About this
package
This Guide Yourself package is designed for those in the
Learning and Skills Sector who wish to take some time to gain an
in-depth understanding of Teaching and Learning for sustainable
development. It is divided into four sections which can be read as
a whole or separately.
Although it is aimed at educators at all levels within the FE
system it might be of particular use to curriculum and programme
leaders.
Download the
interactive PDF version of Guide Yourself through Teaching and
Learning
Context
Introduction
This guidance is based upon a whole institutional approach to
embedding sustainable development into teaching and learning
practice. Each of the priority actions in the LSC
Strategy for Sustainable Development are included:
- education for sustainable development
- learning materials
- links and partnerships
- healthy college programme
The objective is to provide practical tools, advice and guidance
to help you to integrate sustainable development in your
organisation's teaching and learning – making sure that is
included within generic and specialist curriculum areas, as well as
informal learning and giving all learners a level of sustainable
development knowledge and awareness that is appropriate to their
individual circumstances. The emphasis is to help you move towards
and adopt a more holistic, whole institutional approach that will
make your organisation successful in fully including sustainable
development in your teaching and learning and throughout your
organisation.
Sustainable Development Skills and Education for Sustainable
Development
ESD has an important role to play in helping people to understand
and accept the need for significant changes to the way the country
operates socially and economically, changes needed to ensure a
sustainable future for everyone. It can also make an important
contribution in helping people to understand and agree to make the
kinds of behavioural changes necessary to make sustainability work.
Informed choices can only be made by people who understand the
problems and dilemmas and who know the cost of whichever course of
action is decided upon.
Skills in England 2007 is
the LSC’s annual skills assessment, providing an up-to-date
assessment of the skills arena and highlighting the key skills
issues facing businesses in England which the LSC and its partners
will have to address. It identifies sustainable development as one
of the new challenges following the publication of the Stern Review in 2006.
Skills and education for sustainable development is needed both
in the holistic management of an FE provider's organisation and
also in the links it has with employers and businesses. It is also
important to embed sustainable development into the organisation's
curriculum, teaching and learning practices.
Education for sustainable development mirrors the drive for
education of high quality, demonstrating characteristics such
as:
- Interdisciplinary and holistic: learning for sustainable
development embedded in the whole curriculum, not as a separate
subject.
- Values-driven: sharing the values and principles underpinning
sustainable development.
- Critical thinking and problem solving: leading to confidence in
addressing the dilemmas and challenges of sustainable
development.
- Multi-method: word, art, drama, debate, experience, and
different pedagogies which model the processes.
- Participatory decision-making: learners participate in
decisions on how they are to learn.
- Locally relevant: addressing local as well as global issues,
and using the language(s) that learners most commonly use.
The former Department for Education and Skills published the
Sustainable
Development Action Plan for Education and Skills. It set out an
ambitious learning agenda for providers to operate in a more
environmentally sustainable way and to teach it as well.
It sees an important leading role for the FE system in
furthering sustainable development in a range of vocational
specialisms, mainly because the sector places strong emphasis upon
developing excellent vocational provision that focuses on meeting
the skills needs of employers.
The plan is now being taken forward by the Department for
Children, Schools and Families and the important role of the FE
system in sustainable development has recently been given further
impetus in the Leitch
Implementation Plan:
“Sustainable development – meeting the needs of present
without compromising the ability of future generations to meet
their own needs – is a defining challenge of the twenty-first
century. If the nation is to play its full part in challenging
global poverty and combating environmental problems like climate
change it is imperative that everyone in this country develops the
skills of sustainable living and working. That means placing
sustainable development at the heart of skills provision, ensuring
that it is a fundamental goal of our economic and social
progress.”
Policies
The LSC’s Strategy for Sustainable Development - From Here
to Sustainability also makes a strong case for ESD. It stresses
‘the importance of all learners acquiring sustainable
development skills – skills that will equip them to lead
their lives and work in a sustainable way and to influence others
to do the same’. The LSC identifies three ways in which the
FE system can contribute to sustainable development:
- Through its management of resources
- Through the learning opportunities it delivers
- Through its engagement with communities
The strategy has further identified a number of priority action
areas for implementing change in teaching, learning and the
curriculum in relation to sustainable development:
- Education for sustainable development: promote and encourage
acceptance and delivery within learning programmes of the
Sustainable Development Education Panel’s key concepts for
education for sustainable development
- Learning materials: consider adopting and using currently
available sustainable development learning materials and develop
appropriate sustainable development programmes and modules
- Whole-institution approach: implement a whole-institution
approach to sustainable development, taking account of both
institution-based provision and virtual learning environments, and
both informal and formal learning approaches
- Links and partnerships: develop links between providers and
industry and between pre- and post-16 education and learning
providers (including higher education), also considering European
and international partnerships
- Healthy college programme: encourage development and
implementation of
healthy college programmes
Skill Demands of Individuals and Learners
It is also evident that individuals are becoming more aware of
their social, environmental and economic impacts and becoming more
proactive in managing them. The Future Leaders Survey provides a
good insight into learner attitudes to sustainability. The survey
found that many young people find it important to acquire the
knowledge and skills for sustainable development, for them it is an
important factor for considering a choice of college or university.
It also revealed that many are conscious of their individual
impacts and are subsequently taking action, for example:
- Buying locally and avoiding larger supermarket chains
- Using more sustainable modes of transport
- Joining a third world development charity
Furthermore, it is apparent that students are becoming demanding
to have sustainable development incorporated into their courses.
The survey revealed that sustainable development is particularly
important for those applying for architecture, building and
planning (74% regarding it as important or very important), social
studies (64%), education (63%) and engineering (61%) courses.
Applicants for courses in social sciences, education, architecture,
building and planning are those most likely to regard a university
or college's track record on sustainable development issues to be
important. Veterinary and agriculture applicants and applicants for
courses in creative arts and design, social sciences and social
studies are those most likely to be driven by environmental
concerns when making career or employment choices.
Increasingly, learners are signing up to do voluntary
sustainable development activities with the growth of organisations
such as StudentForce for
Sustainability and Groundwork.
Barriers
A high proportion of respondents to a recent survey said they
were embedding concepts or approaches to sustainable development
into existing courses and programmes. A rather more mixed picture
emerged from the organisations visited. However, in a few
instances, the process of integration was clearly underway. For
example, in some specialist land-based colleges, the emphasis on
environmental sustainability through countryside management
courses, agriculture and horticulture programmes and some
construction programmes was clearly evident in course handbooks,
learning materials and library resources more generally. However,
even here the wider concept on which the sustainability agenda is
based was less evident. There were generally fewer examples of
taking a wider and interdisciplinary approach to sustainable
development in the organisations visited. Some colleges are
addressing the agenda through Citizenship Programmes, group
tutorial work, and Personal and Social Development programmes. One
college had used the NCFE awarding body programme as a
cross-college approach and had found the approaches useful, but as
a level 1&2 award generally less applicable for high-level
provision.
Whilst there are a wealth of sustainable development related
strategies in regions (such as regional energy strategies) and
investment opportunities (such as the FE Capital Investment
Programme), building sustainable development skills (whether
embedded or discrete) into training, education and in turn, all
professions remains a significant challenge (and opportunity) for
the FE system.
The absence of higher-level generic sustainable development
provision is a barrier to wider adoption in most FE providers. This
is compounded by the fact that curriculum reform has been
comparatively slow in this area for a number of reasons, not least
because sustainable development is not featuring prominently within
more National Occupational Standards. Making sustainable
development an underpinning principle of all aspects of its work
must be shared goal for the FE system as a whole. But there is
still much that providers and individual teachers can do to make a
difference
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