During the trainings, trainers and participants The first two groups, a total of 78 teachers from the partner schools of the “Changing with Climate” project – received three days of in-person training from 11 to 15 July 2022, on the programmes “Environmental Education in Schools – Climate change and the Effects on Economic Sectors” and “Environmental Education in Schools – Climate change Impacts on Environmental Components”.
Interest in the topics has been very high and with the planned fall trainings we will certainly exceed the original target of 120 trained teachers.
The 2-credit training programmes have been developed by the Institute for Progressive Education within the framework of the “Changing with climate” project, funded by the EEA Financial Mechanism and the Norwegian Financial Mechanism in Bulgaria.
We organized the two trainings in the beautiful town of Pomorie, relying on the combination of a seaside setting and the opportunity for a well-deserved rest after the end of the school year, which are optimal conditions for learning and working in groups on the global themes we focused on in the project. All this created conditions for active participation in the training sessions, for bringing the participants closer together and discovering common interests, and for active communication with the trainers, which fostered the smooth running of the training process.
The training programmes are aimed at helping teachers to apply the National Education Standard for Civic, Health, Environmental and Intercultural Education in a meaningful and inspiring way, providing opportunities to plan school-based interdisciplinary projects and implement project-based learning to inform school and local communities about climate change mitigation measures.
DURING THE TRAININGS
dove into the hot and exciting topics of climate change and its impact on life on Earth:
- Climate change and environmental components – biodiversity, forests, waters, global ocean.
- Climate, greenhouse effect, global warming, greenhouse gases.
- Climate change and economic sectors – agriculture, transport, energy, tourism, industry, waste management, banking and insurance.
- Climate change, health, urban environment, extreme weather events;
- Actions taken to address climate change – mitigation, adaptation
- International and national policies – UN Sustainable Development Goals (Goal 13 “Combat climate change”), EU Council and European Parliament policies (incl. “The Green Deal”), the climate Change Mitigation Act and the National Strategy and Action Plan for Climate change Adaptation of the Republic of Bulgaria
- The potential of project-based learning for learning about climate change.
Participants solved case studies related to critical situations caused by Climate change.
Assigned to school teams, teachers worked to assess the school’s capacity to integrate climate change themes into the overall educational activities of the school. As a result, 12 ideas for implementing project-based learning in schools were drafted. The project-ideas were presented and referenced with full the participation of the participants and the leading experts and trainers of the project.
FEEDBACK AND EVALUATION
There is ample feedback and evaluation from the trainings’ participants, which is very important for us, since it motivates us for the next planned project activities. Below we share some of the answers that the trained pedagogical specialists gave to one of the questions in the online survey after the end of the training – their impressions are exciting and serve as a reward for our efforts.
What was most useful for you from the training?
The practical orientation of the exercises that I can include in the teaching work.
The more in-depth look at climate change issues and their role in the life of the planet and people in particular.
I think the training was extremely useful for me because I had no idea that climate change was changing
This is a massive campaign that I have been honored to be involved in. I found the exchange of good practices based on shared information to be useful. Solving environmental problems in a timely manner would help us to significantly reduce our harmful impact on the climate. There was a good link between theory and practice.
The knowledge I gained to make a project-based learning development, the development itself and the possibility to implement it.
Honestly – everything. The lectures, materials, videos, games and talks with the trainers.
NEXT STEPS
In the autumn of 2022, between September and October, another 70 teachers will be trained on the topic “Environmental education in schools – climate change, natural disasters and human health”. Teachers will receive certificates for 1 qualifying credit.
The trainings support the implementation of the next major activities of the project – the implementation of school campaigns among the local communities and the development of projects by the students, guided by their teachers. This will enable students to discuss and revise concepts and evaluate ideas that transcend the boundaries of individual disciplines, thus forming learning and understanding skills.
Starting in September, students in partner schools will be involved in a range of activities based on the concept of experiential learning. This will provide the opportunity to practice and apply the acquired knowledge, to develop creative thinking, motivation for teamwork and application of innovation in the process of organizing learning.
“Changing with the Climate” is a partnership project involving 10 organizations – 7 schools from across the country, 2 Bulgarian and 1 Norwegian non-profit organizations. The beneficiary of the project and the leading organization is the „Tsvetan Radoslavov“ Secondary School in the town of Svishtov. The topics of climate change are excisting for the students and focus their attention on the future and on identifying measures that we can all do individually and together mitigate the effects of climate change on all aspects of human life!
