• The Journal of Korean Philosophical History
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• no.28
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• pp.87-116
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• 2010

In elementary, environmental education have been doing in various subjects. The features of environmental instruction would be reflected on contents of environmental education and characteristics of each subjects. These contents of environmental education might be contained normative contents, and it is moral subject that treats these normative contents systematically. Then environmental instruction of moral subject in elemental school should be approach and inquire teaching contents related to environment education. In elementary school curriculum of moral subject, teaching contents related to environment are 'preciousness of life' and 'right views of Nature and protection of the environment'. By these contents, moral instruction can approach to life of animal and plants centered on the reason to take them preciously and relation between nature and humans centered on the moral consideration. It is a difference that approaches to the environmental education not by factual understanding but by normative understanding in moral instruction. It must be focused on ethical inquiry for normative approach and reserving identity of moral subject. Necessary conditions for ethical inquiry to the environmental instruction are moral status of things besides humans. For the ethical inquiry to the moral status of nature environments, teachers could be set the logic of instruction based on the developments of environmental ethics. Formal cohesiveness of environmental instruction could be developed in sequence of ethical inquiry on moral status to the life of animal, life of plants, and whole system of nature. For this, teacher could reflect on their instruction focused on some explanations. That is, it is explanation to the animal life based on the individual-extended human oriented ethics for human, plants life based on the individual-non human oriented ethics, whole natural system based on the holistic-non human oriented ethics. When teachers reflect these explanation, they can compose their instruction as 'finding something in common with humans and animals', 'reflection on the attitude to the commons', 'thinking about reasons on the different attitudes to the commons', 'the things that disappear as plants die', 'thinking on values about non organism'. These plan of instruction could be critically reconstruct by other teachers. But environmental consciousness by ethical inquiry should be hold on instruction to the environment reflected on identity of moral subject.