Activity 1.1 How might the UNESCO competencies be developed in students?
Post a summary of your thoughts from this activity. It is suggested this is no more than one or two paragraphs.
Read and comment on at least two posts from other people, expressing on how their ideas have added to your thinking.
UNESCO competencies would be developed if lecturers in universities change from the traditional way of engaging with the students through lectures and embrace active teaching and learning. Learners need to be actively involved in learning, investigating what they already know of any concept under focus. This include any misconceptions that may need to be corrected as the teaching and learning progresses.
The universities administration would need to make this easier by providing the lecturers with access to the most current technology and training them on how to use it. This would enable them to simulate different real life scenarios and evaluate the outcome for futurist insight on actions that may affect sustainability of our environment. Of course this would only be possible if lecturers handled small classes which is a milage in some popular university programs in most African universities.
Good points Issac. Although lectures probably still have a role to play, it does require a more engaging approach to learning development. Class sizes do make this challenging and lecturer knowledge of available technologies may be an issue in part, but the critical issue is the conceptualisation of the academic timetable. Problem based learning doesn’t always fit neatly into the modular 1-2 hour scheduled allowance provided for lectures. Problems within communities don’t always neatly fit the modular envelope and accord with the publication of the timetable at the beginning of the semester.
Unesco competencies
a. Self-awareness - This is key to social work practice and values and is a core competency . This could be developed to consider global society and the environment more specifically and build into module content .
b. Reflections and broaden these to consider beyond own community to global community
c. Through assessment of reflections and through conversations on forums and in seminars
I look at this from a primary education stand point, though your point can most certainly be applied to this context. Embedding these values at an early age and encouraging children to think globally can only be positive for an inclusive and self aware generation.
Hi Leah- I also agree with this from a secondary teacher perspective. Young people today have a far greater awareness of global events/issues through social media etc. Implementing and developing these values at all stages of education can help them make sense of current issues around sustainability and encourage global citizenship and participation.
I have worked in nurseries and how work in SEND higher education. I believe it is vital to embed these values when students are you.
Challenging views and encouraging sustainable views and to look after the world at the age of 15 is very very difficult. Its almost like starting again, explain why we need to do it. When i was in early years the littles ones understood why we want the world to be clean, healthy ect because we could explain it as if the planet was like the human body - needs things to survive.
Hi Anna,
I agree, on-going reflections can be very helpful for students to critically think on their actions and make improvements
Thank you Anna - social work, with its core values of care and compassion, seems a natural fit with sustainable pedagogies. I am looking forward to seeing how I can align my teaching of maths! Although I think already the ideas of learner-centred approaches, and transformative education, resonate with me.
Hi Anna
Similarly, I teach on counselling and mental health modules where self-awareness is an important competency to develop, and I like your suggestion to develop this further - moving from the individual level to local communities and global society.
Having said that, self-awareness can be a challenging concept to grasp and practice. Having it as a learning outcome for TMAs is a start, but I think there needs to be clarity for students about what learning sustainability means and its relevance for them.
I agree learners need to be actively involved and students have lots they can contribute to discussion and understanding of sustainability and the ways it can be taught .
I believe that there are ways for lecturers to be innovative in their practice in ways that not only involve technologies. Lecturers can be more project centred, encouraging their learners to be problem solvers, to pitch ideas and justify suggested solutions. By encouraging them to seek answers from those around the world that are pushing boundaries and 'thinking outside the box', by learning from global experts. I completely agree learning should be active and students should be immersed in 'learning' in broadest of ways.
I agree Leah. Your comment reminded me of a lecture I attended recently by Natalie Bennett. She argued that to enact real environmental change we need to encourage students to imagine what a more sustainable future would look like. She spoke of Imaginariums which which could be hosted in schools, universities and public libraries where people from different disciplines all present their dreams of what an ideal future could look like. Her argument was that people need to be able to imagine that future, if they are going to be inspired to create it.
Hi Isaac,
Active-based or student centered teaching engages and allows students to take responsibility of their own learning as compared to traditional lecture based teaching methodologies. I agree that the overall change in approach is needed at all levels to promote inquiry and develop 21st century skills in students.
This raises some interesting points, Isaac. I think one of the issues in Higher Education, certainly in the U.K. and the U.S., can be the conflict between roles of the lecturer/professor: as an educator but also as a researcher. Too often there is not enough time or resources available for the educator role, hence limited training to help staff develop new methods of teaching and learning.
a. Ways of practicing: to develop this competency, inquiry based teaching strategies can be used, involving students in investigation, research, and exploration throughout unit will be helpful
b. To develop this competency, activities and tasks can be design through, service as action where students may be assigned different roles while work in groups to solve real- life problem
c. Through formative and summative assessments, ongoing discussions, and reflection
I had a similar angle to Khadija on "ways of practising". For the activity I wanted students to critique existing frameworks for evaluating sources. Ideally the material presented to them would be from diverse sources to broaden the perspectives presented and challenge their assumptions.)
Then I'd let them to create their own, suited to their subject discipline. Swap with peer and apply. Share observations with group. But I also tried sketching out a multiple choice, for asynchronous delivery, but an activity like this reflect/post to forum could work well too. In my role, we only have scope for designing formative assessments.
Ways of working - from a Further Education perspective, many of the pedagogical approaches are familiar. In particular, a focus on active learning methods and collaborative learning. Similarly, diverse assessment methods, including peer-assessment and self-assessment, and reflective journals, fit well. The challenge can sometimes be to encourage these ways of working in young people who have become disengaged and disempowered through the conventional secondary school system.
I like the idea of a reflective journal to support students to develop the ways of working competencies, with some useful prompts to guide their reflection.
The challenge of reaching disengaged students is always tough. In an ideal world this more personal approach to learning, with no wrong or right, should help their confidence grow as it is so different to conventional secondary learning. As I write that though I recognise that they have to be willing to try something new first.
Hi Polly
We encourage students to keep a reflective journal throughout the module as a way to capture how their views/ideas may change during the learning journey. For many, this is a quite a new way of being and students often (and understandably) focus on working on TMAs and module content rather than the reflective aspect (so important if they want to enter counselling/psychotherapy.)
Hi Wendy- a reflective journal seems a great way to evidence learner participation and gain thoughts and ideas that may not be otherwise elicited in a more formative activity. It is also a great way for mentors/learners to track ideas and changes thoughts/opinions which is evidence of higher order thinking and development.
Considering the ways of working from a careers perspective, I think work around values and beliefs, and how these translate to employers is key. Employers need graduates and now often share their values as a key tool in recruitment now.
Building case studies into the curriculum that show organisations dealing with ethical challenges in whichever sector their degree links to is a great way of helping them to develop critical thinking skills. By looking at and researching a real scenario, students can understand the choices made by the organisation, the reasons for it and reflect on the consequences. Activities to the consider what alternative routes could have been taken challenge the normative views and engage students, and encourage some innovative thinking. It will also, hopefully, prepare students to take these skills to the workplace and understand how their learning might be directly applied.
Hi Polly,
I hadn't considered the careers/employers side of things but you are so right! Work around your own values and beliefs, and knowing what these are for you could lead to some interesting matches with employers. I really like the idea of building in case studies to the curriculum; it can lead to the decisions made, reflecting on alternatives and what factors made an organisation pick one thing over another. Real life examples that can help develop critical thinking and reflection skills.
That's a really good point, Polly. There's a lot of overlap between critical thinking and the integrated-problem solving in the Ways of Working group. Employers and their customers/clients would benefit from their employees having those tools to improve their products or services, as well as their specific ESG objectives.
I really like this idea of encouraging students to explore corporate values and beliefs. I think it would appeal to students and be a genuinely useful exercise that not only encourages them to consider real world solutions but also provides them with a knowledge of which employers align with their own values and beliefs.
Collaboration
Collaboration- working with others is a really valuable competenecy that can be integrated into all areas of the curriculum as well as being a transferable skill beyond education. A key focus on communication based learning would provide a solid foundation with which to develop ideas, issues and concepts around sustainability. Groups/peer activities are really effective in navigating differences of opinions and finding effective solutions to this.
A greater focus on interpersonal skills and building confidence in learner participation would be helpful, often confidence can be a barrier to input in discussion.
Hi Sarah,
I totally agree with this thinking around collaboration - there is so much to be gained from collaborative working, learning from peers, hearing about different experiences and approaches. Also building in a 'Yes and' approach to comments could lead to more development, ideas, and a shift in thinking overall. All too often, good ideas can be crossed out because of a 'Yes, but' attitude.
I love that, Alex. "Yes and" is a powerful habit for a group to develop - building trust as well as collaborating on improving an answer. But I remember something uncomfortable I read by Stephen Sterling and he thought educating for sustainability needed to challenge paradigms and be transgressive in order to transform the learner. His point was people generally try to apply the same solutions with a few tweaks (I'm really simplifying his point here!). I'd prefer to think collaboration and 'yes and' is useful and does create new thinking, like you outlined.
I have picked ways of practicing. I think the 3 areas of strategic, collaboration and integrated problem-solving sit well together. Collaboration allows for learning from peers; hearing different perspectives and experiences, which collectively could develop into strategic thinking and problem-solving. Building collaborative activities into the teaching context would develop these skills as well as ‘softer’ skills around active listening, communication, developing viewpoints and imparting these in a fair and non-aggressive manner.
I think that some sort of group activity looking at sustainable development problems could start to develop these skills. Group activities would develop collaboration, working together, understanding and listening to others’ viewpoints leading to problem solving, developing solutions to a problem at a local level before widening to other communities. It’s important that students reflect on the whole process to see what worked well, what didn’t and steps they’d take in the future if asked to do a similar exercise.
Systems thinking
I choose systems thinking because it's very important to support sustainability. Systems thinking is tools to understand interconnection and complexcity in a case. Recently, there are many problems in the world that contributed by many aspects. So, we need the solution for these problem by understanding each aspects.
Systems thinking skill can facilited students to see a problem from many perspectives. Sistem thinking skill can fostered students to think holistically so they can offered the solutions to the problems.
UNESCO competencies can be developed in students by teachers planning learning outcomes for both content and skills before lessons. Effective AFL through planned questioning should be used to assess learning. Students should be active in their learning, and both individual and collaborative learning should be encouraged. Teachers should create safe working environments where students are encouraged to think creatively and share ideas without fear of being wrong - consistent behavioural management and positive reinforcement can help achieve this.
Ways of working
I focused on ways of working. As a university librarian my role involves developing digital and information literacy (DIL) skills. DIL skills develop key sustainability competencies including recognising relationships (e.g. between different types of information and different sources of information), understanding complexity (of how information is presented, retrieved, published etc) and critical thinking. This made me think that we could do more to encourage our students to recognise these important academic skills as also being key sustainability competences.
With T level Lab Science being taught, A case study can be made where students are presented with weblinks for them to conduct a literature search of arguments that are both supporting the fact that global warming exists and some that dismiss it.
Data tables and graphs are included for students to analyse and interpret. Students provide a 5 minute microteach to present their opinion backed up with evidence obtained from the literature survey and statistical data provided