Abstract

ALONSO-GATELL, Aymee; ALVAREZ-AGUILAR, Nivia Tomasa  and  CASTILLO-ELIZONDO, Jaime Arturo. Environmental education in higher education: significance in architecture studies. CienciaUAT [online]. 2017, vol.11, n.2, pp.54-63. ISSN 2007-7858.

In every scope of action, professional activity should make significant contributions to solve environmental problems. In order to achieve this, it is essential for higher education institutions to include a socially responsible education as part of their curriculum. Environmental education in higher education has traditionally shown an unsystematic character due to a lack of support. The objective of the present paper is to determine the social importance of promoting a rigorously designed environmental education program in a higher education context. The essential underpinnings of this process are presented. The design of the program was based on the analysis-synthesis and logical argumentation methods and was specifically focused to meet the needs of undergraduate students of architecture by taking into consideration the essential theoretical and empirical assumptions that address the subject matter. The paper concludes that it is highly relevant to include a well organized, systematic and integrative environmental education program as part of the undergraduate program in architecture. Such program will allow architecture graduates to comply with the social responsibility that is expected from them.

Keywords : education process; environmental education; university students; architecture degree.