Effect of a Toolkit and a One-Day Teacher Education Workshop on ESD Teaching Content and Methods—A Study from Kosovo

Abstract

Environmental education in Kosovo is currently under reform. The new strategy for sustainable development demands a strong focus on education for sustainability in schools. However, a lack of teacher education might impede new approaches in the classroom. This study investigated how teachers in Kosovo approach locally-relevant environmental issues in the classroom before and after a one-day in-service workshop on teaching approaches related to education for sustainable development (ESD). Data were gathered in nine classes with a systematic observation scheme and processed using Flanders' interaction analysis categories system. During the workshop, a specially designed toolkit was introduced to the participants (nine biology teachers from the upper secondary level). The toolkit included teaching approaches suitable for ESD and focused on air and water pollution, waste management, energy saving, and the conservation of biodiversity. Before the workshop, teacher-talk occupied more than 90% of a typical 45-min lesson, and instructions were frontal and directive. After the workshop, pupil-talk strongly increased (up to 88%), and pupils were actively engaged in activities suitable for ESD. Supportive training can thus help teachers to improve their instructional practices. However, only those teachers who had reported support from head teachers and colleagues were still frequently using the toolkit after one year. OPEN ACCESSSustainability 2015, 7 8052

Achieving and Monitoring Education for Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship: A Systematic Review of the Literature

“…Outcomes: Most of the program evaluations included in the articles demonstrated or claimed positive effects on student/teacher learning related to ESD. Among these, five studies focused on teaching and learning assessment of ESD demonstrated a statistically significant effect [22,27,32,35,36], while three other studies focused on teacher education in the areas of ESD demonstrated the same [29,33,37]. For instance, some of these studies found that ESD courses strongly impacted participants' positive beliefs, norms and attitudes towards sustainable development [29,37].…”

“…Studies also reported other challenges and constraints which affected the implementation of sustainable development education programs, initiatives, and goals. Pre-service teacher education that prioritizes ESD, ongoing in-service teacher training and support related to the practical use of ESD tools, in addition to teachers' perceptions of the feasibility of implementing ESD into lesson times, may influence the implementation of ESD [24,33]. In one study, the amount of time and school support necessary to integrate new teaching methods and content related to ESD hindered teachers' implementation of an ESD toolkit [33].…”

“…Pre-service teacher education that prioritizes ESD, ongoing in-service teacher training and support related to the practical use of ESD tools, in addition to teachers' perceptions of the feasibility of implementing ESD into lesson times, may influence the implementation of ESD [24,33]. In one study, the amount of time and school support necessary to integrate new teaching methods and content related to ESD hindered teachers' implementation of an ESD toolkit [33]. Other studies found that the limited duration of ESD projects and programs may also play an important role in the extent to which ESD is integrated into future teaching and learning [24,25,34].…”

Teaching Methods in Science Subjects Promoting Sustainability

“…From these, we selected 16 journals with 24 articles to be analyzed in detail (Table 1). [98] In the analysis, we followed the method of qualitative content analysis [99][100][101][102]. Inductive content analysis was used to analyze teaching methods, learning environments and features of useful teaching methods and implications [99,101].…”

“…For example, the environmental and the financial crisis is a mixture of finance and economy as well as of climate, resources and the environment. Sustainability education has to deal with ideology, social change, and political power relations, and could gain much from political science [98].…”