COMPLETION REPORT
Learning from Japan: Education on Climate Change and Disaster Risk Reduction
Dr. Mageswary Karpudewan
Senior Researcher
School of Educational Studies, Universiti Sains Malaysia
Education is frequently proclaimed as an important tool to impart the knowledge on climate change anddisaster risk reduction. As such through this study attempt has been made to learn from Japan on theexecution of this education. The knowledge gained was used as a guide in preparing similar education inMalaysia. For this purpose a visit was performed to learn about the Environment and Disaster
Mitigation Course implemented at Maiko High School at Hyogo Prefectural. The course was developed
from the Great Hanshin-Awaji (Kobe) earthquake experiences. The important roles of the schools are at
the time of the disaster schools are identified as a place for seeking protection and disaster mitigation
education to take place. From the great disaster also people learnt that they had very little awarenessabout the disaster and less prepared for the disaster. Hence, this course at Maiko High School is aimed at
educating the students towards developing community of leaders who can consider living and exist inthe symbiosis society. The content of the course is spread out for the whole duration of junior highschooling (3 years) which require the students to complete a total of 27-31 credit hours. The course
content includes learning about science and natural environment; society and natural environment aswell as provide practical experiences of both these contexts. Many guest teachers from variousorganization including police, fire stations, universities, city and prefectural and volunteer organizations
were invited to share their experiences. Additionally, field trips visiting disaster related institutes;
museums; memorial parks and disaster impacted areas is also part of the course content. As acomponent of transmitting the information of the course to others, students are required to work together
with an elementary school. Besides these the formal learning also requires students to work
collaborative in solving problems and use computers to prepare reports and presentation. In other words
this course permits the students to master fundamental computer skills. The in-depth study of the course
content at Maiko High School has provided guidance in preparing climate change and disaster risk
education (CCDRE) module to be used in Malaysian schools. Following this exemplary, in Malaysian
context a partnership between the university, local government, state education department and theparticipating schools have been established. A total of 372 students were posed with problems related tothe change climate and frequent flooding. The issues were integrated as part of science curriculum. A
total of 52 teachers were trained to implement the module. Invited guest teachers were called fromvarious local institutions to share their experiences; onsite field visit were performed; in addition toformal classroom learning which focused on discussing climate change related issues more practical
based CCDRE were implemented. The teachers participated in two different training workshops
exhibited increase in the knowledge and were identified utilizing climate change issues and disastermitigation strategies as a new pedagogical strategy. The module also has significantly improved
students’ knowledge about climate change; disaster mitigation; pro-environmental attitude andbehavior.

Publication of the Results of Research Project:
Verbal Presentation (Date, Venue, Name of Conference, Title of Presentation, Presenter, etc.)
Thesis (Name of Journal and its Date, Title and Author of Thesis, etc.)
1. Mageswary Karpudewan, Mohd Nor Syahrir Abdullah and Chang Fui Seng. Learning from Japan on
Adapting Climate Change and Disaster Risk Education into the main stream Malaysian Education. International
Journal of Environment and Science Education. (The writing will be submitted soon).
2. Mageswary Karpudewan & Nur Sabrina Mohd Ali Khan. Experiential-based Climate Change

Education: Fostering Students’ Knowledge and Motivation towards the Environment.
International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education (Accepted with minorcorrection).
Book (Publisher and Date of the Book, Title and Author of the Book, etc.)

1. Chua Kah Heng, Mageswary Karpudewan and Kasturi Chandrakesan. Climate Change Activities:
A Possible Means to Promote Understanding and Reduce Misconceptions about Acid Rain,
Global Warming, Greenhouse Effect and Ozone Layer Depletion among Secondary SchoolStudents. In Karpudewan et al., (2017) Ed. Misconceptions in Science: Strategies from Malaysia(in press). Springer: Singapore. Ltd (The chapter in the book is at the final stage of preparation)