Periodic Reporting for period 2 - SEAS (Science education for action and engagement towards sustainability)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2020-12-01 do 2022-08-31
The overall objectives of SEAS are (1) identifying core principles and best practices required for creating and sustaining open schooling collaborations, and (2) promoting scientific literacies and skills necessary to engage in addressing real-life, complex sustainability challenges.
To achieve these goals, SEAS coordinates and investigates collaboration among six open schooling networks with partners from Austria, Belgium, Estonia, Italy, Norway, Sweden, and the UK. SEAS networks consist of partners with extensive experience in cooperation across formal, non-formal, and informal science education, and include, in addition to researchers and out-of-school centers, local schools, civil society organizations, and small and medium-sized enterprises.
Establishing and supporting six diverse open schooling networks in Europe was a main objective. A rich variety of open schooling and real-life complex sustainability challenges is evidenced by some selected examples of actions taken: asking students to develop a plan of measures and strategies for climate protection on the background of the climate emergency (Austria); using a tool for curriculum planning across Eco-school settings to identify and select locally relevant challenges to make their city and community more sustainable (Belgium); the establishment of a Science Club for 7th grade students based on a curriculum including locally relevant sustainability issues (Estonia); creating a so-called “cathedral of hope” from plastics collected from the ocean through a collaborate with an upper secondary school (Norway); using a formal agreement between a school and the municipality regarding the protection of a forest as starting point for a purposeful division of mapping of values attached to the school forest (Sweden). For more insights into the activities of the local networks, cf. https://www.seas.uio.no/about/local-networks/.
The initial key concepts, tools and methods were refined through an iterative design where the documentation and analysis of various challenges in each network provided feedback into the further activities. On the basis of two annual local assessments, challenges, difficulties and opportunities emerging throughout the project were identified, along with alternative uses of tools and solutions specific to the local networks. A key tenet of the SEAS project’s design has been to encourage diversity among local networks to ensure their relevance to the local context and sustainability challenges addressed. In order to use the rich (empirical, methodological and theoretical) diversity as a strength, we designed an approach to co-construct a global synthesis to allows for local diversity while also making sure that each contribution is relevant and helpful to realise our joint goal, i.e. to create knowledge on our shared goals. The insights and resources of SEAS were developed in three areas: 1) Establishing Open Schooling Collaborations, 2) Supporting Teachers, and 3) Empowering Learners.
Broadening science education by providing citizens and future researchers with the tools and skills to make informed decisions and choices are still a viable long-term impact of SEAS through the tools and resources produced, communicated, and disseminated throughout the project. Key tools in the projects have been cCHALLENGE and LORET.
cCHALLENGE (www.cchallenge.no) is an experiential learning tool that facilitates and supports insights and reflections on solutions to environmental problems through a 30-day commitment to one sustainability-related experiment with change. The resource was further developed into multiple translations (Belgian, English, Estonian, and Norwegian), a Pen and Paper version, and cCHALLENGE Classroom, a teaching program of ca. 6 weeks duration which guides teachers in supporting their students.
LORET (loret.se) is a didactical tool that represents a methodology for co-creating locally relevant themes and curricula for open schooling. LORET allows for providing shared reference points for pathways of emerging learning trajectories. During the SEAS project, means to support participants in identifying and selecting a locally relevant sustainability problem were strengthened.
Key resources for establishing and supporting open schooling have been developed through a range of resources for varied stakeholders, including:
A guideline document for implementing and following up Change-Laboratory Workshops
Models for 1) Establishing and implementing open schooling partnerships, 2) Transformational engagement, scientific literacies and motivation, 3) teaching and learning scientific literacy.
An assessment framework for open schooling
A white paper for policy makers
Guideline for the establishment of a SME on open schooling for science learning
The tools and resources produced, communicated, and disseminated throughout the project include the innovative digital story (https://thisisopenschooling.org) which is elaborated in a Summary (https://www.seas.uio.no/key-findings/seas-summary-report-2022.pdf). More information and resources can be found at www.seas.uio.no.