POST PRIMARY: BRINGING THE ENVIRONMENT INTO THE CLASSROOM

This course, which is non-subject specific, aims to deepen participants’ awareness of the environmental issues facing our world today and encourage them to explore ways of embedding topics related to the environment in their existing teaching programmes. Through choice of materials and activities in parts of the curriculum where there is a degree of flexibility around content, concepts relating to sustainability can be integrated into lesson plans. The form in which teachers endeavour to raise this awareness can be tailored to the abilities of their learners, linking it to their everyday lives, and presenting it in an accessible way through topics such as food miles, reducing waste and packaging, growing their own vegetables, saving energy, recycling etc. This in turn will give students an opportunity to consider how they can contribute to a more sustainable future by effecting change at a personal and local level.

 The course is highly interactive, drawing on participants’ prior knowledge and experience, using selective readings, web-based materials, role-play, discussion, video, groupwork and games. It breaks down broadly into two parts – (1) developing a deeper understanding of environmental issues and (2) exploring how to apply that knowledge in their teaching practice.