ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES IN THE CONTEXT OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

The paper deals with the conception of sustainable development, its aims and tasks, which orient teachers towards the analysis of environmental problems and their links with economic and social progress. Such approach serves as a starting point formulating and conceptualizing the reasons of the rise and spread of these problems. A definite model oriented towards sustainable development is described and educational experience in the analysis of environmental issues in the aspect of sustainable development is presented. The history of environment provides an opportunity to identify when environmental problems arise and how they vary under the influence of socio-cultural, economic and political factors; it is one of the means studying the basics of sustainable development. Teaching to understand and solve problems in the aspect of the history of environment adds significance to a teacher's activities, which include consistent stages of schoolchildren's practical activities and development of their abilities to analyze and solve environmental issues (problem identification, analysis of its formation and development, understanding the urgency of its solution). Studies of the history of environment in the aspect of sustainable development enable teachers to implement the strategic conception of integrated teaching and national sustainable development in practice. The paper presents integration opportunities of various teaching subjects and the studies of various environmental issues (objects, localities). The described methods give an opportunity to develop various competences of schoolchildren and to stimulate changes in their lifestyle.