Educating for Sustainability in Primary Schools

Educating for Sustainability in Primary Schools
Author: Neil Taylor
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 364
Release: 2015-06-17
Genre: Education
ISBN: 9463000461

Education for Sustainability is a key priority in today’s schools, as our society seeks to find a balance between environmental, social, cultural, political and economic imperatives that affect our future. As young children will become the next generation of adults, it is vital that they are educated about sustainability issues, so that they can learn to make informed decisions and take positive action for a sustainable world. Teachers are ideally placed to educate for sustainability issues, and indeed have a responsibility to do so. However, they often lack support and experience in this area, and constraints of current curriculum priorities can inhibit Education for Sustainability being taught effectively in many classrooms. Educating for Sustainability in Primary Schools: Teaching for the Future addresses this problem by showing how Education for Sustainability can be developed within and across all areas of the primary curriculum in the Australian and New Zealand contexts. The book provides a range of educational approaches and examples of activities to support teachers in addressing national requirements for teaching the major primary curriculum learning areas, while simultaneously educating for sustainability. This integrative approach to primary education can promote knowledge of, positive attitudes towards and suitable action for sustainability in relevant, meaningful, enjoyable and creative ways. This book is a valuable resource for all primary teachers who wish to make a real difference to educating children for the future.

The Impact of School Infrastructure on Learning

The Impact of School Infrastructure on Learning
Author: Peter Barrett
Publisher: World Bank Publications
Total Pages: 71
Release: 2019-02-04
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1464813787

'The Impact of School Infrastructure on Learning: A Synthesis of the Evidence provides an excellent literature review of the resources that explore the areas of focus for improved student learning, particularly the aspiration for “accessible, well-built, child-centered, synergetic and fully realized learning environments.†? Written in a style which is both clear and accessible, it is a practical reference for senior government officials and professionals involved in the planning and design of educational facilities, as well as for educators and school leaders. --Yuri Belfali, Head of Division, Early Childhood and Schools, OECD Directorate for Education and Skills This is an important and welcome addition to the surprisingly small, evidence base on the impacts of school infrastructure given the capital investment involved. It will provide policy makers, practitioners, and those who are about to commission a new build with an important and comprehensive point of reference. The emphasis on safe and healthy spaces for teaching and learning is particularly welcome. --Harry Daniels, Professor of Education, Department of Education, Oxford University, UK This report offers a useful library of recent research to support the, connection between facility quality and student outcomes. At the same time, it also points to the unmet need for research to provide verifiable and reliable information on this connection. With such evidence, decisionmakers will be better positioned to accurately balance the allocation of limited resources among the multiple competing dimensions of school policy, including the construction and maintenance of the school facility. --David Lever, K-12 Facility Planner, Former Executive Director of the Interagency Committee on School Construction, Maryland Many planners and designers are seeking a succinct body of research defining both the issues surrounding the global planning of facilities as well as the educational outcomes based on the quality of the space provided. The authors have finally brought that body of evidence together in this well-structured report. The case for better educational facilities is clearly defined and resources are succinctly identified to stimulate the dialogue to come. We should all join this conversation to further the process of globally enhancing learning-environment quality! --David Schrader, AIA, Educational Facility Planner and Designer, Former Chairman of the Board of Directors, Association for Learning Environments (A4LE)

Urban Environmental Education Review

Urban Environmental Education Review
Author: Alex Russ
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Total Pages: 449
Release: 2017-06-06
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1501712780

Urban Environmental Education Review explores how environmental education can contribute to urban sustainability. Urban environmental education includes any practices that create learning opportunities to foster individual and community well-being and environmental quality in cities. It fosters novel educational approaches and helps debunk common assumptions that cities are ecologically barren and that city people don't care for, or need, urban nature or a healthy environment. Topics in Urban Environmental Education Review range from the urban context to theoretical underpinnings, educational settings, participants, and educational approaches in urban environmental education. Chapters integrate research and practice to help aspiring and practicing environmental educators, urban planners, and other environmental leaders achieve their goals in terms of education, youth and community development, and environmental quality in cities. The ten-essay series Urban EE Essays, excerpted from Urban Environmental Education Review, may be found here: naaee.org/eepro/resources/urban-ee-essays. These essays explore various perspectives on urban environmental education and may be reprinted/reproduced only with permission from Cornell University Press.

Learners and Learning

Learners and Learning
Author: Ian Moll
Publisher:
Total Pages: 160
Release: 2001-10-31
Genre: Active learning
ISBN: 9780195780673

Learners and learning is the fourth module in the study of education series, and it aims to enable teachers to analyse learning and reflect on what they can do to improve it. It draws on the learning theories of various writers, including Piaget and Vygotsky, and grounds these in examples, practical exercises, and case studies drawn from schools. This module includes an interactive learning guide, a reader, and an audiotape. The study of education series is a project of the South African institute for distance eduaction (SAIDE). Aimed at formal and informal teacher education, this series presents valuable open-learning materials for use in distance education or in face-to-face teaching. Intended for use in colleges of education at diploma level, these modules may also be usedwith additional readings in higher or postgraduate diploma courses.

A Case Study of The Integration of Environmental Education in the Primary School Curriculum

A Case Study of The Integration of Environmental Education in the Primary School Curriculum
Author: Sekinah Sehlola
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2010
Genre:
ISBN: 9789533070667

In examining opportunities to learn environmental education at the school and classroom level, we were interested in ascertaining how teachers in primary schools have made sense of the new policy of integrating environmental education in the various learning areas. The researchers wished to find out how workable the policy was in one school context, and what its consequences were in terms of providing better opportunities for learners. Indeed the case of Sechaba Primary has provided some insights into these questions. We now know how some schools have taken the new policy and made it work for them. They have developed their own local environmental policy, which served as a basis for mobilising and organising resources for learning and teaching environmental education at the school. It is this localised policy that seemed important in driving the integration of the environment into the curriculum at Sechaba Primary. Furthermore, the local policy created a platform for mobilising the intellectual and material resources for the integration of environmental education at the school. For us, the most important lesson coming out of this research therefore is the need for local school actors to take the initiative and be the agents of change. Agency and teacher leadership have proved to be cornerstones of the success story of the integration of environmental education at Sechaba Primary. There is, however, still a long way to go in terms of reaching the conceptual depths of the integration and extended participation of learners in environmental education, as the case of Sechaba Primary has illustrated. The lessons learned from the Sechaba Primary case would be applicable in schools that have taken environmental education as seriously as Sechaba Primary has done.