The Education Commission will be responsible for the design and implementation of all the tasks described in this section, under the leadership of the University of Environmental and Natural Sciences of Wroclaw and the co-direction of the University of Evora.
To achieve the objective, it will start by developing an education strategy that streamlines European values, learner-centred teaching principles and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This strategy will be developed in the awareness that universities play an essential role in the implementation of the SDG agenda, as it encompasses a wide range of interconnected social, economic, technological and environmental challenges that require high skills and advanced education to be addressed. To this end, a number of initiatives will be designed and implemented to enhance teachers’ professional development and facilitate a dialogue to share good practices in education for sustainability.
The main initiatives will be:
The creation of a specific Pedagogical and Professional Development Programme for teaching and non-academic staff, with the participation of experts in the field;
The organisation of annual teaching concentrations for teaching staff and Staff Weeks for non-academic staff;
The creation of a library of pedagogical methodologies in coordination with the Communication, Dissemination and Impact Commission. This is one of the most transformative processes of our proposal, as we have to change ourselves if we want to be able to reshape our educational model.
The second component of our action plan is to adapt existing curricula at each institution to match the curricular guidelines defined in the education strategy and, at the same time, to create new joint/multiple inter-university modules and degrees that build on our existing capacities and strengthen our portfolio in each of the existing SDGs. The Commission will also organise Summer Schools at each university and take the necessary steps to ensure multilingualism and flexibility of learning at Alliance level.
The Alliance is fully aware that learning is a complex and multi-layered social activity that takes place through both formal and informal activities. Therefore, a key component of the EU GREEN educational model is to provide students with a full range of learning experiences that take place everywhere and at all times of the year. Increasing students’ participation in these activities enables them to acquire additional skills, knowledge and experience needed to succeed, both in education and in their future careers. In addition, students will develop and instil the attributes that will support the development of a more sustainable world. On the one hand, inquiry-based learning and the enhancement of creativity and entrepreneurial skills are key contributions to our educational model.
Contact: elzbieta.wrobel@upwr.edu.pl