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Accessibility statement
An image to illustrate Teaching for climate action
Teaching about the climate crisis can feel overwhelming, whatever your subject or sector. This course helps you approach it with confidence, offering practical ways to support learners in developing the knowledge and skills needed for climate action. You’ll discover strategies for managing climate anxiety, building hope and integrating climate learning across disciplines. You’ll learn how to find resources that engage students in addressing local climate issues and explore how climate crisis-focused teaching can use cross-disciplinary approaches to tackle climate change. Throughout, you’ll build a personalised action plan to apply to your teaching, empowering your students in taking meaningful, informed action.
Each unit of the course explores a distinct theme and includes activities designed to deepen your understanding and encourage reflection on how climate education can shape your practice.
Unit 1: Planning for Climate Education
This unit introduces the importance of teaching for climate action and how education can empower learners to respond to the climate crisis. You’ll examine strategies for managing climate anxiety while fostering radical hope, identify essential skills and competencies for climate action, and explore how open pedagogy can enhance climate-focused teaching. You’ll begin drafting an action plan tailored to your educational context.
Unit 2: Care, Collaboration and Climate Science
Building on Unit 1, you’ll focus on teaching approaches that promote critical engagement with climate issues. You’ll explore how a pedagogy of care can support effective climate education, how to design curricula that address climate concerns across disciplines, and how online and citizen science collaborations can enhance both education and climate research. You’ll continue developing your action plan and reflect on integrating these strategies into your practice.
Unit 3: Action and Activism
This unit explores how educators can support learners in taking both individual and collective climate action. Topics include promoting sustainable choices in transportation, food, and energy; addressing climate justice and amplifying the voices of marginalised communities; fostering intergenerational dialogue for mutual understanding and creative problem-solving; and developing civic and political engagement skills. You’ll also learn about different forms of activism, including youth-led movements.
Unit 4: Supporting Skills Development
The focus of this unit is on equipping students with the skills needed for effective climate action. You’ll explore how visual communication and photography can raise awareness and inspire change, as well as how to support students in developing written and verbal communication skills for effective advocacy. The unit also covers the use of climate fiction and storytelling to build empathy, strategies for teaching critical digital literacy to combat misinformation, and the importance of systems thinking in understanding climate complexity.
Unit 5: Disciplinary Fusions
The final unit highlights how climate education can benefit from interdisciplinary approaches. You’ll explore how subjects like health, geography, and music can be integrated to enhance climate learning, and how creative disciplines such as art and music can support climate science education. The unit also considers how natural sounds can foster environmental stewardship. You’ll complete your action plan, share it for feedback, and take the end-of-course quiz.
By the end of the course, you will be able to:
This course offers teaching strategies applicable across various sectors, including schools, colleges, commercial, and public training settings. While you don't need to be an educator to benefit, if you are, you'll gain practical skills that can be applied immediately. You’ll be encouraged to reflect on how the course ideas can be implemented in your own context. Short examples from diverse sectors are included to inspire new thinking, helping you explore approaches beyond your usual practice and broaden your perspective on climate education and action.
Although the course is self-directed, a Learning Advisor will be available in the course forum to support your learning and address any questions you may have.
This course does not carry academic credit but includes optional assessment activities designed to support your learning. These activities help you reflect on your progress, generate evidence for CPD portfolios, and earn an Open University digital badge and certificate.
Assessment activities include:
Multiple attempts at quizzes are permitted, and completing all assessment activities is strongly recommended to maximise learning and demonstrate engagement with the course.
All learning materials, activities and forum discussions are delivered entirely online.
As a student of The Open University, you should be aware of the content of the academic regulations, which are available on our Student Policies and Regulations website.
There are no entry requirements for this course.
If you'd like to discuss the suitability of the course, please contact us.
The course is delivered online and makes use of a variety of online resources. If you use specialist hardware or software to assist you in using a computer or the internet, you are advised to contact us about support which can be given to meet your needs.
The OU strives to make all aspects of study accessible to everyone, and this Accessibility Statement outlines what studying HG089 involves. You should use this information to inform your study preparations and any discussions with us about how we can meet your needs.
StartEngland fee
At anytime before 31/07/2026£150
We accept American Express, Mastercard, Visa and Visa Electron.
If this course is geared towards your job or developing your career, you could ask your employer to sponsor you by paying some or all of the fees. Your sponsor just needs to complete a simple form to confirm how much they will be paying and we will invoice them.
The fee information provided here is valid for short courses starting in the 2026/27 academic year. Fees typically increase annually. For further information about the University's fee policy, visit our Fee Rules.
You can start this course anytime.
You can start this course anytime.
Level info