To train teachers and educators to foster sustainability in their students, CHOICE is holding a series of online trainings about key concepts on climate change, ecology and environment. As part of the online trainings, Deep Blue Consultant Mara Marzella is holding a webinar on New Ecology Education.
Nowadays, we are facing unprecedented scenarios of human development: we are connected to each other through transport, internet and technology in a way that people 150 years ago would have never imagined. We can travel to the opposite corner of the world within a day, or have live videocalls with a friend in another continent. Indeed, technological progress is contributing greatly to human development, although not without a price. Since the Industrial Revolution, levels of atmospheric CO2 have constantly risen, reaching levels that have caused rising temperatures and keep contributing to it. In addition to atmospheric pollution, human development has caused natural habitats to shrink and numerous animal species to decline in numbers, among many other things. Scientists agree that we ought to do something before it is too late, that is, when effects of human activity on the environment will be irreversible.
In this context, CHOICE project is well aware of how important sustainability is for the future, and believes that educating the youth on key concepts about environment and fostering sustainability as a citizenship competence are essential to build a greener and more aware future. In fact, Erasmus+ CHOICE project is working with teachers and educators to actively support the development of the citizenship competences of students, enabling them to do their part in the fight against the climate crisis through the adoption of sustainable behaviours.
As part of its training for teachers and educators, CHOICE is holding a series of online trainings on topics related to sustainable practices and environment, but also with a focus on education and teaching methods and tools, to help teachers and provide them with useful and engaging means to guide their students.
On December 20th, 16-18 CET, Deep Blue, CHOICE project Coordinator, is holding an online training session on New Ecology Education with Mara Marzella, Social Planning for Sustainability and Sustainable Development Consultant. As a SME engaged in many EU projects on sustainability and human impact on environment, Deep Blue will engage teachers and educators in introducing and discussing Ecoliteracy, a new way of understanding education on sustainability. Ecoliteracy focuses on a radical cultural change, where science and the scientific method are used as the base point of understanding the climate crisis and environmental impact, but it also believes that science alone cannot overcome the environmental crisis, and crucial societal changes are needed to shift the focus on the environment.
The ecoliteracy approach has shown great results in primary schools, where children are stimulated through direct contact with nature and the overall environment. However, the sustainability of pro-environmental behaviours and attitudes owes its strength to the integration of increasingly integrated and analytical knowledge, capable of grasping the complexity of systems and problems and stimulating more concrete answers from secondary school students who are really capable of translating ideas into concrete actions and are projected into the immediate future as entrepreneurs, workers and active citizens. Therefore, this complexity requires a systemic and complex vision of subjects and knowledge in schools, going beyond the compartmentalization of disciplines.
The New Ecology Education online training will define the right set of competence and the right teaching approach and perspective to systematise the knowledge following the new ecological model.
Check the New Ecology Education online training recording on YouTube!
