Teaching The Future Training Course at Doukas School
From the 6th to the 9th of November 2023, educators from Belgium, Spain, Italy, Cyprus, and Greece gathered at Doukas School for the Teaching The Future project training course. This collaborative initiative aimed to equip teachers with the tools and knowledge needed to use real-world data in order to enhance students’ environmental awareness.
Participants were introduced to the Teaching The Future Project and the Education for Climate initiative by using real world data. More specifically, the project has developed interesting and rich materials for teachers, from learning methodologies and activities to climate dashboards and collections of simulations-games, with references to the SDGs.
The training consisted of 4 main topics/modules. More specifically:
- Module 1: Climate – Addressing the challenge
- Module 2: Methodologies for powerful learning
- Module 3: Encouraging students’ engagement to local issues
- Module 4: Data, tools, and resources
Module 4 focused on the exploration of data, tools, and resources, encouraging participants to engage in fruitful discussions for a more profound understanding. The session also delved into Module 2, emphasizing powerful learning, and featured activities where teachers initiated the development of their customized lesson plans.
In Module 1, the focus shifted to addressing the climate challenge. Educators actively participated in discussions to augment their learning and provide valuable feedback towards evaluating the module. The day seamlessly transitioned into Module 3, which emphasized fostering students’ engagement with local issues. Teachers actively began the process of crafting lesson materials and presentations during this session.
The final day of the training involved refining their presentations and showcasing the culmination of the educators’ hard work. Teachers shared their presentations, highlighting the innovative ways they planned to integrate real-world data into their classrooms.
There was a diversity of subjects that each teacher teaches (geography, mathematics, robotics, etc.), as the topic of the training and the project is relevant across the different schools subjects. This allowed for an interdisciplinary approach by teachers during the teacher training activities they were engaged with.
The trainees contributed with ideas on learning activities a teacher may implement in the classroom and this material will be made publicly available through the project’s website. There were a lot of networking opportunities and exchanging of ideas during and after the teacher training time, during the course of the social activities organized (participant dinners, city walking tour, etc.).
For more information you can visit the website of the project here and the Facebook page here.