Developing a Framework for EfSD

In class we looked at what makes an effective program in Education for Sustainable Development (EfSD), we also had a go at developing a program.

I find there are some similarities between developing a program in the formal education sector and developing a program for EfSD. The following I have taken from a programming book for teaching by Ruth Reynolds and Julie Hinde McLeod (2007) called Quality Teaching for Quality Learning: Planning through Reflection and I have adapted the framework given by Tilbury and Ross (2006) in Living Change: Documenting good practice in Education for Sustainability in NSW.

Adapted from Reynolds R and Hinde Mcleod 2007 Quality Teaching for Quality Learning: Planning through Reflection

Adapted from Tilbury D and Ross K 2006 Living Change: Documenting good practice in Education for Sustainability in NSW.

Here similarities between the two processes are shown, these similarities are planning, enacting and evaluating of a program as well as the underlying need to reflect on the program.

From the experience of having a go at developing a program in class, it appears a program needs to have the following steps:

1. Know your learners and their needs.

2. Identify objectives.

3. Plan Program- Funding

                          - Resources

                           - Activities/Steps needed to reach objective

4. Implement Program- Monitoring progress throughout

5. Evaluation- Do the outcomes match the objective?

                        Outputs

                        Impacts

Although there are similarities between the designing of a program in the formal sector of education and designing a program in EfSD, there appears to be one fundamental difference. I am not sure if I am looking at this incorrectly, but I feel that while programs in the formal sector focus on the learning of the group as a whole it also focuses on the learning of the individuals, programming in EfSD only appears to look at the group as a whole. Has the group learning met the intended objectives? I believe this will not allow for real evaluation of the outcomes and impacts of the EfSD program, I think there needs to be assessment of individual learning. I think as well as identifying objectives there need to be indicators in programs that show explicitly show that individuals are meeting the program objectives.

I also feel that when we were involved in developing the program in class, the elements of EfSD like visioning, systemic thinking etc, were forgotten, they were not incorporated into the program or used as a guide to develop activities. I feel that the elements of EfSD should act as guiding principles in a framework when educators are developing their programs. Through my understanding, it is through these principles that learning really takes place. The EfSD principles is the pedagogy of EfSD.

Reynolds R and Hinde McLeod 2007 Quality Teaching for Quality Learning: Planning through Reflection Thomson Social Science Press, Melbourne.

Tilbury D and Ross K 2006 Living Change: Documenting good practice in Education for Sustainability in NSW. Macquarie University, Sydney and Nature Conservation Council, NSW.