Forming Ecological Values of Students in the Context of Sustainable Development

The article is dedicated to a topical and insufficiently researched issue of forming ecological values in learners in the context of sustainable development ideas under the aggravating problems of nature and society interaction. The priority of forming ecological values is due to the fact that they, as the ultimately superior meanings of human life, perform the function of regulating ecologically-conformable activity and behavior, are included into the national values of a family, the society and modern economy, and are common to all mankind. Hence, the research objective is to identify the theoretical and methodological bases of forming ecological values for sustainable development and to elaborate the theoretical model and substantiate pedagogical conditions for their implementation. The results of a 14 year long experiment are presented, based on the axiological, ecological-humanistic approach, modeling method, and empirical methods (observation, interview, polling, pedagogical experiment), which provide objectivity and scientific reliability of the results. The research results are three groups of ecological values for sustainable development; the substantiated model of forming ecological values for sustainable development; the considered pedagogical conditions of forming ecological values for sustainable development: 1) creating a series of tutorials (on geography) based on the ideas of sustainable development; 2) training teachers in the technique of forming ecological values for sustainable development in learners. The discussed approach to creating tutorials taking into account the forming of ecological values for sustainable development of learners serves as the basis for searching new solutions on the issue. The approaches to advancing teachers’ qualification in this sphere are of practical value and are used in the system of teachers’ training and retraining.