EDOEL. Education Sustainable Development

Equipping students and teachers with competences that focus on dealing with complex sustainability challenges is no easy task.

Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) aims to make pupils reflect on caring for themselves, others(s) and the world.

The research project EDOEL provides a tool for teachers to help them develop and evaluate ESD in teaching practice. Together with nine teachers from six schools (three primary and three secondary schools), this tool was developed using the principles of 'Educational Design Research'. Through joint working sessions, an ESD practice was developed with the teachers and the structure needed to support a thorough evaluation of the practice was identified. In a second phase of the research, ESD practices were tested by teachers in classroom practice. Through observations and reflection conversations, the extent to which teachers were able to evaluate and adjust their own teaching practice was examined. Based on the observations in practice, reflections and exchanges by the teachers, input from experts, the development instrument was evaluated, adapted and further refined.
 

Follow-up project

The whole-school approach as a guide for an implementation of ESD in primary education

One of the crucial roles of education is to equip students and teachers with competences that enable them to deal with complex sustainability challenges.

The UNESCO Final Report (2014) suggested five future actions for education in this regard. One of these is thoughtful implementation at the school policy level (so-called wholeschool approach). Implementing a wholeschool approach goes beyond just teaching about sustainability in school. It encourages integrating sustainability into all aspects of the school.

During this project, the needs, barriers and ideas about the implementation of Education Sustainable Development (ESD) and the wholeschool approach in Flemish education are surveyed.

Valorisation

Practical Guide: Education for Sustainable Development: How to get started in the classroom and at school level.

The current project concerns the valorisation of 2 PWO projects on Education for Sustainable Development (EDO), namely "EDOEL, Education for Sustainable Development, Evaluation of Teaching Practice. Development of a self-evaluation tool for primary and secondary school teachers" and "The 'whole school' approach as a guide for an implementation of ESD in primary education". The aim of the current project is to produce a practice guide based on the output of these PWO projects, incorporating insights, tools and practical examples from both projects, supplemented with inspiring insights and examples from the literature (e.g. on transformative learning). This practice guide will address the different levels of school functioning, i.e. policy, team functioning and classroom practice.