29333/ijese/17443