Towards realization of international guidelines for soil education
Hideaki Hirai (Utsunomiya University, Japan)【Background】 The importance of the continuous dissemination of soil education and therationale for working towards international guidelines for soil education• United nations（2014）A/RES/68/232
Soils are key to sustaining life on earth
Setting up the International Year of Soil and World Soil Day (12/5)• FAO（2015）Revised World Soil Charter
Soils are fundamental to life on earth• United nations (2015) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)• IUSS（2015）International Decade of Soils 2015-2024 (IDS)Collaboration with IUSS-EC with Division 4 and Commission 4.4
1) Short-range task (2019)
Analyzing current situation and finding problems
EGU-joint session (April), ESAFS-joint session (November),IUSS Book Series “Soil Education” (December), etc.
2) Mid-range task (2020)
Setting targets, building-up methods (contents, materials, media, etc.)
EGU (April), IUSS-InterCongress Meeting Symposium (summer?)
3) Long-range task (2021-24)
Commencing test trials, feedback and evaluation, revising
WCSS Symposium (2022), EGU (2021-24), ESAFS (2021, 2023), etc.
Publishing (disseminating) products
IUSS Centennial Conference (2024, end of IDS), etc.

ESAFS meeting （2019）Taiwan（http://esafs2019.cssfs.org.tw/）
The Session “Soil education for pre- and elementary-school children:

Current issues towards setting an international standard ”
Conveners: Hideaki Hirai (hirai@cc.utsunomiya-u.ac.jp), Masanori Saito and Takashi Kosaki

Let’s dig and touch it!

Take it!

Crush to the pieces !

Do experiments !

★Contents★ In this session, we would like to share our experiences know-how, and teachingmaterials or tools for pre- and elementary-school kids. The ultimate aim is towards developing
an international standard for soil education at elementary level. Whilst there will be nationaldifferences in curriculum, culture and teaching approaches it is beneficial to collate them toidentify a common direction for the development of international standard in soil education atelementary level. We also welcome contributions from system, strategy, and philosophy of soil
education to facilitate a mutual understanding for the realization of an international standard.
Taipei, Taiwan, November 3-7, 2019

Important Date： 2019.03.01 Abstract Submission（2nd Announcement），
6.01 Open for Early-bird Registration, 06.30 Deadline for Abstract Submission

Taiwan’s case for soil education in elementary and secondary schools（ Huang and Hseu , 2020）
There is no regular teaching of soil science in the elementary and secondary schools(including junior and senior levels) in Taiwan (Huang and Hseu, 2020). However, little
knowledge of soil has been included in the regular courses of biology and earthscience in secondary school under 12 grades with the exception of the geography
course for the past 15 years.
According to past experiences, the effectiveness of teaching soil concepts werepoorly satisfied with teachers and students because of the following two reasons:Firstly, the teaching materials for soil concepts were not edited by soil expertise tocause over-simplification, incorrect terms, and obsolete pedogenesis theories andclassification system. The second reason is insufficient soil training for teachers
who have not taken any soil course from university (Huang et al. 2014, 2015).

Wen-Shu Huang developed the soil course as a teaching example and then practiced
the course for the 10-11th grade students. The Soil Quality Test Kit Guide modified byUSDA (1999) was the main teaching source. The soil curriculum was listed asfollows (Huang and Hseu, 2020)

IUSS Book Series: Soil Sciences Education: Global Concepts and Teaching (2020, in printing)1

Framework of soil science education
1
2
3

2

3

Framing Soil Science Education
Tenets in Soil Science Education:
Using Soil Science Education as an Integrator
for Environmental Education for K-12 Curricula
Guidelines for introducing essence of soil science in pre andprimary school children

4Guidelines for under- and post-graduate students

5

Educating to build a citizen preservation culture

Damien J Field
Rattan Lal
Keiko Mori, Hideaki Hirai, Takashi
Kosaki
Eric C. Brevik, Maja Krzic, DannyItkin, Yoshi Uchida, Henry W. Chau
Laura Bertha Reyes Sánchez

Good practice in soil Science education
6

Good practices in Africa and Asia

7

Good practices in Europe

8Good practices in the Americas

9Good practices in Oceania

10

Guiding the Future of Soil Science Education: informed by globalexperiences.

Damien J Field, Cristine Muggler,
Hideaki Hirai, Eric Brevik

Background for setting curricula for soil education for K-12 from Lal (2020)

Including the soil science into K-12 curricula is pertinent to SDG #4,
and to other SDGs addressing hunger, water, climate, and land.
A progress report of SDG #4 for 2019 showed that several hundredsof millions of students were not getting the required education andonly the curricula of some schools in developed countries included
soil science education in K-12 programs. Thus, there exists a vast
scope for improvement.

Including soil science in education curricula of K-12 programs
would also have positive impact on advancing Zero hunger, Gender
Equality, Clean water, Climate Action, and Life on Land.
However, including soil science curricula will necessitate somepolicy interventions at both state and the federal level.

Knowledge obtained fromindividual experiences byactive involvement withsoil (sensing soil) for anyage. Indigenous and/or
cultural knowledge on soil.

※Knowledge
1. Recognize uniqueness of soil
2. Recognize the role of soil (relevant toother disciplines and knowledge systems)※Learners focus
Different theoretical framework
１．Perception – Sensitization
２．Awareness (know-know of-aware of)
３．Engagement

Pedagogical and/orscientific knowledge
on soil. Systematic
guidelines for soil
education※Practice1.
2.
3.

Aware of soil: pre-, primary
Know of soil: middle-high school
Know soil: course for soil experts※Scholarship
１．Reflection and research on best practices on soil education
２．Research for the knowledge base needed and how that changes
over time in IUSS and national soil societies.

An example towards realization of international guidelines for soil
education by sensing soil and being aware of soil function (next slides)
Fig. Conceptual figure of “towards realization of international guidelines for soil education based on Field et al (2020):
Four dimensions that can be used to guide the future thinking, practice, and successful outcomes of soil education.

An example towards realization of international guidelines for soil education by sensing soil and being aware of soil function

Active involvement withsoil (sensing soil)under
forest with cultural
background by touching
and taking deepens soil
awareness.

Being aware of soil
function of water holding
through air space by doing
scientific experiments inforest field.
Field engagement for sensing soil and being aware of soil functions of holding water through air space.
It needs to assign these efforts to the grades to be studied, i.e. In case of infant, 1st to 2nd graders forsensing soil, while 4th to 6th graders for doing experiments by instruments to learn scientific way of thinking.

Another example for soil education using paddy field and staple food with cultural background

Actively engaging
with the topsoil, rice
plant, the area in apaddy field deepens
soil awareness.

Being aware of soil
function of topsoilto produce riceball of staple food.

Fig. Field engagement for sensing soil and rice plant by planting seedlings in paddy
field and calculating topsoil weight and area to produce one rice ball. It needs to assign
these efforts to the grades to be studied, based on a guideline of elementary school.

Another example for soil education using shinny soil balls in room for children and students

Active involvement with soil inroom through making soil balls forchildren at pre-school and 1st – 2ndgraders in elementary school.
Being aware of soil characteristics
such as texture, soil particles, andsoil color in 4th – 6th grade in room.

Making shiny soil balls is popular with children, but what kind of soil balls
should we make to link to soil education? (Tanaka, H, et al. ESAFS, 2019)

Dorodango (shinny soil ball) with soil
samples from representative Brazilian
soil orders (photo by Hideaki Hirai)

Being aware of soil name andtexture in elementary school,
and then know of soil
classification and distribution
in space for students in junior
to senior high schools byexplaining utilization of soilorder with cultural background.

Recognition of the importance on active involvement with soil (sensingsoil) for any age (baby – youth – adult ) (perception – sensitization)
Exchange of teaching practices for students in elementary to highschools with different sensing soil environment at IUSS, EGU, andESAFS, national societies lead to international guidelines for soil
education (be aware of soil – know of soil)
Consensus on fundamental knowledge and skills on soil
for soil experts (know soil)

National and international accreditations for soil experts
Fig. Towards realization of international guidelines for soil education (future scope)based on Field et al. (2020)
Acknowledgement: This presentation was made with the help of the following people, Dr.
Damien Field, Dr. Cristine Muggler, Dr. Eric Brevik, Dr. Keiko Mori, and Dr. Takashi Kosaki. I
would like to express our deepest gratitude to them for their help.