Instructional Modules: An Alternative for the Management of Environmental Education in Communities

Modulos Instruccionales: Una Alternativa Para El Manejo De La Educacion Ambiental En Comunidades

Abstract

Instructional modules are materials that facilitate the teaching and learning process, and contain elements necessary for the acquisition of skills at the participant's pace, without the continuous face-to-face element of the facilitator. The objective of this work consisted of the development of instructional modules that allow the strengthening of capacities in the different actors of rural communities, through the exchange and socialization of knowledge related to the environment. Various stages were considered for the design of the instructional material, with the aim of making it as accessible as possible to the entire learning community: a) Expansion and search for information; b) Participatory construction of instructional design; c) Collective construction of the instructional modules structured in information sheets and team work on various aspects related to the environment and d) Material validation process with different community actors, technicians and researchers. As a result, the materials titled: “Organic cultivation as an agroecological alternative in school gardens” have been obtained; “Comprehensive management of solid waste in Galipán”; "At IDECYT we take advantage of our waste"; "Climate change has come to us! Future options", which constitute a series of materials derived from master's theses and project research, aimed at communities in the areas where they were developed, which have favored the consolidation of their training in topics related to the aforementioned topics. The validation of the material was carried out by representatives of the different communities where this alternative was worked on, who were involved in the different research projects carried out, in addition to that carried out by experts and technicians, which made it possible to evaluate the congruence, adequacy and consistency of the contents to address various issues related to the environment. All the investigations where this resource was used as a learning alternative, yielded successful results for the management of environmental education in the learning communities where the investigations were developed.