Teaching and Learning

Introduction
Links and resources
Case studies

Introduction

The Learning and Skills sector has a key role to play in creating a sustainable, globally aware society. In its strategy for sustainability From Here to Sustainability (2005) the LSC identifies “… the need for all learners to acquire SD skills that will equip them to lead their lives and work in a more sustainable way and to influence other to do the same.”

Education and training has many drivers including National Occupational Standards, Sector Qualification Strategies, national curricula and employer and learner demand. It is important to make sustainable development an underpinning principle of these key drivers.

The Sustainable Development Education Network offers a comprehensive framework for the introduction of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in the curriculum:

Key knowledge in ESD

  • The key knowledge and understanding that sustainability requires and that ESD seeks to cultivate is focused around six principles:
  • The interdependent nature of our society and life on our planet
  • The limited carrying capacity of our planet
  • The value of biological, social and cultural diversity in maintaining the wellbeing of our planet and our society
  • The essential role of rights and responsibilities in a sustainable society
  • The essential role of equity and justice in a sustainable society
  • The presence of uncertainty and the need for precaution in making decisions about our planet and our society

Key skills in ESD

The key skills that sustainability requires and ESD seeks to cultivate are:

  • The skills to understand the relationships between different issues, appreciate how they are connected and, as a result, make decisions and solve problems in a joined-up way
  • The skills to enable groups to make collective decisions and work co-operatively together even though all members of the group may not hold the same views and power may not be distributed evenly among the group
  • The skills to think critically about problems, issues and situations to enable individuals and groups to move beyond thinking about how can we make the systems and products we have less unsustainable, to thinking about the kind of systems and products we need to achieve sustainability

Key attitudes in ESD

The key attitudes that sustainability requires and ESD seeks to cultivate are:

  • The confidence to take action and the confidence that these actions will make a positive difference
  • The appreciation that we are all part of society and that our individual behaviours must be balanced by our responsibilities as members of that society
  • The attitude that humanity is part of the natural world, that we depend on it for our wellbeing and that we must respect its limits and live in harmony with it
  • An attitude of respect for the biological, social and cultural differences and diversity that are a fundamental part of our world
  • An attitude for caring for your self, for other people, for other living things and for our planet
  • Questions to consider:
    Is ESD something you consider in your teaching?
    Is the management team familiar with ESD?
    Could the management team explain to Ofsted what the institution is doing in relation to ESD?

Back to top

Links and resources

Helpful information about sustainable development in the curriculum can be found in the LSC guides ‘Creating the conditions for embedding sustainable development in the curriculum’ and ‘Embedding sustainable development in the curriculum’.

Modernising Construction Teaching and Learning - Cambridge Regional College
This good practice example highlights how Cambridge Regional College achieved an improvement in its teaching of modernised construction and, importantly, discovered how teaching and learning can be focused on learning by students not teaching by teachers.

Quality Improvement Agency - Sustainable Development Learning Resource
A learning resource from the Quality Improvement Agency on citizenship education for young people on how individuals and groups can help to make sustainable development a reality.

Active Citizenship: Learning resources for Sustainable Development
Learning resources for post-16 education from the QIA for key stage 4 citizenship
AoC Curriculum Survey Report.
Part of the AoC's Green Colleges initiative.

Contributing to Sustainable Development: Centres of Vocational Excellence
A research report published by the learning and skills development agency.

FE Skills White Papers
The Government White Paper on Further Education, published in 2006 and the 2007 Update.

Future Leaders Survey
The results from a survey of young people applying to University asking what they think about the future. The survey was carried out by Forum for the Future and UCAS (University and Colleges Admissions Service).

The Global Engineer
A report looking at why and how to embed sustainable development into engineering courses.

Good practice in school self-evaluation and college self-assessment
This government report clarifies what self-evaluation and self-assessment are and why institutions are required to do them.

Happy planet: sustainable development and citizenship
Teaching and Learnign materials produced by the Post-16 Citizenship Support Programme to help the integration of citizenship education into post-16 education and training.

Healthy College Programme
A report with examples of best practice about implementing the Healthy College Programme.

HM Treasury review of subnational economic development and regeneration
A government review to consider how to strengthen economic performance in regions, cities and localities throughout the country.

Leitch Implementation Plan
Following the Leitch Review on Skills, this is the Implementation Plan in England.

From Here to Sustainability
The Learning and Skills Council's Strategy for Sustainable Development.

National College for School Leadership
Three-year action plan for a whole school approach to implementing sustainable development.

Professional Practice for Sustainable Development
A guide to developing cross-professional learning opportunities and tools.

Securing the Future
The UK Government Sustainable Development Strategy.

Skills in England 2007
The Learning and Skills Council's Review of Skills.

Sustainable Development Action Plan for Education and Skills
The 2003 Sustainable Development Action Plan from the then Department for Education and Skills.

Sustainable Development in Higher Education
Current Practice and Future Developments

The Stern Review
Governmental review on the economics of climate change.

Sustainable development in the learning and skills sector
A national baseline survey conducted for the Learning and Skills Council.

Taking the first step forward…
An OfSted report with practical case studies.

The UK Interdependence Report
A New Economics Foundation report

WWF: A Development Framework for School Sustainability
This guide contains a useful self-assessment resource sheet.

StudentForce for Sustainability
They provide volunteering and work opportunities to boost the employability of young people, whilst encouraging sustainability amongst the employers they work with.

Groundwork
They work towards sustainable communities, and offer volunteering opportunities for young people.

Sustainable Development Education Panel
This Government Panel ran for 5 years, from 1998 to2003. The panel looked at Schools, Work and the Professions, Lifelong Learning, and Developing a Template for ESD (Education for Sustainable Development) sector guides. The outputs of the panel's work can be accessed from this site.

Teaching and Learning for a Sustainable Future
UNESCO Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) training for teachers, including lesson templates and tools.

Sustainable Schools area of Teachernet
A good example of embedding sustainable development into schools. It includes the National framework ‘eight doorways’.

The Earth Charter
The Earth Charter website provides some excellent discussion material to underpin the values aspect of sustainable development.

PP4SD
PP4SD (Professional Practice for Sustainable Development) has developed a one-day introductory course in sustainable development for professionals.

ESD Toolkit
The Education for Sustainable Development Toolkit is a resource for individuals and organisations from both the education and community sectors. The resource addresses the alliance of school systems and communities working together to reach local sustainability goals.

The EOLSS (Encyclopaedia of Life Support Systems)
This body of knowledge is an integrated compendium of sixteen encyclopaedias, developed by UNESCO. It attempts to forge pathways between disciplines in order to show their interdependence and helps foster the trans-disciplinary aspects of the relationship between nature and human society.

Sustainable Education: Revisioning Learning and Change
Purchase this briefing by Stephen Sterling published by Green Books on behalf of The Schumacher Society (2001).

LSN Education
Useful Learning and Skills Network publications which include case studies for good practice and partnership working can be found in the following documents available from this website.

International Institute for Sustainable Development
International Institute for Sustainable Development's interactive ‘campus’ toolkit introduces some of the basic concepts of sustainable development and ways these concepts are put into practice. A section on indicators and measurement shows how to track progress towards sustainability and will be useful for monitoring purposes.

Higher Education Academy Sustainability Page
Although this is Higher Education, there is a lot that will also be relevant to FE.

Back to top

Case studies

Lancashire Global Education Centre - Embedding the Global Dimension into Skills for Life Classes
This is a useful example of how different education providers can work together to spread sustainable development and global skills across their curriculum.

Yale College - Using projects to integrate sustainability into the curriculum
This case study demonstrates how an institution can successfully embed sustainability into all areas of the curriculum, and make a big environmental impact through small scale schemes.

Sustainability Development at Hull College
This case study provides an excellent example of how a whole-college, co-ordinated and considered approach can bring about a culture change and embed sustainability into a college and its curriculum.

Embedding Sustainable Development & Global Citizenship in the curriculum at Coleg Ceredigion
This case study demonstrates how a small institution can use the skills of other organisations and initiatives to integrate sustainability into college practices.

Regent College: SoapBox and The Global Citizens College
This is an excellent example of how a college can use an existing programme to enthuse their own students.

Cross-Curriculum Sustainability at Bedford College
Bedford College provides an important example of how an institution can embed sustainability into its curriculum by actively seeking support and guidance from both the education sector and industry.

Sustainability Suits Southwark College
An excellent example of how the whole college community can benefit from sustainability initiatives.

Elmwood College
The college used the curriculum to help implement ISO 14001.

Back to top