Environmental problems are a collection of problems triggered by the actions of individual human beings, and education about the environment is important for solving them. Opportunities for learning about the environment are becoming increasingly scarce in urban areas because of a reduction in natural spaces caused by the progress of land and city development. We conducted a survey on the awareness of pond users in order to understand the level of awareness of average park pond users and thus propose a method of providing an effective environmental education. We used two factors, awareness of aquatic environment conservation and actual behavior toward environment conservation, and verified the relationship between those two factors using a covariance structure analysis. The results of the analysis revealed that the park user's awareness of aquatic environment conservation is specified by their desire for waterfronts, and that improved awareness of aquatic environment conservation leads to acquiring of knowledge of the aquatic environment. It was thus found that an environmental education linked to acquiring knowledge about the environment at the actual waterfront is useful in improving the awareness of aquatic environment conservation.

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  Education is critical for promoting sustainable development; however, a reliable methodology for such education has not yet been established. Here we provide one by applying control theory because we consider that human beings have to control their activities in order to deal suitably with environmental and social problems and accomplish sustainable development. First, we identify the elements that are required for applying control theory to this purpose, and show the control system in which these elements are combined with a controller, or a measure for control. Next, based on the recognition that education for sustainable development corresponds to increasing human beings' skills and their motivation to synthesize this control system, we show the method for setting an educational objective and the four fundamental elements required in education. Moreover, we present a case study, which shows how to deal with global warming and the depletion of fossil fuels, in practice. The results of this case study show that practical education has increased learners' skills and their motivation to improve their energy use, which confirms, the validity of this methodology.

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  We studied the roots of Japanese environmental education, which is called conservation education, focusing on the key persons and movements from its beginning until the middle of the 1970s.
  Dr. Jukichi Shimoizumi first used the phrase“conservation education” in Japan and propagated it in the 1960s-70s, especially in teacher-training based on ecology and nature sensibility education. As he worked entirely within the education and research world, he could not gain an awareness of the parties concerned with the environmental problem and continued to have an optimistic view that the knowledge of nature would automatically lead people to conservation.
  Mr. Godo Nakanishi contributed toward creating the cultural basis and methods of conservation education through nature watching without the collection of organisms as specimens.
  Mr. Hitoshi Kaneda and Dr. Toshitaka Shibata established conservation education in the latter half of the 20th century in Japan. They developed methods of nature watching in the outdoors by way of ecological and ethical ideas, instead of the method of traditional nature education or science, such as collecting and making specimens. They promoted nature ethics and the belief that nature was of public concern, and emphasized the importance of conserving nature, using it wisely, and maintaining its productivity for the next generation. This idea was born in their conservation movement from the 1950s and the first proposal of sustainability.
  Dr. Kiyoshi Ogawa tried to innovate field watching for conservation from the 1960s. He presented field watching concerned with not only nature, but also with the regional environment including history, culture and human living environments. His idea was reproduced in conservation movements in rural and urban regions of Tokyo through the 1960s-1980s.
  This process of the establishment of conservation education in Japan shows the pioneering viewpoint of ESS, which has been regarded as the largest key phrase in environmental education in the world after the 1990s.

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  This article outlines the progress of environmental education after 1990 in China and Korea. In China environmental education attaching great importance to scientific analysis has developed, but recently participation type environmental education is spreading. In secondary education in Korea environmental study is an elective subject. However, the choice ratio is sluggish.
  In China and Korea, as in Japan, school education tries to allow students to absorb environmental knowledge and environmental awareness in class. However, each country uses different methods of spreading environmental education. For example, In China, Ministry of Education orders all schools to arrange the time for environmental education and to carry out theme learning.
  The author recognizes that Japan should introduce some of the methods for the spread of environmental education found in China and Korea, for example: (1) oblige every elementary and secondary stage school to arrange a time for environmental education; (2) create textbooks for environmental education to prevent widening gaps in education; (3) provide legal and economic maintenance to enable the establishment of organizations that promote and support the cooperation of school environmental education and social environmental education.

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[in Japanese]

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  The purpose of this study is to develop a framework for partnership models between formal and informal environmental education for local environmental education activation in Korea. The mutual complementary nature between formal and informal environmental education has constantly required their reciprocal collaboration in various modes. However, no system of collaboration has been established.
  Local environmental education activation through partnership between formal and informal environmental education is necessary to aim at sustainable development (SD) education and productive environmental education actualization. And, it is desirable that the vision of partnership between schools and local NGOs in environmental education pursue local environmental education capacity strengthening and revitalization. A promotion strategy is needed to carry out a staged approach, formal approach, and local approach. Also, for the building of local partnership models, there is a necessity for setting up important 4 parts (hardware, humanware, software, institute aspect).
  Partnership models between schools and local NGOs in environmental education can be classified into 4 types (a short-term interchange type, 1 : 1 partnership type, 1 : 2∼3 partnership type, and relationship type between many schools and NGOs). Also, 4 types can classify interchange type and connection type according to the durability of partnership. Partnership models can be categorized by the character, phase, and level of partnership, the leading group in the partnership, type of participating NGO, partnership formality, fundraising source, environmental education content, human resource capacity, the participative degree and diversity of school community members.

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