14:00 - 14:20
1.B.1. Education for Sustainable Development: Implications for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education
Dietrich V. Queis
Helmut Schmidt University, Germany

A wide range of skills and knowledge are required to educate students who are able to work critically and effectively with issues of sustainability. Relevant skills and knowledge include: an appreciation of the importance of environmental, social, political and economic contexts for each discipline; problem-solving skills for highly complex real-life situations; the ability to think creatively and holistically and to make critical judgements; and the ability to bridge the gap between theory and practice in sustainable development. These skills demand new patterns of teaching and a particular kind of educational practice in higher education. This paper addresses the following topics: the prevailing orientations in the teaching of sustainable development; the new role of teachers, moving from knowledge-giver to learning-enabler (educators act as models and learners); and experiential learning by reconnecting to real-life situations. This orientation focuses on real and practical life issues and actual experiences in learning situations.

 

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14:20 - 14:40
1.B.2. Education and Dissemination of Information about Sustainable Agriculture at the University of Tsukuba
DeMar Taylor, Hideo Hasegawa, Yoshihiko Sekozawa, Mizuki Matsuoka, Momoyo Ito, Tsutomu Okano, Atsushi Tajima, and Naoki Sakai
Agricultural and Forestry Research Centre, University of Tsukuba, Japan

The Agricultural and Forestry Research Centre of the University of Tsukuba (AFRC-UT) is an APEID Associated Centre and has sponsored the annual Tsukuba Asian Seminar on Agricultural Education (TASAE) since 1979. TASAE has brought together more than 350 scientists and administrators from Asian countries for discussions on various agricultural, educational and environmental conservation issues faced in the Asia-Pacific region. This seminar has been effective in creating a network of scientists and administrators from the participating countries. The information shared between these scientists and administrators has so far only reached a limited audience, however. A key factor to sustainable development of agriculture and education is effective dissemination of information between researchers and scientists. Therefore, AFRC-UT began publishing papers submitted by the TASAE participants in the Journal of Developments in Sustainable Agriculture (JDSA), first published in 2006. The on-line journal is a peer reviewed J-STAGE based journal in the English language and can be accessed free of charge. JDSA provides an excellent medium for distribution of information on sustainable agriculture to readers in all parts of the world.

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14:40 - 15:00
1.B.3. The Role of Teachers' University in Transition of Society and Reform of Educational Systems: The Montenegrin Experience
Sasa Milic
University of Montenegro, Serbia and Montenegro

As the world grows more complex, there is a greater demand for creative and critical thinkers to help transform societies and improve the quality of our lives. We need individuals who will take risks, try new ideas and use failure as a learning experience and try again. The approach to education in many European countries did not reflect this understanding - prompting reform, standardization and harmonization of teachers' education in the European Union. The teachers' university education system in post-communist countries was more conservative and its reform wasn't easy. For decades, teachers' university education was centred on lectures and followed a formal and rigid manner of assessing students' achievements. Furthermore, it focused on academic achievements rather than the process of interactive learning. Teacher education also lacked connection between theory and practice; did not foster meeting the needs of the local community; and lacked co-operative partnerships. It was recognized in Montenegro that teachers should be more open to local needs and flexible enough to support creation of educational systems which are based on principles such as inclusion, inter-cultural dialogue and children's rights. With the aim of reforming teachers' university education, the University of Montenegro established co-operation with NGOs, international organizations, government authorities and universities from abroad to initiate a number of projects including: Child Centred Approaches and Reading and Writing for Critical Thinking.

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