Greece / Grèce (799) UNITWIN/ UNESCO Chairs Programme. Progress Report. Period of activity: March May 2010

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1 Greece / Grèce (799) UNITWIN/ UNESCO Chairs Programme Progress Report Period of activity: March May 2010 UNESCO Chair in Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in Education for Sustainable Development Report established by: Prof. Dr. Vassilios Makrakis, University of Crete I. Activities 1. Education/ Training/ Research From 2008 to 2010, the UNESCO Chair offered education and training courses to undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate students, academics and teachers from primary education from Greece but also from other European countries (Italy, France, Ireland, Sweden) and from the Arab States (Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon). Education Title: ICTs and Education for Sustainable Development Duration: 13 weeks (3 hours per week) on a yearly basis Expected results: Students shall be able to discuss how ICTs can enrich the teaching and learning practices and identify and use various ICT tools, especially the Web 2 technologies, in designing and developing lesson plans to address issues of sustainable development. Title: Didactics and Education for Sustainable Development Duration: 13 weeks (3 hours per week) on a yearly basis Expected results: Students shall be able to identify and discuss the teaching methods that are conducive to dealing with issues addressing sustainability and apply transformative learning approaches to design and implement lesson plans addressing sustainable development issues. 1

2 Research Title: The Teacher as a Change Agent: Development of an Online Problem-based Learning Environment for Health Education Duration: Intended use of results: The results of this Ph.D. thesis will be used as good examples for constructing hypermedia-based instructional lessons on health education issues with particular reference to education for sustainability. The ultimate aim of the study is to scaffold primary and secondary school teachers with learning and teaching modules for problem-based learning activities on Health Education linked to education for sustainability. Title: Integrating the Theme of Climate change in the Greek Primary School, (Curriculum of Natural Studies, Environmental Studies and Mathematics with the Support of ICTs) Intended use of results: The results of this Ph.D. thesis will be used to enrich the compulsory school (1-9 th Grades) curriculum in the subjects of natural studies, environmental studies and mathematics through the support of ICTs. The scope of the thesis is to assess the level and depth of climate change in school curricula, identify gaps and develop web-based inter/crossdisciplinary instructional material to fill the gaps and enrich the curriculum. The instructional material to be developed and assessed is expected to involve compulsory school learners in social activism and an exploration of the impacts of climate change on ecosystems and natural resources, on local community and on individuals and global society. Title: Assessing the Impact of the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development on Teacher Education in Greece Intended use of results: The results of this Ph.D. thesis will be used for reorienting teacher education to address sustainability in teacher education institutions in Greece. It will provide a good indicator of the influence of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD) ( ) in Primary Teacher Education in Greece with respect to: 1) the extent to which ESD is infused in study programs, course content and the didactic/epistemological approaches adopted and practiced by teaching staff; and 2) the development and assessment of student teachers competencies for ESD based on the domains of knowledge, systems thinking, emotions, ethics and values action. Title: Design, Develop and Assess a Euro-Mediterranean Online ESD Community of Practice for Reforming Higher Education Curricula to Address Sustainable Development Intended use of results: The results of this Ph.D. thesis will be used beyond awareness-raising to action competence and re-orienting higher education curricula and campus practices to address sustainability in a number of European and Mediterranean Universities. Title: Exploring the phenomenon of climate change and children s rights with the support of a web-based learning environment Duration: Intended use of results: The results of this Ph.D. thesis will be used for infusing climate change education with particular reference to children s rights education across primary school 2

3 curriculum. They will also be used to help pre-service and in-service teachers to develop their teaching expertise in handling climate change education. 2. Conferences/Congresses/Meetings Title: Symposium of Greek Teacher Education Institutions for Re-orienting Curricula to Address Sustainability Date and place: University of Crete, Rethymnon, Greece Participants: 120 from Greece 3. Publications/ Interuniversity exchanges/ Partnerships Publications Articles Title: The Challenge of WikiQuESD as an environment for constructing knowledge in teaching and learning for sustainable development Published in: Discourse and Communication for Sustainable Education (international scientific journal), Vol. 1, No 1, 2010, pp Multimedia material In the context of a project entitled PYTHEAS: A WikiQuESD Environment Addressing Issues of Learning to Live Sustainably pre-service students are using the WikiQuESD e-learning platform to develop web-based instructional projects addressing sustainable development issues. More than 50 multimedia projects have been published and are available on the internet. Interuniversity exchanges Stockholm University, Sweden Uppsala University, Sweden Padova University, Italy Dublin City University, Ireland II. Outcomes Through the introduction of two ESD-related courses and the inclusion of ESD into more than 10 courses in the Teacher Education study program at the University of Crete with the support of ICTs, hundreds of pre-service teachers are being trained and have opportunities to get involved in the activities of the UNESCO Chair. All teaching/learning materials are available online (WikiQuESD) and accessible as Open Education Resources. Consequently, they should have a significant impact on educational practices and curriculum development, nationally as well as internationally. The WikiQuESD projects refer to issues addressed by the MDGs and one of the UNESCO Chair s research projects connects climate change education and children s rights, which should have a considerable social impact as it attempts to raise children s voices on decision-making processes that concern the impact of climate change on their futures. 3

4 Moreover, the UNESCO Chair s research activities, especially the one dealing with the community of practice among university teaching staff coming from Euro-Mediterranean Universities, will also have a significant impact on human-resource development in the field of ESD at the regional and international levels. The UNESCO Chair has established a Network of North-South ICT in ESD composed of the universities that are interested or actively involved in teacher professional development with particular reference to ICT in ESD. Another activity related to Education For All of the UNESCO Chair is its involvement in the promotion and implementation of the 1 Goal Education For All project that was monitored by Action Aid Greece. The UNESCO Chair s initiative to reorient teacher education and university study programs in Greece to address sustainability has led to the development of a Web-based portal that will be used by the university teaching staff involved or interested in ESD curriculum development and research. In this framework, the UNESCO Chair has taken steps to associate the Greek ESD Network with the International Teacher Education Institutions (TEIs) Network led by the UNESCO Chair on Reorienting Teacher Education to Address Sustainability. The UNESCO Chair is then getting involved in the development of a relevant website which will connect both Networks and has also developed a web portal to be used as an ESD Research Network at the international level, bringing together researchers from all the UNESCO Chairs related to ESD. The UNESCO Chair is also conducting a survey at the University of Crete which will be used to raise the issue of Sustainable University at the local and national level. The results of this survey are expected to influence other Greek universities to adopt similar initiatives. Through this initiative of the UNESCO Chair, 13 institutions from the region of Crete, including local government, municipalities, training institutions, centers of environmental education, chambers of commerce, etc. formed a partnership and established the RCE Crete (Regional Center of Expertise in Education for Sustainable Development in the island of Crete), which is acknowledged by the United Nations University. III. Forthcoming activities For the coming years, the UNESCO Chair has planned the following activities: Launching of the International Journal of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in Education for Sustainable Development; Offering of another two undergraduate courses directly related to ESD (Earth Charter, Teaching and Curriculum; Digital Games, Cartooning and Education for Sustainability) and completion of three Masters and Ph.D. theses; Use of the results of the Sustainable University Survey to bring the issue of sustainability at the highest level of the administrative bodies and administration of all university faculties; 4

5 Monitoring of the ESD Research Network that will be used as an online forum, research basis and development of common ESD projects, as well as forming partnerships and interest groups in the field of ESD; Implementation of four projects (HIPPOCRATES, PYTHAGORAS, ARCHIMEDES and THEOFRASTOS) for the creation of e-learning environments and tools; Organization of an International Conference on Sustainable Cities, Schools and Communities, in collaboration with the Municipality of Rethymnon (Crete, Greece), and of local workshops on ESD. IV. Development prospects Short and medium term: To integrate ESD at the University policy level; to encourage the integration of ESD in the study programs of various disciplines at the University; to involve more university teaching staff in the activities of the UNESCO Chair. Long term: To take initiatives for the establishment of university teaching posts in the field of ESD. Expanding activities: In cooperation with RCE Crete, to get involved in local/regional/community-related ESD activities. Broadening partnerships: To enlarge the North-South Network of the UNESCO Chair with more Institutions from Europe/North America, Africa and Asia. Mobilization of resources: To take actions to prepare proposals for funding to be presented to the European Commission and other international organizations, individually and in cooperation with other UNESCO Chairs and Institutions. 5