After identifying and formulating the goals/objectives and learning outcomes of the course under revision, the next step is to select learning experiences, activities and methods that are likely to attain the objectives and learning outcomes set up.
Think about the key themes in your courses and how they might be linked with CLIMASP.
After identifying the key CLIMASP themes related to the course under revision, start reflecting over of the objectives generated previously. You have to look what your course and subject can offer to CLIMASP, what is special about your subject and how it can be used to further the goals and principles of a sustainable society.
To begin, you have to look at the objectives for teaching your course. Reflect on your current objectives in the courses you want to revise and identify what is missing in light of the themes chosen and the definition of sustainability you have contextualised previously. Needless to argue that you have to get a deeper understanding of the CLIMASP themes you identified as suitable to your courses and discipline.
You can develop a matrix that displays the sustainability issues identified, what is included in your current objectives and what is missing. Then, reformulate your objectives to address the new sustainability themes that you identified suitable to your courses and discipline.
In this process, it is suggested to work together with other colleagues from different subjects in order to fulfil the interdisciplinary perspective that is extremely needed in the field of sustainability education. Such an approach will serve as a basis for matching better objectives and content and at the same time build collaborative tasks.
Traditional classroom activities typically consist of lecture/discussion mixes or lectures coupled with laboratory demonstrations, yet a variety of other methods exist for the delivery of instruction. The lecture is one of the weakest types of teaching methods, especially when dealing with sustainability issues. Instructional design usually tends to adopt a mixed or eclectic approach that integrates elements of various instructional design models with contrasting philosophical assumptions. Indeed, some learning problems may require prescriptive solutions, whereas others may need more flexibility to accommodate different learning styles and roles of education. Although it might be practical to use a mixed instructional design, it is of critical importance to consider the philosophical orientations inherent in your instructional design preferences since every decision concerning instructional design is driven consciously or unconsciously by a certain human interest. The RUCAS strategic approach places a focus on a number of ESD learning processes most of them defined by Tilbury (2011) is highly recommended for CLIMASP:
- Learning to clarify one’s own values
- Learning to think critically
- Learning to reflect on own practices
- Learning to think systemically
- Learning to envision
- Learning to merge the head, the heart and the hand.
All these learning processes are inherent within an experiential, constructivist and transformative learning paradign abbreviated as ExConTra (Makrakis & Kostoulas-Makrakis, 2012).
The CLIMASP learning activities should be flexible, allowing students self-direction to guide their learning. They have to be structured to guide and help students to focus on what-to-do rather than how-to-do.
- Select active teaching techniques that are designed to get students more involved in learning.
- Analyze learning objectives to determine course content.
- Use course objectives to develop learning activities and methods of assessing student performance.
- Use media to support learning activities and their intended outcomes.
- Choose cases that connect to real-world problems so that students grapple with issues that they would likely encounter in the field or profession. Service-learning is another powerful way for students to appreciate the relevance of your material. In service-learning, students volunteer in the community at sites that relate to the class and then make connections between their field work and coursework through reflection assignments.
In matching strategies and methods, the following questions should be considered:
- Is the activity you plan cooperative rather than competitive?
- Does it provide opportunities for getting students actively involved?
- Does it connect global with local?
- Does it examine root causes?
- Does it examine the historical context of a situation?
- Does it examine power issues?
- Is it experiential, constructivist and transformative and does it address various learning styles?
- Does it address the whole student (intellectual, social, psychological, spiritual) and encourages connection with personal experience?
- Does it include a futures orientation?
- Does it allow to record processes related to head, heart and hand?