Developing social and sustainable lenses to learn about reality: Design and implementation of a Social Science education approach centered on sustainability

• In Event: Roundtable Session (Wednesday I)
  In Refereed Round-Table Session: Education for sustainability in action where it is most needed: presenting and discussing the largest teacher professional development program in Galapagos Islands

Proposal

This applied research paper presents a specific example of how one subject of the Education for Sustainability in Galapagos (ESG) project has integrated the Education for Sustainability approach into its didactic proposal, both for teacher professional development and for working with students.

It is easy to agree with the sustainability framework, but it is not always easy to incorporate it into a specific proposal to train teachers and teach students. In Social Studies, there are several methodologies and concepts that must be used and combined to create the best environment to generate sound and significant learning. As scholars, we recognize that to teach history, geography, and citizenship we must use strategies that go beyond memorization to help students understand the application of this discipline in our everyday life and in contemporary society (Gómez, Ortuño and Molina, 2014). Consequently, knowledge must be achieved and demonstrated in real -or simulated- contexts of use (Perkins, 1999; Bain, 2005). To achieve this, we chose the frameworks of historical thinking (Santisteban, 2010), thinking as a historian (Wineburg, 2001) and Problem/Project Based Learning with inquiry (Hernández and Ventura, 2005; Wilhelm and Wilhelm, 2010; Pecore, 2015) to design our specific didactic proposal. We also use the Guide to EFS of the Shelburne Farm’s Sustainable Schools Project (2015) that gave us great ideas on how to incorporate the main concepts and concerns of EFS into our subject, beyond just incorporating topics related to conservation in the classroom.

Therefore, after several iterations, the Social Studies team has managed to consolidate a didactic proposal that combines the sustainability framework with other relevant Social Studies education proposals. Certainly, this process cannot ignore the practice of metacognition, so that learning can be seen and transferred to other subjects and plans. In this paper, we present the foundations of this didactic approach and how the different proposals were linked. As we have done two workshops using this model, we also comment and discuss examples of applications with teachers, difficulties encountered, and lessons learned.

Findings show changes in the planning and implementation of teacher’s lessons, which were designed taking into consideration desired outcomes. However, we continue to learn from each teacher’s workshop and adjust the model accordingly. In order to evaluate the implementation of the approach used, we bring some examples of the teacher’s plans, pointing out their innovative strategies and also their weaknesses, which help them identify what can be done to improve. The EDS project in Galapagos also has a general impact evaluation process, in which we are trying to incorporate our concerns and ways to measure innovations made in our specific subject.

This proposal is expected to be useful for both teachers and teacher trainers who seek to implement active, meaningful, creative, significant, and socially relevant learning processes, but they clash daily with constraints of time, curriculum, materials, etc. and need new ideas. For this reason, it is essential for our team to present the proposal and collect questions and suggestions with the purpose to expand and strengthen it.

Authors

• Isabel PATIÑO, VVOB

• Catalina Plua, Universidad San Francisco de Quito

• Daniela Vacas, Un lugar para aprender, NGO

• Paula Jacome, Independent researcher