Evgenia Flogaitis

Mentoring as a strategy for empowering Education for Sustainable Development in schools

Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is a demanding new field in terms of content and context and requires whole-school approaches and changes in educational structures. The field’s implementation constitutes a great challenge for teachers, novice in the field of ESD. Teacher education for ESD needs to effectively transfer knowledge and skills related to the concepts of sustainable development and reflect the relation of ESD to values education, systemic thinking and an interdisciplinary approach. The teaching methods employed by teacher education need to be in accordance with ESD methods and to empower teachers for integrating ESD in the teaching–learning process. For this purpose, we used a mentoring system to introduce experienced and newly appointed teachers, all novice in the field of ESD, to planning and implementing ESD and evaluated the potential of mentoring as a form of education for empowering teachers for ESD. Results highlight the value of mentoring since it encompasses all of the attributes that ESD teacher education requires in an experiential and practical form, it promotes teacher interaction and the formation of professional learning communities for ESD and it increases teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge of the subject.

Schematisation of Concepts. A Teaching Strategy for Environmental Education Implementation in a Water Module Third Grade Students in Junior High School (Gymnasium--15 years old).

This article reports how a teaching strategy schematisation of concepts could influence the learning capability of third grade junior high school students. The teaching was planned and implemented within the framework of environmental education. A water module, water and its relationship with nature and contemporary man, was chosen for the teaching session. The study involved the participation of 171 third grade junior high school students (15 years of age), attending public schools in Athens and Thessaloniki. The sample was divided into an experimental group (N =84) and a control group (N= 87). The results of the investigation showed that the teaching strategy schematisation of concepts had a positive influence on the capability of junior high school students to structure: (a) causal relations of one link; (b) successive linear causal relations of more than one link; and (c) complex causal relations.

Exploring pupil participation within a sustainable school

This research aimed to explore the factors having an effect on enhanced active pupil participation in the context of the sustainable school. The research was applied during a school year to a primary school in Lavrion (Greece), with the participation of two teachers and pupils from two classes of the upper two grades. Action Research was the method selected to organise the research conducted in the framework of a school programme focusing on sustainable waste management. It involved activities both at school and within the local community. An analysis of research results showed that specific perceptions of both pupils and teachers, some of the features of the learning processes adopted, and the current school culture were the determining factors, either facilitating, or inhibiting active pupil participation. The action research enabled teachers not only to identify factors inhibiting active pupil participation, but also to intervene to manage them.

Action Research to Encourage Pupils' Active Participation in the Sustainable School.

This article aims to explore the contribution of action research to the development of active participation of pupils in the context of the sustainable school. Action research is looked at not simply as a methodological tool for the exploration of participation, but as a key element of the educational actions that promote the active participation of pupils. Educational research was conducted during a school year at a primary school in Lavrio, Greece, with the participation of two teachers and the pupils of two classes (the upper grades—fifth and sixth). Action research methodology facilitated the critical, reflective, and, at the same time, organized a systematic exploration of the active participation of pupils. Its contribution to the objective of the research, that is, enhancing active participation of pupils, was also fundamental. As is clearly reflected in the research data, action research helped pupils participate actively and improve their participation, addressing the difficulties they identified.