Developing ecological thinking in students of pedagogical programmes through the inclusion of nature-conserving technologies in physical education classes

Abstract

The ecological thinking of a future teacher is today shaped predominantly by verbal and educational means, whereas the readiness for nature-conserving action – the behavioural core of such thinking – remains the least developed element. A persistent gap separates the declared value of caring for nature from the student's actual conduct. The aim of the work is to substantiate the didactic potential of physical education classes, treated as a cross-cutting module compulsory for all pedagogical programmes, in forming ecological thinking, and to propose a typology of nature-conserving technologies embedded in motor activity. The methodological basis comprises conceptual-categorial analysis, structural-functional modelling, content analysis of normative documents (federal educational standards, the professional standard of the teacher, strategic acts in the field of ecological development and physical culture in their editions up to 2026) and a comparison of the didactic traditions of experiential and place-based learning. A four-component model of ecological thinking and an authorial typology of nature-conserving technologies, distributed across four groups – environmental, resource-saving, activity-transforming and reflexive-projective – are proposed. It is shown that motor activity in a natural environment forms the regulative-behavioural component, which traditional formats barely affect. The constructions obtained are applicable in designing the working programmes of the discipline 'Physical Culture and Sport' at a pedagogical university.