PERL
Education for
Sustainable Development
&
Responsible
Living
Námskeið í Reykjavik, júní 2011

Partnership for Education and Research about Responsible Living
is a partnership of educators and researchers from over 120 institutions in more than 50 countries –working to empower citizens to live responsible and sustainable lifestyles.
It is based on six years of work previously carried out by the Consumer Citizenship Network (CCN) http://www.perlprojects.org

aims to advance education for responsible living by focusing on :
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Steering Group
• The Steering Group provides a consultative forum that effectively directs the activities and management of PERL.
Work Groups
• PERL's work is organised into six work themes with a number of Work Groups under each theme
Consultants Network
• Every PERL partner whether in Work Groups or not, is part of the Consultants' Network.
Regional Networks
• Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, Africa and central Asia

Creating materials and methodologies for consumer citizenship and education for sustainable consumption
Sub groups:
 4a Active learning methodologies
 4b Looking for Likely Alternatives (LOLA)
 4c Teacher training modules and courses
 4d YouthXchange

4a Active Learning Methodologies
Building on the success of the Education for
Sustainable Development (ESD) Images and Objects
Active Methodology Toolkit produced as part of CCN2.
Work will:
• Develop resources that build on the criteria of the Images and
Objects toolkit to focus on
– individual consumption and climate change,
– resource usage
– personal finance management
• Develop a training manual to support ESD seminars for facilitators
• Facilitate a series of training seminars on ESD
• Set up an online discussion forum for the team to communicate with each other

ESD Images and Objects Active Methodology
Toolkit
• is for facilitators and teachers interested in education for sustainable development
• includes step-by-step instructions for planning and implementing Education for
Sustainable Development activities by using images and objects, together with a starter kit of sample images.

Personal Consumption and Climate Change
• Toolkit 2 is designed to support and encourage teachers, tutors and lecturers to integrate some of the concepts of sustainable development into teaching and learning
• It focuses in particular on using photographs and a range of active teaching and learning approaches and strategies to explore the themes of personal consumption, climate change and responsible living.

http://sites.google.com/site/perlactivemethodologies/home

Training Manual
PART 1: Why Do We Need Education for Responsible Living?
What is Responsible Living
Responsible Living versus Sustainable Lifestyles
Education for Responsible Living
PART 2: Active Learning and Teaching Methodologies
A Selection of Active Learning and Teaching Methodologies
Evaluation of Activity
Part 3: Planning and Running a Seminar: Checklists
Checklist for Pedagogical Matters
Checklist for Logistical Matters
Preparation for the Seminar
On the day of the Seminar
After the Seminar
PART 4: Useful websites
Websites for organising seminars
Websites for sustainable development
Websites for active learning methodologies
Other useful websites
Appendix: Samples of Seminar Programmes

4b Looking for Likely Alternatives (LOLA)
The LOLA Project has so far resulted in a teaching kit consisting of Step-by-Step process cards and a reporters book focussing on sustainability by investigating social innovation.
Work will:
• Further evaluate & document LOLA and its validity as a didactic process & as a set of facilitating materials.
• Maintain the LOLA website
• Further develop LOLA by stimulating its use in five more
European countries
• Disseminate the results through reports, pamphlets, exhibitions, etc..
• Spread information about LOLA.

Other background to
Sustainable Development….
UN Decade of Education for Sustainable
Development 2005 -2014

Definition adopted by the United Nations and the European Union:
Sustainable Development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987

• Gender Equality
• Health Promotion
• Environment
• Rural Development
• Cultural Diversity
• Peace and Human Security
• Sustainable Urbanisation
• Sustainable Consumption

Teaching and Learning styles appropriate for
Education for Sustainability

• Focus is on education for sustainable development
• Transformative learning getting beyond gaining factual knowledge alone to instead being changed by what one learns in some meaningful way
• The role of the teacher, learner and learning environment critical

After two weeks we tend to remember:
10% of what we read
20% of what we hear
30% of what we see
50% of what we see and hear
Reading
Hearing Words
Looking at pictures
Watching a film/video
Looking at an exhibit
Watching a demonstration
Seeing it done on location
Why different approaches?
70% of what we say
90% of what we say and do
Participating in a discussion
Giving a talk
Doing a dramatic presentation
Teaching others/ Simulating
Doing the real thing
Adapted from: Edgar Dale Audio Visual methods in Teaching

• We learn in many different ways:
Visual learners : prefer to see information
Auditory learners : prefer to hear information
Kinaesthetic learners : prefer to learn by doing
• Most learners have a preferred learning style, some a very strong preference
• They generally learn best when they work in their preferred learning style

Education about Vs Education for
SUSTAINABILITY
Traditional Approach
Transmissive
Active Approach
Transformative
• Teaching focus
• Passive learner
• Teacher directed
• Learning from teacher alone
• Learning from expert
• Learning from feedback from one key person
• Competitive environment
• Relying on rules
• Learning focus
• Active learner
• Teacher guided
• Learning from each other
• Discovery under guidance
• Learning from the reactions of many people
• Collaborative environment
• Relying on guidelines

Education about Vs Education for
SUSTAINABILITY
Traditional Approach
Transmissive
• Consistency / sameness
• Secrecy
• Copying from others discouraged
• Mistakes feared
• Learning by notes
• Formal layout of classroom
• Class time short
• Isolated decisions
• Results thinking
Active Approach
Transformative
•Diversity / flexibility
•Openness / sharing
•Learning by borrowing encouraged
•Mistakes learned from
•Learning by problem solving
•Informal / flexible arrangement
•Longer class time
•Involvement of others
•Process thinking

Námskeið í Reykjavik, júní 2011

LOLA
LOLA

The Original Toolkit http://sustainableeveryday.net/lolaprocess/

LOLA
• FOCUS ON LOCAL AREA: LOLA aims at looking for promising sustainable initiatives at a walking distance from the school…
• ADOPT ACTION LEARNING: LOLA is an investigation process based on interviews. It doesn’t require particular knowledge or preparation…
• ACT NOW: radical change doesn’t come only from topdown policies…
• CHANGE WAYS OF LIVING: LOLA proposes to search for new sustainable way of living…

LOLA
• PUPIL’S PARTICIPATION in a mutual learning process…
• ACTIVE LEARNING : LOLA process intends to be an inquirybased learning process. It is not pure discovery learning…
• SCHOOL- COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT : pupils will learn about sustainability and share diffused knowledge on sustainability in the schoolcommunity and beyond…
• FLEXIBLE TEACHING METHODS to suit different contexts in terms of age, location and time available…
• DIVERSITY OF SUSTAINABLE WAYS OF LIVING : LOLA is progressively building an international repository of sustainable ways of living…

More about LOLA
The LOLA project allows teachers and their class to
– Discover and give visibility to new sustainable lifestyles in their surroundings.
• It provides an opportunity to progress beyond the common pedagogical use of case studies and project work
– which tend to be limited to the immediate classroom context.
• The process brings the students into direct face-toface contact with groups of people (the “creative communities”)
– who are already implementing sustainable solutions in their daily life and thereby increases the learning potential of working with cases.

LOLA - adapted to fit into the Irish Curriculum.
• Where LOLA fits in the IRISH curriculum
• How the LOLA toolkit was restructured to support teaching, learning and assessment in Ireland
• What the new LOLA Ireland toolkit looks like
• Piloting LOLA Ireland
• Next steps for LOLA Ireland …
• Ideas and suggestions for other countries interested in LOLA

Background to LOLA in Ireland
• CDVEC Curriculum Development Unit (CDU), Ireland
- members of CCN and PERL Networks
• The LOLA task group introduced country ambassadors –
Miriam O’Donoghue, Deputy Director of CDU became the LOLA Ambassador for Ireland
•
Ambassadors were supplied with a full set of LOLA resources
• Meeting held in CDU of a group of senior management and project co-ordinators
- to look at the LOLA toolkit and explore the potential for
LOLA in Ireland.
Several observations made 

Observations about LOLA
• Many strengths
• Excellent concepts and approach
• Relevant and important subject matter
• Attractive presentation
• Engaging design
• Great potential if…
• Adapted to fit into the curriculum in IRELAND
• Pedagogy developed to include objectives, instructions and teaching and learning ideas for teachers etc.
• Redesigned to be cheaper to produce, easier to use …one booklet…
• Supported by teachers and used in the classroom

Decision about LOLA
• Adapt for Ireland
• Restructure / rewrite to use in the subject
Civic, Social & Political Education (CSPE)
WHY?
LOLA fits into the concept of Stewardship in CSPE
Active teaching and learning approaches key to both
LOLA and CSPE
LOLA could support the CSPE Action Project (assessment tool)

Background to the CSPE subject:
Civic, Social & Political Education:
Junior Cycle
• The subject is part of the core curriculum
-7 key concepts
• One x 40 minute class period per week or equivalent
-70 hours over 3 years
• Students undertake 2 x Action Projects
• Assessed as part of the Junior Certificate
• Active teaching and learning approaches

Democracy
CSPE is based on 7 Concepts
Rights & Responsibilities
Human Dignity
Law
Stewardship
© CJH, PDST 2010
Interdependence
Development
CSPE Teacher
Guidelines, pp10-13

Assessment: CSPE Action Project
•
Develops understanding of the concepts and skills of active citizenship
•
Enables thinking at a deeper level
•
Challenges attitudes
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Initiates change
•
Makes a difference

LOLA Ireland - What happened next?
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A working group of CSPE teachers was formed to redesign
LOLA so that it could be integrated into CSPE through the action project.
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Meetings took place over a period of approximately one year
…multiple drafts of LOLA Ireland produced
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In September 2010, Twenty five CSPE facilitators attended a national residential in-service course and were offered the opportunity to pilot the draft LOLA Ireland materials in their schools
•
11 teachers opted to join the pilot and 9 teachers implemented the draft version of LOLA Ireland with over 300 students

LOLA Ireland

LOLA Ireland Contents
• Overview
• Step 1 - Identify
• Step 2 - Search
• Step 3 - Share and Reflect
• Step 4 - Act
• Optional Step - More action
• Step 5 - Discuss and reflect

Step 1 - Identify is designed to help students to:
• understand the meaning of Sustainable Living and
Stewardship
• examine case studies of Sustainable Living and
Stewardship in Ireland and Europe (Set of 8 provided – 3 from
Ireland and 5 from Europe)
• assess case studies using Sustainable Living Criteria
(worksheet with criteria listed)
• reflect on and document their learning.

Sustainable Living Criteria

Makes people aware of how to live sustainable lives

Brings people and things together

Creates or improves green spaces

Builds or improves community relations

Encourages local, organic or Fair Trade food production

Uses things that already exist
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Builds or improves community relations

Reduces dependence on fossil fuels

Step 2 - Search is designed to help students to:
• identify where to find their own local Sustainable Living and
Stewardship case studies
• carry out preliminary research to find local case studies
• use the criteria (from Step 1) to assess their local case study
• reflect on and document their learning

Step 3 - Share and Reflect is designed to help students to:
• summarise and share some key points of information about the range case studies they have identified
• incorporate some of the Sustainable Living Criteria terminology when sharing local case study information
• agree on a case study that the class will learn more about
• reflect on and document their learning

Step 3: Share and reflect…Students presenting their initial research

Step 4 - Act is designed to help students to:
• find out more about the local case study that the class has agreed to focus on
• actively engage in raising their own awareness and that of others about the local case study
• work as part of a team to engage in an action(s) to raise awareness about the case study
• reflect on and document their learning

Step 4: Act….Students visiting their local case study

Optional Step - More action is designed to help students to:
• actively engage in raising awareness about their local case study
• work as part of a team to plan and host an exhibition to raise awareness about the local case study
• reflect on and document their learning

ACTIVITY: EXIT REPORT
Step 5 - Discuss and reflect is designed to help students to:
• reflect on and document their learning from being involved in the LOLA process

LOLA Ireland resource pack Includes…
• A manual covering each step…
– Instructions for teachers
– Overview handouts for students with images
– Worksheets
– Reflection / evaluation sheets for students
•
Special resource sheets
•
Case Studies (8 x national and international)

Teacher Instructions

Overview handouts for students

Worksheets

Special Resource Sheets

Reflection / evaluation sheets

Case Studies

Piloting of LOLA Ireland
Students and Teachers:
9 teachers piloting LOLA Ireland
Over 300 students varying ages /abilities/ gender/ backgrounds
Year Groups:
Mostly piloted with 2nd years
One school tried it with 1st years and another school tried it with a 4th year group (school with a 4-year Junior Cycle).
School Profiles:
Mix of Rural and urban;
English medium and one Irish medium school;
Public and one fee paying school (private);
Some disadvantaged schools;
Mixed gender and two single-sex schools

Piloting of LOLA Ireland
Data is being collected from teachers
after they complete each step of LOLA Ireland using a structured telephone interview
(Questionnaire)

Pilot - Some initial responses from teachers
Case Studies
• In general, the feedback about the case studies was very positive. The data collected will help when modifying current case studies and developing new ones
• Teachers liked the way the case studies helped students learn about the concept of sustainable living by looking at real examples that they could relate to.
• Teachers felt the criteria worksheet was very helpful and provided students with the appropriate language to assess and evaluate the case studies.
• Teachers found the range of case studies both national and international good.

Pilot - Some initial responses from teachers
Case Studies
•
Some teachers commented that some case studies definitely interested students more than others
– i.e. some groups got a lot of mileage out of their case studies, whereas some case studies didn’t excite or enthuse students to the same degree.
•
Some students found it difficult to find local examples.
–
Student searches were broadened to include national examples and in some instances (for weaker students) they also included international examples.

Pilot - Some initial responses from teachers
case Studies
•
Some students had difficulties understanding what they were supposed to search for
–
Teacher needed to guide discovery and search
–
An information sheet with suggested examples would be valuable for CSPE teachers will lack of expertise or experience with sustainable living examples
•
Teachers indicated that not all case studies were used in each school
–
Teachers selected a lower number of case studies
(randomly) where class sizes were much smaller.

Student Comment…
• Teacher: What do you think you’ve learned about sustainable living and stewardship from doing this project?
• Student: ‘It’s really important that we think about what we are doing now for our futures...There are lots of things we can do that don’t even have to be that big but that will still make a difference’

Some teacher Comments…
• ‘I think the resource is excellent. I will definitely use it again.’
• ‘Using LOLA opened up a whole new range of possibilities and examples of sustainable living to the students. They were amazed that some of the examples could be so simple but so effective in making a difference.’
• ‘ [Using LOLA ] triggered off a whole new way of thinking for the students. I was amazed at some of the examples they managed to find.’
• ‘The exhibition templates were excellent. Our students are using them for other subjects also and even the TY teachers have found them useful’
• ‘The criteria worksheet that came with the pack was really good for helping the students evaluate their case studies and think about the language associated with sustainable living’

Suggestions for improvement
• Teachers need more support with their understanding of sustainable living: resource could give better introductory information about the concept to help teachers and students grasp it
• Teachers and students found it difficult to find local cases....more clarity needed on what they are looking for
• Lots of new terminology in the case studies. Would be useful to introduce terms.
• Reading levels of case studies needs to be revisited, particularly for weaker students.
• Worksheets need more space for students to add their responses
• Timing of the stages needs to be revisited as many teachers are working with single class periods and are concerned about loosing momentum

Final stage of LOLA Ireland pilot
• Collate all data received from students and teachers involved in pilot
• Analyse comments and suggestions
• Revise LOLA Ireland
• Publish resource
• Disseminate LOLA Ireland more widely

Over to you
•
Had you heard of LOLA before today?
•
What is your immediate impression of LOLA ?
•
Do you think LOLA would need to be adapted for your country?
–
Can you see where it might fit into the curriculum in your country?
–
Or… do you see a different opportunity for LOLA ?
–
What first steps might you take?
•
Would you consider being an ambassador for LOLA in your country?

Thank you