DDESTINY aims at supporting primary school teachers of children 6-10-year old (1-4 grade) in four European countries to master the challenges caused by the COVID19 pandemic and global sustainability challenges defined in the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations, by advancing teachers’ competences in digital literacy and educational design so that they can offer effective blended learning experiences in Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), using thinking-based education and storytelling as pedagogical instruments. Through online competence-building activities for teachers, creation of innovative learning content on sustainable development fit for blended learning, and an online platform with pedagogical resources and exercises, DDESTINY will support teachers and schools to create blended-learning opportunities to foster the key competencies for sustainability of students aged 6 to 10. DDESTINY is very aware of the importance of a strong alliance between teachers and parents in the education of children, and therefore includes coherent guidelines for parents to support the development of key competencies for sustainability of their children. Special attention goes to the obstacles disadvantaged students encounter while confronted with a digital learning environment. Therefore DDESTINY consciously chooses blended learning and offers special visual thinking tools to visualize the thinking processes of students in an intuitive and communicative way. Since reflection and (self)assessment are essential to all learning-processes DDESTINY designs the appropriate tools for both teachers and students to do so. All this will be gathered in an ESD blended-Learning lesson design-approach which will be offered on an online learning platform for teachers. In order to ensure that our educational approach and learning materials for ESD teaching and learning will be based on solid foundation DDESTINY will use the first 6 months of the project to do an in-depth analysis of context in which we are creating this materials. This analysis will accumulate empirical data that will 1) further support and concretize the scope of the DDESTINY project and 2) support the partnership in creating a highly relevant learning approach and materials that ensures access of all students to quality learning during times of crisis like COVID19 and facilitates parental engagement in learning activities, and 3) provide us with scientific documentation that will contribute to the existing literature on ESD and the competence gaps that DDESTINY addresses. The ESD blended Learning lesson design-approach will be piloted by teachers and student-teachers in the four participating countries. To facilitate the piloting, and ensure the sustainability of DDESTINY, online train-the-trainer courses on the ESD blended-Learning lesson design approach will be developed and perpetuated by project partners. This training will be focusing on theoretical input, educational design and didactical and digital tools and offering step-by-step implementation tutorial (what to do and what to measure) and self-reflection tools. In this way DDESTINY wants to enhance teachers’ competencies in ESD blended learning, reinforce parents’ confidence in supporting their children in ESD and increase students’ thinking competences and agility and efficiency using visual thinking tools. Through our dissemination the project hopes to increase awareness among educational authorities to strengthen ESD learning and blended learning approaches in educational policies and curricula.
Through competence-building activities for teachers, creation of innovative learning content on sustainable development fit for blended learning, and an online platform with pedagogical resources and exercises, DDESTINY helps teachers, parents and schools stimulate positive attitudes among students towards thinking-based learning in order to maximize their ability to make the most of online learning opportunities. Specific objectives of our project were to: #Enhance digital competences of teachers to use digital resources for pedagogical practice and educational design; #Develop new teaching approaches to exercise pedagogic flexibility in organizing learning for ESD learning in grades 1-4; #Create new education application and innovative learning content, exercises and activities for ESD that can be used alternatively in school or at home; #Stimulate interest and engagement among students in learning about sustainability; #Create an online platform with pedagogical resources for teaching and learning ESD; #Strengthen engagement between schools, teachers and parents and support parents in actively engaging in their children´s learning on ESD.
Across Europe during COVID, teachers adapted to online teaching during school closures, presenting multiple challenges for teachers, pupils and parents (40% of teachers didn’t have the digital skills to offer the support needed for this transition, 2018 OECD study). Only a small minority mastered the same interaction and learning levels they reached in offline teaching; European teachers lacked the sophisticated digital competences needed to convert traditional learning to online experiences. Schools must develop concepts of blended learning - digitally flexible approaches that reflect the multi-situated nature of students´ learning environments. DDESTINY supports schoolteachers of children 6-10-year-old to master the challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic by advancing their competences in digital literacy and educational design to offer effective blended learning experiences in ESD using thinking based education, storytelling, design thinking and project-based learning as pedagogical instruments. As the connection of ESD with storytelling is under-researched and meaning conveyance, which is abstract and difficult for young children, DDESTINY aims at addressing that gap.