Toward More Effective Storytelling for Raising Environmental Awareness in Young Students Yannis Hadzigeorgiou 1 , Gillian Judson 2 1 University of the Aegean, Greece 2 Simon Fraser University, Canada Email: hadzigeo@rhodes.aegean.gr Abstract: This paper addresses the need to reclaim the value of storytelling as a tool for raising environmental awareness in young children. In distinguishing between ‘knowledge’ and ‘awareness’, the paper discusses the role that the sense of wonder evoked through shaping topics in story-form can play in encouraging awareness. Through imaginative and emotional engagement with issues and ideas, children can feel the significance of the natural world around them. The role of the Story of the Universe which presents the natural environment as a living organism, in which human beings and Nature co-exist, is also discussed. Keywords: Environmental awareness, storytelling, wonder 1 Introduction No doubt, students learn, both formally and informally, many things, including those concerning the natural environment. An assessment, in fact, of students’ representations of the various concepts, that they have supposedly learned, can be a measure of their knowledge. Doubt, however, could be raised in regards to their awareness of what they really know. Gardner (1991) has been very critical of the fact that even college and university students and graduate demonstrate the same kind of naïve understanding as five years old when it comes to solving basic problems, especially in physics and mathematics. In his The Unschooled Mind, Gardner (1991) wonders at and about such a predicament. It is for these reasons that we consider the delicate distinction between knowledge, meaning representations of the world, that students are either presented with (that is the traditional representational pedagogy) or that they construct through personal experience (that is the constructivist pedagogy) (Biesta & Osberg, 2007), and awareness, meaning one’s ability to notice things, or a state of being fully conscious of what one knows or what one has learned. This notion of awareness acquires a special significance in the new millennium, since the need for raising environmental awareness in the context of education has become more pressing than ever (Judson, 2010; Slattery & Rapp, 2003). It is believed that environmental awareness starts in young children with the development of an emotional bond with Nature. Through first hand experiences in Nature that encourage enjoyment and that foster a sense of wonder (Kellert, 2002; Wilson, 1994) and an appreciation of natural beauty (Richards, 2001), children can develop emotional attachments. According to Wilson’ s (1993) “biophilia hypothesis” (i.e., human beings have an innately emotional relationship with other living organisms), the emotional bond between children and Nature is something they are born with and, thus, they feel drawn to engage with living things. Still, the role of indirect experiences cannot and should not be dismissed. In fact, some advocates of the “biophilia hypothesis”, have suggested that the genetic bond between children and Nature may very well be a weak one, thus requiring additional learning experiences (Kahn, 1997; Kellert, 2002; see also Clayton & Opotow, 2003). Considering the fact that children grow up in a highly technological world, and many of them in cities have very limited if any opportunities to be in Nature, indirect learning opportunities deserve special attention, if indeed the development of environmental awareness is an educational goal. Even in the case of children who live in the countryside, the fact that every year fires and also other natural disasters destroy large parts of their ‘local’ natural environment (see Hadzigeorgiou et al., 2010), makes the raising of environmental awareness through indirect learning experiences a worthwhile educational goal in the new era. This article explores the role story can play in the development of children’s environmental awareness. 12 Journal of Advances in Education Research, Vol. 2, No. 1, February 2017 https://dx.doi.org/10.22606/jaer.2017.21002 JAER Copyright © 2017 Isaac Scientific Publishing