<P><FONT color=#33711E><STRONG>Day 2 – Session 5B: <br>Innovative Practices</STRONG></FONT></P>

Queen’s Park 4, 2nd Floor

15.20 – 15.40

5.B.1 The Earth Charter: an eco-systemic approach to education for sustainable development

Brendan G. Mackey, Earth Charter Council

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5.B.2 A Rhetoric-Practice Gap: The DESD Agenda and Sustainable Schools
Annette Gough, RMIT University, Australia

The United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD) began on 1 January 2005. Implementing ESD in schools involves approaches to teaching and learning that integrate goals for conservation, social justice, appropriate development and democracy into a vision of personal and social change. It also involves developing the kinds of civic virtues and skills that can empower all citizens and, through them, our social institutions, to bring about changes in the transition to a sustainable future. The “Sustainable Schools” programme in Victoria, Australia, is concerned with developing learning environments and learning experiences that will enable students to work towards having a good quality of life. The experiences of schools in the programme provide some guidance on how to implement ESD. This paper discusses findings from a recent evaluation of the experiences of six “Sustainable Schools” in terms of their achievement of educational, environmental, economic and social indicators of quality education. It also examines the feasibility and desirability of any one programme being able to incorporate all aspects of ESD.

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15.40 – 16.00
5.B.3. A Learning Environment for a Sustainable Future
Lynette Daphne Vey, Weiproductions, Australia
This paper describes the concept of an “Exploratory Learning Environment”, an approach which links learning and assessment. The philosophy of the Exploratory Learning Environment approach can be described as promoting learning through experience, inquiry, experimentation and critical reflection. Using this approach, teachers reduce the grip they hold on the learning and assessment processes and they adopt the role of a facilitator of the students’ learning process. This approach focuses on developing students’ critical thinking skills, and assessment comes from students’ own evaluation. By linking academic and other forms of knowledge, the assessment process become a meaningful tool to students and can enhance the learning process. This approach is very different from traditional teaching practices where the learning process can be restricted by assessment.

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16.00 – 16.20
5.B.4 Promoting Education for Sustainable Development via a Student-Centred Learning Programme
Ng Khar Thoe, Chona Quezon Sarmiento, Cheah Ui Hock and Wahyudi SEAMEO-RECSAM, Malaysia
The “Search for SEAMEO Young Scientists” (SSYS) Congress organized biennially by RECSAM is a platform for exchange of experiences and ideas among young researchers in the region. This paper explores the concept of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and reports findings from evaluative studies on 4th (2004) and 5th (2006) SSYS congresses that incorporated “Sustainable Development” as themes. In this paper, the responses by SSYS delegates to evaluation questionnaires regarding changes in their teaching and learning are examined. Content analysis was also done on selected problem-based investigative projects to illuminate how students in the Community of Practice (CoP) were guided by more knowledgeable others (MKO) in developing projects which reflected the philosophy of the “Decade of Education for Sustainable Development”. The findings revealed that student delegates hold positive views of the impact of the SSYS Congress. They reported “enhanced awareness of the interrelationship among Science, Technology, Environment, Society (STES) and feelings of competence to conduct investigations”. This paper also discusses and recommends follow-up actions on research ideas initiated by the young scientists.

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16.20 – 16.40
5.B.5. Content Analysis of Youth Scientific Programme: An Innovative and Integrated Approach for Sustainable Development Among SEAMEO Member Countries
Chona Quezon Sarmiento, Ng Khar Thoe, Cheah Ui Hock and Wahyudi, SEAMEO-RECSAM, Malaysia
The “Search for SEAMEO Young Scientists” (SSYS) Congress is a youth programme which highlights the innovative and integrated approach of RECSAM as a Regional Centre for Expertise (RCE) in Science and Mathematics Education. This paper presents two areas of interest. Firstly, it analyses the nature of the young scientist projects to showcase examples of transformative science education for sustainable development. Secondly, the paper describes a content analysis of the projects. The analysis was grounded on the three pillars for Sustainable Development (ESD), a framework to evaluate SSYS congresses over the past ten years. The paper also examines how training can be implemented to generate understanding about sustainability, and to develop the knowledge, skills, perspectives and values needed by youth in making decisions to improve the quality of life. The paper also discusses the limitations of the methodology and data.

Download the paper (word, 160kb) and presentation (pdf, 300kb)