ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION

REAL-WORLD
CONNECTIONS

SHARING RESPONSIBILITY
FOR LEARNING WITH
STUDENTS

INTEGRATED
LEARNING

CONSIDERING
ALTERNATIVE
PERSPECTIVES

SUSTAINABILITY

CITIZENSHIP

ACTING ON
LEARNING LEARNING
LOCALLY

INQUIRY

CONNECTING
THE DOTS
Key Strategies that Transform Learning
for Environmental Education, Citizenship and Sustainability

Stan Kozak
Susan Elliott
Key Strategies that Transform Learning for Environmental Education, Citizenship and Sustainability 1
2 Connecting the Dots
Key Strategies that Transform Learning for Environmental Education, Citizenship and Sustainability 3
4 Connecting the Dots
CONNECTING
THE DOTS

Key Strategies that Transform Learning for Environmental Education, Citizenship and Sustainability 5
 Connecting the Dots: Key Strategies That Transform Learning
for Environmental Education, Citizenship and Sustainability

Copyright © 2014 Learning for a Sustainable Future. All rights reserved.

Second Printing October 2015

This resource is also available in an online pdf format and in French at www.lsf-lst.ca

No part of this book or its digital format may be reproduced in any manner without written permission
except in the case of brief quotations embodied and properly cited in critical articles and reviews.

This book has been printed using vegetable-based ink on ENVIRO 100 (FSC + 100% PCW) approved by
the Forestry Stewardship Council. The cover is 100 pound Gloss, FSC approved.

Printed in Canada by York University Printing Services, 4700 Keele Street, North York, ON M3J1P3.

This book may be used as a text for educational purposes in teacher in-service and pre-service programs.

For information please contact Learning for a Sustainable Future by email at [email protected],
or call at 1-877-250-8202

Elements of this document appeared in a summary version, 2011.

Written by Stan Kozak and Susan Elliott

Edited by David Israelson
Designed by Dino Roussetos

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

ISBN (Print): 978-0-9937510-0-4
ISBN (Electronic): 978-0-9937510-1-1

6 Connecting the Dots

Table of Contents
Acknowledgements.................................................................................................................................... 1
Preface . ................................................................................................................................................... 2
Introduction — From Ecosystem to “Edusystem”...................................................................................... 4
Strategy 1: Learning Locally........................................................................................................................ 10
Strategy 2: Integrated Learning.................................................................................................................. 22
Strategy 3: Acting on Learning................................................................................................................... 32
Strategy 4: Real-World Connections........................................................................................................... 42
Strategy 5: Considering Alternative Perspectives....................................................................................... 52
Strategy 6: Inquiry...................................................................................................................................... 62
Strategy 7: Sharing Responsibility for Learning with Students................................................................... 76
Conclusion — Visions of Learning.............................................................................................................. 96
References.................................................................................................................................................. 98

Key Strategies that Transform Learning for Environmental Education, Citizenship and Sustainability 7
Acknowledgements
Learning for a Sustainable Future expresses its appreciation for the broad support it has received
for its work to transform Canada’s education systems to achieve a sustainable future.

This project arose from a need to develop a resource to guide teachers in environmental
education. From our research arose this interconnected system of learning. Through our
extensive list of citations we have attempted to acknowledge all the sources that have influenced
this project and invite updates for any we may have overlooked.

Some of the initial discussions for this project took place at meetings of the Educational
Alliance for a Sustainable Ontario (EASO). In this context Cyndie Jacobs of the Ontario Teachers’
Federation planted the seed for the title. The comments from members of EASO early in the
project are appreciated.

Without the leadership, support and perseverance of Pamela Schwartzberg and Elaine Rubinoff
at Learning for a Sustainable Future this work would still be in the conceptual stage. It has moved
on from there with the able contributions of Annette Dubreuil , Angela Kielbowski and Amanda
Palumbo, and helpful comments of LSF consultant Teri Burgess.

Chantal Bertin provided perspectives on francophone experiences with environmental education

in Ontario. The long-term influence of a number of organizations shaped the insights found here,
particularly the Council of Outdoor Educators of Ontario publication Pathways and Green Teacher
Magazine. We gratefully acknowledge the many organizations and educators whose programs
and resources we have used as examples in the text.

Support in the production of this document came from Anita Sekharan, who captured the
systems perspective in her creation of the initial graphics in an early executive summary. Brandon
Kidd took the document from a collection of chapters to one manuscript.

We were greatly supported and influenced along the way by finding like-minded colleagues
at the Laboratory School at the Dr. Eric Jackman Institute of Child Study and their thoroughly
research-based Natural Curiosity publication. Carson Allard and Deirdre Smith at the Ontario
College of Teachers encouraged our efforts by bringing insights in this document to several
initiatives at the College.

In keeping with the view that “all ideas can be improved”, we acknowledge the comments and
questions that have come from the many educators we have been working with in various
professional development capacities. Our professional inquiry into understanding the best
ways to create learning experiences with and for our students continues. We acknowledge all
who have contributed to this collaborative knowledge building of which we are a part and look
forward to the exciting contributions that formal learning will make in achieving a sustainable
future.

1 Connecting the Dots

Preface
Never before have the demands placed on education been greater. The world’s population has
passed the 7 billion mark and continues to grow. Environmental limits are being exceeded. With
these pressures in mind, the United Nations designated 2005 to 2014 as the Decade of Education
for Sustainable Development. Its mandate is to make “changes to educational practice to best
prepare citizens for active participation in democratic governance as a means of addressing the
rising economic, social, and environmental challenges…” (UNESCO, 2002).

Connecting the Dots answers the question: what are the learning strategies for environmental
education that we can employ to prepare our young people to take their place as informed,
engaged citizens? Throughout the process, a secondary line of inquiry emerged: how are
these strategies aligned with 21st century learning skills including collaboration, creativity,
communication and critical thinking?

We delved into the literature to find strategies that develop the concepts, real-world connections
and learning skills that build engaged citizenship. The result is this guide, which shows ways of
organizing learning experiences — in other words, the “how to” of learning.

The research reviewed was representative rather than comprehensive, paying considerable
attention to:

• Ontario Ministry of Education documents such as Acting Today Shaping Tomorrow (Ontario
Ministry of Education, 2009) and Standards in Environmental Education (Ontario Ministry of
Education, 2008)
• Outdoor Education with particular reference to the Council of Outdoor Education of Ontario
and its publication Pathways (Council of Outdoor Educators of Ontario, 2014)
• Publications from the North American Association of Environmental Education (North
American Association for Environmental Education, n.d.)
• Environment as an integrating context literature including the work of the State Education
and Environment Roundtable (2013)
• Place-based learning literature including the work of Promise of Place (n.d. a)
• Education for Sustainable Development literature including the work of the United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (n.d.)
• The Centre for Ecoliteracy (Centre for Ecoliteracy, 2014)
• The rich source of experiences and perspectives from Green Teacher Magazine (Green
Teacher, 2014) and the no longer published Clearing Magazine (Clearing, 2014)
• The work of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe Expert Group on
Competences in Education for Sustainable Development (UNECE Expert Group on
Competences in Education for Sustainable Development, 2012)

Key Strategies that Transform Learning for Environmental Education, Citizenship and Sustainability 2
We believe these strategies represent the best that environmental education has to offer to
formal learning. They are the “dots” that connect to form a system approach to learning.

Each learning strategy “dot” can:

• Link environmental, economic and social issues within subjects and across subjects
• Link students to each other, their home life, their schools and their community
• Link knowledge, skills and perspectives through student engagement and action
• Provide a meaningful context to address numeracy, literacy, character and other educational
expectations.

Each chapter defines the strategy, explains why it should be used and illustrates its scope.
Examples of practice are presented ranging from initial to deep application.

We don’t yet have all the answers. This creates an opportunity for teachers to become learners.
It also brings more freedom for teachers to learn with our students, improving teaching, our
communities and our future.

“Schools have a vital role to play in preparing our young people to take
their place as informed, engaged, and empowered citizens who will
be pivotal in shaping the future of our communities, our province, our
country, and our global environment.”
Ontario Ministry of Education,
Shaping Our Schools, Shaping Our Future, 2007

3 Connecting the Dots

 ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION

REAL-WORLD
CONNECTIONS

SHARING RESPONSIBILITY
FOR LEARNING WITH
STUDENTS

INTEGRATED
LEARNING

CONSIDERING
ALTERNATIVE
PERSPECTIVES

SUSTAINABILITY

CITIZENSHIP

ACTING ON
LEARNING LEARNING
LOCALLY

INQUIRY

INTRODUCTION FROM ECOSYSTEM TO “EDUSYSTEM”

Connecting the Dots provides a systems view of learning. Each strategy is a doorway to
create learning experiences reflecting the complexity of life.

Chapter Outline 1. Linking Learning Strategies and Active Citizenship

2. A System of Seven Interconnected Learning Strategies
3. Visualizing a Systems View of Learning through Interconnected Strategies
4. Moving from Traditional Teaching to Transformative Learning
5. Principles to Guide Transformative Learning

Key Strategies that Transform Learning for Environmental Education, Citizenship Aand Sustainability
Resource for Teachers 4 4
1. Linking Learning Strategies and Active Citizenship
Which strategies provide better ways to organize learning and engage students as active citizens
in supporting environmental, social, and economic sustainability?

This question is the challenge for educators in the 21st century.

The key learning strategies we have identified from environmental education are common to
other fields of education research and reform. These include:

• Constructivism and brain-based learning research

• Special education and instructional design for differentiation
• Girls and science research
• Boys and reading research
• Authentic instruction/assessment
• Motivation and retention studies.

The convergence between environmental education and these other fields of research is
encouraging. It provides clear direction for all teaching and learning. Educational researchers and
practitioners are coming to similar conclusions from many different directions.

In this context we agree with David Orr’s assertion that “all education is environmental
education” (Orr, 1991).

As the need for change in education practice rises, our understanding of learning is changing
too. The approach is more holistic and contextualized. New technologies support this
interconnectedness. To a large extent, technology reduces the traditional role of teacher as a
conveyor of information.

New technologies:
• Democratize access to information
• Enable collaborative learning among individuals separated by space and time
• Allow the formation of communities of learners who can collaboratively build knowledge
• Provide tools to support ever-broader participation in citizenship activities.

Learning is being transformed — driven by need, informed by what we know about learning and
enabled by technology.

Connecting the Dots explores strategies that engage students as active

citizens in supporting environmental, social and economic sustainability.

5 Connecting the Dots

2. A System of Seven Interconnected Learning Strategies
When applied together, the strategies interact to transform learning and meet the increasing
demands of citizenship in a changing world. They include:

• Learning Locally where the community becomes the classroom and learning is grounded
in experiences right outside the school door, involving the natural, built and cultural
environments

• Integrated Learning that crosses subject lines and skills and allows for the development of
deep understanding that includes environmental, social and economic dimensions

• Acting on Learning that acknowledges the need in learners to apply what they have learned
to enhance the community and the learning experience itself

• Real-world Connections that make learning authentic through sourcing information,

communicating to audiences and working with community partners

• Considering Alternative Perspectives that purposely presents differing views requiring

critical thinking

• Inquiry where learning follows what the student needs to know and results in the
“uncovering” of curriculum through the skillful facilitation by the teacher

• Sharing Responsibility for Learning that leads to able, independent learners.

Environmental education draws on the dynamics of ecosystems to understand ecology. A systems

view of learning calls on educators to think about the whole learning experience in terms of its
parts, processes, and their interactions. To better understand the power of teaching, a systems
view of learning is required.

Valuable insights can be gained from a systems approach:

• The whole may have properties that are different than the parts
• The parts or processes influence each other
• A missing part or process may have great impact
• Feedback can be used to influence how a system operates
• Because of its complexity the impact of feedback may be delayed
• Having many feedback mechanisms supports system stability
(American Association for the Advancement of Science AAAS, 1993).

The practice of environmental education brings a greater understanding of learning and

education as an interconnected “edusystem.”

Key Strategies that Transform Learning for Environmental Education, Citizenship and Sustainability 6
3. Visualizing a Systems View of Learning through
Interconnected Strategies Concept Map

easily applied
through Acting on Learning
Learning Locally

leads to
an important
easily occurs element of
found within through

Sharing
Responsibility
for Learning with
supported Students
Integrated reveals by
Learning complexity Citizenship and Sustainability
needed for
prepares
students for
best learned
leads to through
enhanced through

Real-World
develops critical Connections
thinking skills for
Inquiry

has
needs

Considering
Alternative Perspectives

This concept map shows the systems nature of the seven strategies that can be applied to create
dynamic learning experiences. Many relationships exist among these strategies beyond those
illustrated here. Concept maps in this document were prepared using Cmap software.
(IHMC, n.d.)

4. Moving from Conventional Teaching to Transformative

Learning
Transformative learning involves a shift in a basic premise of thought, feeling or action — a shift
that dramatically alters a way of being in the world, including relations with other humans, and
nature (The Transformative Learning Centre, 2013). Achieving ecological, social and economic
sustainability requires such a shift.

7 Connecting the Dots

Transformative learning is needed to develop engaged, responsible citizens, learning individually
and collectively. Through it, the energy, insights and abilities of individual learners are shared and
the learning of all participants is advanced. Realizing this potential provides so much hope and
excitement for our schools; students and teachers, experiencing learning and community action
linked together for the betterment of both!

Transformative learning is not used to the total exclusion of some elements of conventional
teaching and instruction. There are always appropriate reasons for direct instruction.
Transformative learning, however, requires formal learning to include our relations with others
and with nature.

This chart is a useful tool in comparing conventional and transformative learning practices.
Adapted from Miller (1988).

Conventional Teaching Transformative Learning

Criteria • primarily for employment and post- • responsible citizenship
secondary learning • the good citizen
• the good employee
Orientation to the • the world and its mechanisms are • change or transformation is required to
Status Quo working and the role of education is to meet rising challenges
pass on current values and knowledge • society at present does not have the
answers
Goals for Learners • knowing the right answers through • critical thinkers who are able to
recall challenge information based on facts,
evidence and examined values; and
pursue creative solutions
Temporal • the past and present • past, present and the future
Perspective
Choice of Learning • standardized • personalized and idiosyncratic
Pathways • learner fits into school • school adapts to the needs and
• few pathways are available interests of the learner
• divergence discouraged • many pathways for learning available
Educator’s Role • authoritative • coach, facilitator, co-learner
• command and control learning
Learner’s Role • predominantly passive • active
• sitting, listening, following instructions • seeking, interpreting, analyzing,
judging, applying individually and with
peers
• knowing what to do when the direction
is not clear
Curriculum • cover the curriculum through unit • uncover the curriculum through
delivery learning projects and inquiries
Focus of Learning • information transfer to the student • knowledge construction by the
student(s)
Scheduling • learning is timetabled by subject • some level of open scheduling on the
• reductionist basis of projects or inquiry needs
• holistic
Materials • textbooks and black line masters • real-world open sources and formats
common (deeply integrated technology tools)
Location and Time • in school and during the school day • in school and community, flexible
learning time
Evaluation • assessment of the products of learning • assessment of the processes of learning
emphasized emphasized

Key Strategies that Transform Learning for Environmental Education, Citizenship and Sustainability 8
 “A preoccupation with teaching has left us largely ignorant of learning.”
—Ison, 1990

5. Principles to Guide Transformative Learning

• All ideas are improvable (Scardamalia, 2002)
• Every learner is a whole person, needing to be a contributor to his or her community (the
learner-citizen)
• Each individual has the right to determine who he or she wants to be and to pursue who he
or she can be. The educator’s task is to aid them on that life journey
• We learn better with others through the teacher-student-peer group dynamic
• Learning in and for the community (natural, structural, social) enhances both.

[Transformative] Education is a means for people to become self-

actualized members of society, seeking meaning, contributing to
developing their own potential and creating solutions together. A
sustainable world without participation and democracy is improbable, and
perhaps even impossible.
—Wals & Jickling, 2002

9 Connecting the Dots

 ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION
REAL-WORLD
CONNECTIONS

SHARING RESPONSIBILITY
FOR LEARNING WITH
STUDENTS

INTEGRATED
LEARNING

CONSIDERING
ALTERNATIVE
PERSPECTIVES

SUSTAINABILITY

CITIZENSHIP

ACTING ON
LEARNING

STRATEGY 1
LEARNING
INQUIRY
LOCALLY
Learning Locally or using the community as classroom is a strategy available at every
school. The opportunities vary according to the school’s location and the time of year.
Nevertheless there are rich opportunities waiting outside every school door.

Strategy Outline 1. What Is It?

2. Visualizing Learning Locally Concept Map
3. Why Use It?
4. How to Implement Learning Locally
a. Location-Location-Location
b. Nature’s Calendar of Events - Exciting, Predictable, Rich
c. Learning through Schoolyard Diversification

Key Strategies that Transform Learning for Environmental Education, Citizenship Aand Sustainability
Resource for Teachers 10 10
 “Never globalize a problem if it can possibly be dealt with locally.”
—Hardin, 1985

1. What Is It?
Learning Locally takes advantage of the natural, built and cultural amenities that exist in the
community — just outside the school doors, often a short walk away. Using local experiences for
learning takes the classroom outside the walls and into the community.

2. Visualizing Learning Locally — Concept Map

Schoolyard and Students with learning

neighbourhood outside the classroom

requires familiarizing

Nearby natural occurs in

and built areas
LEARNING by
developing Teacher field-based
LOCALLY pedagogical skills

Regional
by planning with
settings involves

Nature’s annual cycle

Wilderness of events
settings Experiences that get information,
communicate information or
involve doing

11 Connecting the Dots

PHOTO CREDIT: LEARNING FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE

Preparing to experience solo spots in a wooded neighbourhood ravine.

3. Why Use It?

• Learning that takes place in local settings contributes to improved thinking and problem-
solving skills. Decision-making in authentic contexts is most relevant to learners (Department
for Education and Skills, 2006)
• The world beyond the classroom provides a more inclusive learning environment for all
kinds of learners. It provides opportunities for active, experiential learning that contribute to
positive emotions and long-term memory retention (Hardiman, 2010)
• Programs with a significant amount of learning time spent outdoors contribute to improved
behaviour and physical well-being (Center for Research and Design, 2007)
• Using local experiences for learning allows students to explore the complexity of the world
beyond the classroom
• Local experiences are relevant to all subject areas. They motivate many learners and provide
them with inspiration for writing, reading or discussion
• Local experiences build on student knowledge of their land and their relationship to it
(Sanger, 1997). This encourages students to continue learning and participate further in their
communities
• Many adults cite childhood experiences in nature as one of the main contributors to their
later concerns for the environment. Contact with natural areas has emerged as one of the
most significant influences in shaping responsible environmental behaviour in all the studies
reviewed (Simmons, 1998)
• Learning Locally helps dispel the view that the environment is a bus trip away. It illuminates
aspects of the environment right where students live; its richness, its problems and its
possibilities
• It costs less, often reduces the need for permission protocols and involves fewer
administrative procedures
• Introducing a child to a natural or built area in the neighbourhood can open a world of
wonder for them to explore outside of school hours expanding the time horizon of learning.

Key Strategies that Transform Learning for Environmental Education, Citizenship and Sustainability 12
 PHOTO CREDIT: LEARNING FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE
Planning to and reinvigorating schoolyard gardens can incorporate a lot of learning.

4. How to Implement Learning Locally

a. Location-Location-Location
Learning Locally emphasizes what is close to the school for the very young and extends beyond
as students develop. Learning experiences within walking distance can be a common occurrence
in all grades.

i. The Schoolyard and the Immediate School Neighbourhood

Schoolyards and immediate neighbourhoods have more to offer in terms of learning
opportunities than most teachers realize. Many schoolyards include some green space, sports
facilities, and ornamental gardening at the front of the building. Within several blocks of the
school, neighborhoods generally provide a more diverse landscape. Every class has, within steps,
a wide range of learning opportunities.

There is no cost barrier since no busing is required. The schoolyard and neighbourhood
are available all the time. Students and teachers are familiar with the site so risk is limited.
Administrative requirements are minimized as walking trips close to the school generally need
only one permission form at the beginning of the year. If there is an incident that requires
support, it is only steps away.
Examples
Seasons (Grades K to 3)
Students were asked what season they were in. To help determine the answer they went outside
to collect evidence to make a decision.
Neighbourhood Squirrels (Grade 2)
A student commented on squirrels observed while coming to school. The teacher took the class
out to observe the habits of local squirrels in the neighbourhood to determine the needs of these
living things. Data was collected to apply in mathematics learning.
Leaves on a Schoolyard Tree (Grade 3)
Small groups of students were each assigned to a schoolyard tree to use mathematical problem
solving to determine how many leaves were on it without actually counting them all.

13 Connecting the Dots

 Messages to Neighbours (Grade 6)
After touring a local natural area, messages were prepared for school neighbours and delivered
through sidewalk chalk murals with written captions.
Neighbourhood Survey (All Grades)
While walking through the neighbourhood as a class, students stopped and interviewed
neighbours to determine what they liked about the area and what changes they would like to see.

ii. Nearby Natural and Built Areas

A municipal park, vacant lot or acreage, stream or river, local woodlot or field are often near a
school. Similarly, the built components of our communities — a downtown, commercial areas,
industrial areas, parking lots or transportation hubs — are nearby and provide links to many
curriculum expectations.

Children can walk farther as they grow older. Most six year olds can easily accommodate a two-
kilometre walk with plenty of stops. Walking trips also have a positive health impact. The 2013
Healthy Active Kids Report Card identifies 60 minutes per day of moderate exercise as optimal for
school age children. (Health Canada, 2002; Healthy Active Kids, 2013)

A Jane’s Walk provides students an opportunity to appreciate where they live and share their insights with others
in the community.
PHOTO CREDIT: JOHN CAFFREY

Examples
Guided Neighbourhood Walks (All Grades)
Each year Jane’s Walks get students to appreciate and share what they know about their
neighbourhood. A variety of techniques, including social mapping, engages students in
interacting with their local environment in new and exciting ways (Jane’s Walk, 2014).
What Does It Mean to be a Citizen in Our Neighbourhood? (Grades 2 and 3)
Teachers posed the questions, “How do we care for the world?” and “How does the world
care for us?” to guide this year-long learning project. Answers came from an eight-week
neighbourhood study that included mapping, personal stories, walking trips and service learning,
directed by student inquiry (Promise of Place, n.d. b).

Key Strategies that Transform Learning for Environmental Education, Citizenship and Sustainability 14
Nature in the Neighbourhood (Grades 4 to 6)
Nature is not confined to parks and conservation areas that are only accessible by bus. The
Nature in the Neighbourhood children’s book has promoted an approach that helps students
observe and interact with living things within walking distance of any school.
Questing and Geocaching (All Grades)
Questing is a game to develop a sense of place. Participants follow clues based on a specific
place’s attributes. The game leads to a “treasure”, usually a message in a sealed container.
Geocaching is similar but a GPS unit is used to find the cached container. These learning activities
bring attention to a particular natural, cultural or built place. They present opportunities to
address expectations in many subject areas. To create your own quest, see (Vital Communities,
n.d.).

iii. Regional Natural Settings and Centres

As students get older, their horizons expand and this may warrant travel farther afield to sites
such as provincial and national parks, regional environmental learning centres, hiking trails or
different urban and rural experiences. Regional sites give teachers access to specialized staff,
facilities and equipment relevant to the learning experience. For many children their only
experience at these sites will be through school.

iv. Wilderness Experiences and Extended Trips

There is no substitute for experiencing wilderness. It provides adventure-based learning that
requires planning for all parts of the trip. Through these experiences many students learn about
themselves and how to live and work with others to achieve a goal. Eating what they prepare,
sleeping somewhere other than their own beds, adjusting to different routines, and learning
to understand that the power of wilderness is beyond our control, helps develop respect,
appreciation and responsibility.

b. Nature’s Calendar of Events — Exciting, Predictable, Rich

No matter how often the seasons repeat there is joy and wonder in experiencing this cycle. For
educators, the beauty is that natural events can be predicted within a week or two. A number of
programs take advantage of the changing of the seasons.

Primary students learn about the sun by measuring the length of shadows each month throughout the school year.
PHOTO CREDIT: STAN KOZAK

15 Connecting the Dots

 Examples
Nature Watch (All Grades)
Students at all levels can participate, observing frogs, first ice formation, plants or worms at key
times of the year. Information collected in the field is submitted online and used to determine
changes that may be taking place (Nature Watch, n.d.).
Journey North (All Grades)
Spring starts in the southern parts of North America and gradually proceeds north. As it does
natural events unfold and we get to observe first robin sightings, tulip bloom dates, or monarch
butterfly arrivals. Through these observations, students are attuned to changes in the world
around them. Results are submitted online and used to generate maps showing changes in the
spring season across the continent (Annenberg Learner, 2014).
Step Outside: Your Guide to Nature’s Events (All Grades)
In this program, educators receive nature guides emailed three times per month indicating
what is happening in nature often right outside the school door. From there it is a case of taking
students outside to experience the changes in plants, animals and weather that are occurring.
These guides provide ideas for schoolyard observations and activities (Learning for a Sustainable
Future, 2014a).
A schoolyard garden is an exciting opportunity to address learning expectations in many subjects.
PHOTO CREDIT: LEARNING FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE

c. Learning through Schoolyard Diversification

There are many examples of how major schoolyard makeovers enrich learning and experience.
Even teachers with schoolyards that still look like natural and cultural deserts can turn this to a
learning advantage through small manageable projects.

Examples
Flowerbeds (All Grades)
Take over an abandoned flowerbed in front of the school. Have students research what native
plants might be incorporated, source materials, apply for funding and organize the day for
planting.

Key Strategies that Transform Learning for Environmental Education, Citizenship and Sustainability 16
Visioning Their Schoolyard (All Grades)
Have students involved in envisioning what the schoolyard could look like. Small groups can
choose a site, brainstorm, research and create models to present to school administration,
parents and the community.
Pocket Gardens (Grade 1 to 3)
With few resources, the teacher-librarian created a pocket garden the size of a typical door. The
focus was learning about plants and growing food. The small plot held possibilities for learning
about plants for butterflies and spring bulbs.
Tapping Maple Trees (Grade 2)
Tapping a sugar maple tree in the schoolyard turned out to be an exciting and tasty project. Sap
was boiled in the staffroom and the students experienced “sugar on snow”.
Wild Corner (All Grades)
Designate a part of the schoolyard as a “wild corner”. Post it to keep out maintenance people.
Watch the changes over time.

A walking tour of downtown Guelph led to the discovery of many links to medieval times. Drawing the buildings required careful
attention to detail.

PHOTO CREDIT: STAN KOZAK

17 Connecting the Dots

Developing Field-based Pedagogical Skills —
Tools for Teaching Outside
Preparing for effective learning outside the classroom calls for all the same skills as those needed
indoors, and a few more.

i. Plan for all three stages of learning in the out-of-class setting

• Before the outing—preparation and what to expect.
• The experience itself—use a variety of learning experiences (high energy, observation, quiet
listening, active work, individual to small group to whole class).
• On return—reflection, debriefing, research, follow-up projects. These are important and if
they do not occur the field experience is underutilized and devalued.

ii. Have a clear focus

• Ensure that you have identified for yourself and your students the main intent for the
learning experience. It might be as simple as identifying student questions and observations
for further research or having an unstructured play experience in a natural setting.

iii. Use the learning richness that the site provides

• Meaning can be brought to all subjects in field situations. Vary the subject perspectives, for
example, focusing on literature, science, history or art at different times.
• Use appropriate teaching strategies — direct learning, inquiry, activity-based in a field
setting. Set up learning centres in an outdoor area just as you would in class, but this time
featuring real things that can be seen, touched and moved.

iv. Identify and meet student needs

• Encourage questions. Address the individual concerns that students bring —when is lunch,
where is the bathroom, how long do we have to walk?
• Address any fears associated with being outdoors.
• Create activities that allow students to explore and adjust to new settings before initiating a
learning activity, just as you would with new materials in class.
• Call on students to share relevant experiences and knowledge.

v. Modeling master learner perspectives

• Learn to be comfortable outdoors — practice it.
• Exhibit good learner behaviour — curiosity, questioning, sense of adventure.
• Have at least some basic level of familiarity/experience with native plants and animals.
• Admit and embrace not knowing everything and utilize these opportunities to advance inquiry.
• Be appropriately dressed. “There is no bad weather, only bad clothing” (Scandinavian saying).
• Protect your voice. Establish pre-arranged signals to bring the group together and to listen.
Speak with a normal voice so that students get in the habit of listening.

Key Strategies that Transform Learning for Environmental Education, Citizenship and Sustainability 18
vi. Flexibility
• Nature sends teachable moments on its schedule, not yours. When a bird or a cloud of
interest appears use them to support learning.
• Identify opportunities to just let children play in an outdoor setting; set safety boundaries
and let them at it.
• Keep a small knapsack with some learning props and activities at the ready — books or
poetry to read on site, adventure challenge props, index cards and felt pens to sketch or
make observations.
• Have alternate plans/activities if the weather changes abruptly or travel problems arise.

vii. Behaviour management

• Students want to have fun and this is good, so plan for it as part of the learning.
• Giving students a clip board or other tool to record learning when outdoors “primes” them
to seeing their time outdoors as learning time, not recess.
• Many students behave differently there than in class due to the novelty of the experience.
Establish clear expectations cooperatively and aim to learn outdoors more often.
• Set physical boundaries for activities in different locations.

viii. Safety and student care

• Most sites require a pre-visit to identify hazards and learning opportunities.
• Identify for students the possible hazards — wasps, dog droppings, hazardous
discarded items.
• Know the signs of heat stress and hypothermia.
• Discuss the appropriate responses to mosquitoes and flies. In some seasons do not take
students into areas that have serious biting insect problems.

ix. Use travel time

• Plan for learning activities as students move along between learning sites. Maximize their
learning time in the outdoors.

x. Prepare your adult volunteers

• Outline expectations you have for them.
• Identify when they should call upon you for assistance.
• Clarify appropriate student–volunteer relationships with students.

“One thing we know is that kids’ writing is much more interesting,

complex, and detailed if they’ve had rich experience.”
Place-based Education Evaluation Collaboratives, 2007

19 Connecting the Dots

 “ …wherever you are… you can still look up at the sky –see dawn and
twilight beauties, its moving clouds, its stars by night. You can listen to
the wind, whether it blows with majestic voice through a forest or sighs a
many-voiced chorus around the eaves of your house or the corners of your
apartment building. Even if you are a city dweller, you can find someplace,
perhaps a park or golf course, where you can observe the mysterious
migration of the birds and the changing seasons … you can ponder the
mystery of a growing seed, even if it be only one planted in a pot of earth
in the kitchen window.”
Rachel Carson, 1965

The Journey North program follows Spring as it advances from south to north and prompts learners to make predictions
and observations.
PHOTO CREDIT: LEARNING FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE

Key Strategies that Transform Learning for Environmental Education, Citizenship and Sustainability 20
 PHOTO CREDIT: STAN KOZAK

Locally found materials can be used to creatively demonstrate knowledge of the parts of an insect.

21 Connecting the Dots

 ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION
REAL-WORLD
CONNECTIONS

SHARING RESPONSIBILITY
FOR LEARNING WITH
STUDENTS

LEARNING
LOCALLY

CONSIDERING
ALTERNATIVE
PERSPECTIVES

SUSTAINABILITY

CITIZENSHIP

ACTING ON
LEARNING

STRATEGY 2
INTEGRATED
INQUIRY LEARNING
Integrated or interdisciplinary learning is an approach that brings together content and
methods from more than one subject discipline, supporting connections that deepen
understanding (Lake, 1994). Subject-based timetables and subject specialization in higher
grades can make its application more difficult, but not impossible.

Strategy Outline 1. What Is It?

2. Visualizing Integrated Learning Concept Map
3. Why Use It?
4. How to Implement Integrated Learning
a. Using a Theme to Address Expectations from Different Subjects
b. Using Literature to Launch into Expectations from Different Subjects
c. Starting with a Skill to Address Expectations from Many Subjects
d. Pursuing a Concept through Many Subjects
e. Project–based Learning
f. Inquiry
g. Facilitating Integrated Learning through Key Concepts
h. Using Concept Maps
i. Block Scheduling
Key Strategies that Transform Learning for Environmental Education, Citizenship and Sustainability 22
1. What Is It?
When we pursue any issue or topic with our students, opportunities to address learning
expectations from many subjects arise. Using these learning opportunities is the essence of
Integrated Learning. At basic levels of integration, distinct subjects are readily identifiable. In fully
integrated investigations or projects, subject boundaries are transcended.

2. Visualizing Integrated Learning Concept Map

Project-based
learning
Student-led A literature
Inquiry approach

Concept maps A theme

to integrate knowledge methods include
using approach

INTEGRATED Block scheduling

Student LEARNING
engagement

contributes to involves Differentiation

Seeing the
complexity
of issues A focus on
big ideas
An Using appropriate
interconnected expectations
worldview from all subjects

3. Why Use It?

• Makes curriculum manageable by addressing many subject expectations in a meaningful way
• Contributes to deeper understanding of topics and issues, and the interrelationships
inherent in complex, real-world systems
• Provides opportunities to differentiate instruction. The inclusion of multiple disciplines
enables students to engage their particular interests or abilities
• Teaches expectations in the context of Integrated Learning experiences. Students see the
purpose of the learning and apply it immediately.

23 Connecting the Dots

 “When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to
everything else in the Universe.”
—John Muir, 1911

4. How to Implement Integrated Learning

The degree of integration — the extent and number of subjects involved in the learning
experience — spans a continuum. Levels of integration have been described from multi-
disciplinary (some integration), to inter-disciplinary (more integration) to trans-disciplinary (most
disciplines integrated) (Drake & Burns, 2004). The examples provided here range from least to
most integrated. Integrated Learning can be implemented through an inquiry model for deep,
connected learning (Drake and Reid, 2010).

a. Using a Theme to Address Expectations from Different Subjects

Theme-based learning experiences have a central topic that links learning. Learning centres
or activities in thematic integration usually stand alone. But opportunities to link them can be
identified and the teacher can facilitate these relationships.

The dominance of subject disciplines in secondary schools is a significant challenge to

integration. There are a number of approaches that secondary school educators have taken to
successfully bring Integrated Learning to their students.

Examples
The Monarch Magic Program (Grade 4)
The integrating theme was butterflies. Subjects included language, media, music, science, art,
drama, social studies and physical education. The learning culminated with the creation of a
small schoolyard butterfly garden (Scholastic, Arts and Global Education, 2005).
Integrated Environment Unit (Grades 5 to 8)
Students at Georgetown Elementary School participated in a six-week integrated unit on
the environment. In multi-age groups, they worked at six subject-based workstations for 45
minutes each day and participated in two day-long community field trips. Students experienced
community roles, applied the writing process for a purpose, worked cooperatively and managed
their time (Douglas, Hendricken, MacAdam & Stevens, 1995).
Ten Up (Grade 10)
This learning experience included four teachers, four subjects, 80 students and 3 hour block
scheduling. In this semester-long “school within a school” program, students received 4
credits integrated through the theme of social organization. The program allowed for student
collaboration on real-world problems, negotiated teaching, an emphasis on experiential learning,
deep and sustained project work, access to community learning resources, and development of a
systems thinking perspective (Ast, 1995).

Key Strategies that Transform Learning for Environmental Education, Citizenship and Sustainability 24
Five-Subject Interdisciplinary Research Project (Grade 12)
Teachers in five subjects collaborated for two months to give students the opportunity to do an
interdisciplinary, in-depth research project culminating in an oral presentation and written essay.
The learning across subjects led to an understanding of interconnections, use of observation,
analysis and collaboration (Milosovich, 1995).
The Energy Loop Engages the Whole School (Grades 10 to 12)
L’École Secondaire Catholique de Casselman has had a Specialist High Skills Major program in
Arts and Culture that promoted a whole school project, the Energy Loop. Many departments
in the school prepared a learning activity for the day, that all students visited. Through these
student-produced presentations, the whole school was part of a focused interdisciplinary
exploration of a theme.
Sessions included:
• An art exposition with pieces made of recycled materials that express a message
• A science exposition on aspects of nature (e.g., atomic structure, evolution, inventions using
recycled materials, effects of chemicals)
• A religion class selling energy-saving bulbs to the community at very low cost
• A teacher presenting her home as an example of applied energy efficiency practices
• A food class demonstrating the importance and chemistry of composting in a workshop
format
• A drama class creating a play linking current and future generations
• A music class providing musical accompaniment and language classes preparing product
advertisements used in the production (C. Bertin, personal communication, 2009).
Two to Four Credit Secondary School Integrated Programs
In this innovative model two, three or four courses are combined for a semester so that the
group of students involved stay together for part or all of the school day. Many different themes
have been used to integrate the subjects involved. Four-credit integrated programs create a
school within a school in which the teacher and students form a flexible independent unit. Freed
from the constraints of the timetable, learning often takes place in the community, uses out-of-
school resources and experiences, and develops strong relationships among participants.
Community Environmental Leadership Program – CELP (Grade 10)
This semester-long interdisciplinary program requires students to learn to work well in groups.
They take the initiative to get tasks done such as leading programs for younger students. During
the program they explore their interests in environmental and social issues.

The students receive four credits (English, Career Studies and Civics, Outdoor Activities-Health
and Physical Education, and Interdisciplinary Studies). Learning projects address expectations
from the courses and often students are not aware of which subject they are “in” at any one
time. Learning projects include an extended wilderness trip, a week of cycling within the
community, visiting and interviewing community members engaged in civic and environmental
issues and the delivering of a fieldtrip program to Grade 5 students (Centennial Collegiate
Vocational Institute, n.d.)

25 Connecting the Dots

 Four features that contribute to the success of the secondary school
integrated program model:

1. Continuity — time and responsibility to see a project through to its completion

2. Authenticity — a student’s sense that the learning is real and valuable
3. Community — students relying on others in their school community to get the job done
4. Responsibility — being in a position where they are responsible to themselves, others in the
program and the wider community (Horwood,1994).

b. Using Literature to Launch into Expectations from Different Subjects

Literature-based Integrated Learning is an effective entry point because many students enjoy
learning through stories.

Appropriate literature choices:

• Address an engaging topic or issue
• Are age appropriate
• Are based on accurate facts
• Provide opportunities to address curriculum from a number of subject areas (Students can
dramatize it, illustrate it, start a project related to it, lead the class to explore beyond the
school, take follow-up action, retell, write, or find related topics to debate).

The Biodiversity Campaign project was a natural context to authentically address and apply learning expectations from four
subject areas: English, Visual Art, Biology and Geography.
PHOTO CREDIT: STAN KOZAK

Key Strategies that Transform Learning for Environmental Education, Citizenship and Sustainability 26
Reading and writing get significant attention in the school day and require motivating content.
Environmental topics engage most learners. Stories offer a doorway to the real world and an
integrating approach that most teachers can incorporate into their planning.

Examples
Safari (Grades K to 3)
A number of picture books about safaris exist. Reading about a safari sets the stage for a
schoolyard or neighbourhood journey where the class sets out to discover the living things easily
accessible for their observation (e.g., worms, sow bugs, crows, ants, butterflies or a range of
plants from dandelions to maple trees). Associated learning activities can include journal writing,
class story preparation and reading, mural creation, clay modeling, or research on individual
living things. This kind of investigative learning keeps students engaged and excited for weeks and
promotes skill development.
Season of the Moon by Jean Craighead George (Grade 5)
This series of four titles features the events taking place in nature during the 13 moons of the
lunar calendar (e.g., Moon of the Bear, Moon of the Owl, etc.). Each book is an invitation to
observe more carefully what is going on in the natural world and take the time to step into it.
Based on the author’s model, teachers have encouraged students to create their own written
stories for one of the moons of the year (J. Somerville, personal communication, 2010).

Visual art was used in the field to consolidate what grade 4 students had learned about aquatic habitats.

PHOTO CREDIT: STAN KOZAK

27 Connecting the Dots

Halfway Man by Weyland Drew (Grade 10)
This novel helps prepare students for wilderness tripping and experiencing nature. Linked to the
storyline, students learn about first person narrative voice, journaling to develop an authentic
voice and storytelling. They prepare an environmental autobiography (students write about
one formative experience in nature they remember). They also investigate themes such as trust
versus fear, issues such as land rights/use linked to civics, aboriginal culture and the decentering
of one’s own culture, and discuss aspects of leadership (J. Dalziel, personal communication,
2009).

c. Starting with a Skill to Address Expectations from Many Subjects

Some children may be able to express understanding more effectively through drawings than
verbally or in writing.

Example
Leading with Art (Elementary)
Art was used as a tool to learn about animals. Students and the teacher:
• Found insects in their natural habitats, chose what was of interest to them and created
drawings that were representations of their individual experience and understandings
• Used art to illustrate many experiences they had throughout the day –plan for the day,
record observations from a walk and even solve math problems in which their drawings
were supplemented with writing (Stein, McNair & Butcher, 2001).

d. Pursuing a Concept through Many Subjects

Concept-based integration occurs when many subject perspectives are linked in the examination
of an abstract concept.

Example
Relationships (Grade 5)
The concept of relationships was used as the link for learning activities in a number of subjects.
The overall aim was to critically explore human-environment relationships and integrate sensory
experience into student learning. The teacher developed curricular activities that were based on
the concept of relationships where the students:
• Ventured into the outdoors and were asked to document how they related to a living animal
or plant
• Engaged in guided journaling that included writing and/or drawing to indicate in some way
what they saw, heard, felt, or thought
• Used activities in art and science to explore the concept of relationships in an ecological
context (Faria, 2008).

Key Strategies that Transform Learning for Environmental Education, Citizenship and Sustainability 28
e. Project-based Learning
In Project-based Learning (PBL), concepts and skills are learned and used to advance a project.

Project-based Learning follows defined steps:

1. Defining the project
2. Gathering information
3. Analyzing the information
4. Creating the project
5. Communicating about the project
6. Evaluating and celebrating the project.

Project-based Learning projects:

• Are central, not peripheral to the curriculum
• Focus on questions or problems that “drive” students to encounter (and struggle with) the
central concepts and principles of a discipline
• Involve students in a constructive investigation
• Are student-driven to a significant degree
• Are realistic, not school-like (Thomas, 2000).

Examples
Creating a Field Guide (Grade 6)
Students created a field guide for living things in a nearby natural area and, in so doing, involved
art, literature and science. Use of the guides provided a great incentive to get outdoors (Grinstad,
2001).
A Community Problem Leads to Street Theatre (Grade 8)
Geography, writing and drama in the form of street theatre, were used in a Grade 8 classroom to
explore a community’s struggle with its growing waste problem.
Students:
• Gathered information through field trips to the local waste-sorting plant, telephone
interviews and online searches
• Analyzed the information to discover the key community challenges
• Wrote individual two-minute street theatre plays with help from drama staff at the local
university.
The big day arrived and students were bused to the local mall to present to small gatherings of
shoppers.

f. Inquiry
Inquiry-based learning is directed by the interests and questions of the students involved, with
the teacher acting as a facilitator. The scope of the learning often becomes trans-disciplinary.
The teacher follows and shapes the learning experience identifying appropriate opportunities to
address curriculum expectations and build in opportunities for assessment and evaluation.

29 Connecting the Dots

Example
Pursuing the Question - How Does Human Activity Impact the Diversity of Living Things?
(Grades 7 and 8)
The question was used as a context to address relevant knowledge, skills and attitudes from a
number of subjects. The teacher proposed learning and assessment activities that contributed
to answering the big question. The learning activities were also planned to support a relevant
culminating task. The learners saw that the inquiry had purpose. It answered the question and
they did something significant with their understanding (Drake and Reid, 2010).

g. Facilitating Integrated Learning through Key Concepts

Focusing on key concepts or big ideas is a way of simplifying the curriculum planning process.

Example
Big Ideas about Plants (Grade 3)
Content from the Grade Three Science and Technology Growth and Changes in Plants topic
(Ontario Ministry of Education, 2007) can be expressed in terms of six key concepts to assist the
planning of learning experiences:
• All plants have needs in order to stay alive
• All plants have parts to help get what they need to live
• All plants have a life cycle
• Plants and animals depend on each another
• People use plants and depend on them in many ways
• People both help and hurt plants.

With these content ideas expressed in advance, the teacher can shape learning so that students
address all of them.

h. Using Concept Maps

Concept mapping has been identified as an important Education for Sustainable Development
tool (Afamasaga-Fuata’l, 2009; Ahlberg & Kaivola, 2006). They visually track knowledge concepts
and learner perceptions and provide a visual representation of a student’s understanding of
concepts and relationships (Novak and Canas, 2009). Their utility has been noted both for
assessment and building of knowledge to understand real-world phenomena (Ahlberg, 2005).

Concept maps usually cross subject boundaries as they reflect our understandings of complex
relationships that exist in the world. As such, they are effective in helping understand problems
and challenges.

Key Strategies that Transform Learning for Environmental Education, Citizenship and Sustainability 30
Concept maps:
• Support systems thinking
• Indicate what students know about a topic and can serve as an assessment tool
• Provide direction for students to pursue their learning
• Expand understanding by showing links that were not previously obvious.

Example
Student’s Initial Concept Map for Acid Rain (Grade 9)

Note the misconceptions, such as the idea that acid rain can burn skin or umbrellas. The student
correctly links acid rain to pollution but has little understanding of the mechanism of its impact
on living and non-living things.

i. Block Scheduling
Traditional school timetables often show the school day divided into subject-based segments as
short as 20 minutes. As facilitators of learning, teachers should consider how to create significant
blocks of uninterrupted learning time that support integrated learning experiences. One or two
half-day periods in a weekly class schedule for integrated or inquiry-based learning can have a
significant influence on learning throughout the week.

“If we teach connectedness and integration, they learn that. If we teach

separation and discontinuity, that is what they learn. To suppose otherwise
would be incongruous.”
—Humphreys, Post, and Ellis, 1981

31 Connecting the Dots

 ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION
REAL-WORLD
CONNECTIONS

SHARING RESPONSIBILITY
FOR LEARNING WITH
STUDENTS

LEARNING
LOCALLY

CONSIDERING
ALTERNATIVE
PERSPECTIVES

SUSTAINABILITY

CITIZENSHIP
INTEGRATED
LEARNING

STRATEGY 3
ACTING ON
INQUIRY LEARNING

When students act on their learning, school becomes relevant and the seeds of active
citizenship are planted.

Strategy Outline 1. What Is It?

2. Visualizing Acting on Learning Concept Map
3. Why Use It?
4. How to Implement Acting on Learning
a. Student Volunteering
b. Service Learning/Action Projects
c. Types of Service Learning Action Projects
d. Planning for Service Learning/Action Projects
e. “Walking the Talk”: Schools Modeling Sustainability in
Operations and Administration

Key Strategies that Transform Learning for Environmental Education, Citizenship and Sustainability 32
1. What Is It?
Acting on Learning “moves beyond investigation of an issue to identifying solutions and working
towards a desired change — in personal lifestyle, in school, in the community, and on the planet”
(Ahlberg & Leal Filho, 1998). If something is worth knowing, it is worth acting upon. Action
projects are practical, real and relevant to the students involved. They are not planned simply as a
learning exercise. They include community service ranging from volunteering to service learning.

Acting on Learning Occurs on Three Levels (Hammond, 1996):

Learning about Action
This is classroom-based and theoretical. Its purpose is to prepare students for taking on action
projects. The intent is to provide students with the techniques and resources to be successful. It
includes learning action skills and strategies, and reviewing the history of action work. If left at
this level the transfer and success in real-world applications is less likely since students do not get
the practical experiences dealing with real-world problems.

Learning through Action

At this level students select, plan and implement the project. The experience enhances their
sense of competence and the learning experience is meaningful.

Learning from Action

In this post-action learning phase, students assess the significance of project outcomes and the
processes that were involved. Consideration is given as to how the learning may be of use or
applied in similar or other circumstances.

A great sense of accomplishment is achieved when learners help a nearby natural area after studying it.

PHOTO CREDIT: LEARNING FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE

33 Connecting the Dots

2. Visualizing Acting on Learning Concept Map

Studying the
actions of others
Authentic improvement Engaging in the
of the community action process
- social, economic, environmental
addresses
expectations by
results in
Reflecting on the
results of actions

ACTING ON
LEARNING

Schools requires
“walk the talk” includes
- Environmental, social and economic
contributes to monitoring/enhancement
through - Cultural exploration/expression
- Internships/applying employment skills
- Engaging in community processes
- student empowerment Student engagement Citizenship and - Influencing government
in school functioning in learning world of work skills - Solving community problems
- waste reduction
- energy conservation
- naturalized landscaping
- food sourcing Character
development

3. Why Use It?

• Students put what they have learned into action and gain greater understanding through the
process
• Student engagement is enhanced as they move from passive detachment to active
involvement (Stapp, Wals & Stankorb, 1996)
• Investigating a real topic of concern, and particularly the opportunity to do something about
it, stimulates student achievement (Wiley, 1998)
• Benefits accrue to both the students and the community. Active participation is considered
an important element of citizenship (Ontario Ministry of Education, 2013)
• The skills, knowledge and attitudes for active citizenship are cultivated. Students experience
that change is possible through their efforts, cultivating a hopeful outlook. For some children
this can address anxiety
• These experiences provide career insights and prepare students for the world of work. The
skills cultivated through Acting on Learning overlap the skills of employment (Conference
Board of Canada, 2000)
• Acting on Learning is transformative. It includes work towards social and environmental
justice with students involved as active collaborators in complex, multi-disciplinary
community action projects, which they themselves initiate and lead (Russell, 1999).

Key Strategies that Transform Learning for Environmental Education, Citizenship and Sustainability 34
4. How to Implement Acting on Learning
Acting on Learning can range from a one-time experience to full-year projects that address many
subjects. Acting on Learning can be achieved in a number of ways. Student volunteering is the
easiest to pursue. Service learning projects differ from volunteering; they involve reflection on
the learning experience. Schools can also address the “hidden curriculum” by working to “walk
the talk.” Attention is paid to having school practices be consistent with the values and intent of
the curriculum, from purchasing practices to management.

a. Student Volunteering
Many students find volunteering a positive experience in this limited use of the Acting on
Learning strategy. The level of student commitment to volunteer projects varies since in some
cases students are “voluntold” by the classroom teacher. Nevertheless volunteer experiences
can be planned to match what is being learned, thereby adding considerably to student
understanding.

Examples
Litter Clean-up (Elementary)
Primary students clean up litter in the schoolyard and neighbourhood in conjunction with their
learning about community.
Habitat Restoration (All Grades)
Students participate in community tree planting activities that are part of a habitat restoration
initiative in conjunction with their learning about habitat requirements of various species.
Schoolyard Naturalization (All Grades)
Students provide the labour for a school-wide, schoolyard naturalization project that has been
designed and planned by others.

b. Service Learning/Action Projects

Service learning has more impact than student volunteer projects. Service learning projects
include the following features in their design:
• Service learning is related directly to curriculum expectations. Students, teachers and
community partners identify the goals that will be part of the experience
• Student reflection, during and after the service or action, is an essential component
• The service project meets a real need in the community
• The service learning project gives significant roles to students in the selection of the project,
its planning and its management (Fertman, 1994).

“Only in action does knowledge become wisdom.”

— Dalai Lama

35 Connecting the Dots

 c. Types of Service Learning/Action Projects
i. Cultural Exploration and Sharing Projects
Students identify an aspect of their local culture, an event or site in the community to celebrate.
They participate in research with community members. They choose a format to communicate
what they have learned and get responses to their work (Smith, 2002).

Example
Appreciating Medieval Influences (Grade 4)
Students identified buildings in their communities with medieval influences. Using digital
photographs and their own line drawings they prepared displays showing the sites and shared
these at the public library. The project addressed social studies, science and technology,
language, and visual arts learning expectations.

ii. Environmental Communication, Monitoring and Enhancement Projects

Environmental service learning projects include schoolyard naturalization, monitoring changes
in the local environment, making the community aware of its natural heritage, and identification
and restoration of degraded natural areas.

Example
Measuring the Ecological Health of the River (Secondary)
Working in co-operation with other schools in their watershed, secondary school students
measured the ecological health of the river in their community and shared the results. They
submitted reports to local officials, informed the public through displays and suggested plans to
address particular problems.

These students are assisting the municipal government by painting messages about storm water through the Yellow
Fish Road program.
PHOTO CREDIT: LEARNING FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE

Key Strategies that Transform Learning for Environmental Education, Citizenship and Sustainability 36
iii. Social Awareness and Enhancement Projects
In these projects students identify a group within the community and design a program to meet
a need.
Example
Peer Teaching (Grade 11)
Each year students in the da Vinci 4 credit program take on the responsibility of organizing and
presenting a two-day field trip for Grade 4 students. Working in program delivery teams, these
secondary students each have the responsibility for a portion of the program. After delivery to
each Grade 4 class, they use reflective discussion and modify the program for the next class.
(Upper Grand District School Board, n.d.).

iv. Internships and Entrepreneurial Projects

These projects focus on economic activity in the local community. Students can set up a business
to meet a need and direct the proceeds to a worthy cause, or they can help establish a local co-
operative enterprise.

Example
Cooperative Business Venture (Secondary)
As part of an integrated secondary school program, business studies students identified an
economic need or opportunity in the community and then established a co-operative business
venture to address it. The project included preparing a business plan that was evaluated with
some of the same criteria used by the local credit union to determine if a loan was warranted.

Engaging Students in Sustainable Action Projects is a detailed

guide that outlines 11 steps to help turn significant elements of
decision making over to students. It is available on the Resources
for Rethinking website (www.R4R.ca).

37 Connecting the Dots

 v. Participation in Community Process Projects
In these projects, students become a player in an initiative that the community has identified as
important.

Example
Advocacy (Secondary)
In a municipal review of wastewater treatment, senior geography students prepared briefs and
presented them to municipal officials just like other stakeholder groups, taking on the role of full-
fledged citizens with the support of the school-learning environment.

The Garlic Mustard Busters Festival organized by a grade 4 class included student-made videos, marketing, contacting
community members and management of the activities during the event.
PHOTO CREDIT: STAN KOZAK

vi. Solving Community Problems

Community problem solving is a specialized and open-ended form of service learning that is
determined by the location or community where it takes place. Students identify an issue or
problem that needs addressing, investigate its causes, develop possible solutions, prepare a plan
and then carry the plan out. This form of service learning exposes students to the insights and
challenges of active citizenship. Students lead the process with the teacher adopting a coaching
role, while linking the project to curriculum expectations (UNESCO, 2002).

Key Strategies that Transform Learning for Environmental Education, Citizenship and Sustainability 38
Example
Graffiti Remediation (Grade 5)
Students identified the graffiti and vandalism-ridden park in their neighbourhood as an issue of
concern. They came up with plans to clean up the area and initiated a community awareness
campaign (Smith, 2002).

d. Planning for Service Learning/Action Projects

Service learning project planning emphasizes:

i. Preparation
Involving students from the start, and making clear the learning expectations to be addressed,
enhances the chances of successful learning. Students should be prepared with the knowledge,
skills and possible challenges they might encounter. The greater the involvement of students in
the selection and planning of the service, the greater the impact on the development of student
voice and citizenship.

ii. The Service

Through project design, students can get a variety of placements — engaging with different
people, places and tasks. Students can gain more if the service is in an unfamiliar environment.

iii. Reflection
Reflection is essential to maximize learning. Both self and group reflections are beneficial.
Reflection identifies the challenges experienced during the service, how members of the
class are sharing different tasks, and future implications. Reflection is important for exercising
judgment.

iv. Celebration
The completion of a project should include some form of celebration where experiences and
achievements are acknowledged and community participants are thanked.

v. Evaluation
Everyone involved in the service learning project should have a role in the evaluation of its
degree of success.

39 Connecting the Dots

 “The ‘hidden curricula’ of schools convey the values that are really
important to the school, even when they contradict the lessons of the
classroom (for instance, a soda machine in the hallway can speak louder
than any number of lectures about nutrition). Schools are systems, and
they are communities. Schools are themselves important nodes in the web
of institutions that constitute society. Whatever happens in schools will
have profound effects on the rest of society.”
—Centre for Ecoliteracy, Centre for Ecoliteracy, 2009

e. “Walking the Talk”: Schools Modeling Sustainability in Operations and

Administration
Schools and educators that make efforts to “practice what they teach” demonstrate authenticity.
Ways for Schools to “Walk the Talk”
• Staff can verbalize eco-friendly actions … “I am turning out the lights as we leave the room
because…”
• Administrators can include sustainability practices as part of the school’s annual goals
• Share progress with the entire school community and celebrate when particular goals are
achieved
• Involve students in budget decisions and determining school rules.

Example
The Ontario EcoSchools Program (All Grades)
This program assists schools in reducing energy and water use, as well as waste production,
and in greening of school grounds. Through these and other efforts, the operation of schools
becomes consistent with what is taught (Ontario EcoSchools, n.d.).

Key Strategies that Transform Learning for Environmental Education, Citizenship and Sustainability 40
Acting on Learning Examples from the R4R Database
The Resources for Rethinking Database located at www.r4r.ca provides teachers with access to
learning programs from many sources that often feature transformative learning strategies. A
search for the term “Action” turns up over one hundred examples. Some examples include:
• No Idling at School
• Quest for Clean Shorelines
• Give Water a Hand
• eCards
• Water Mapping

The database searches for learning programs by jurisdiction, grade, subject, theme, resource
type and keywords and is applicable across Canada (Learning for a Sustainable Future, 2014c).

What does transformative learning look like? It involves being an active contributor learning in the context of doing real work
enhancing both the learning and the community.

PHOTO CREDIT: STAN KOZAK

41 Connecting the Dots

 ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION
LEARNING
LOCALLY

SHARING RESPONSIBILITY
FOR LEARNING WITH
STUDENTS

ACTING ON
LEARNING

CONSIDERING
ALTERNATIVE
PERSPECTIVES

SUSTAINABILITY

CITIZENSHIP
INTEGRATED
LEARNING

STRATEGY 4
REAL-WORLD
INQUIRY
CONNECTIONS

Students want to be involved in the real world.

Strategy Outline 1. What Is It?

2. Visualizing Real-world Connections Concept Map
3. Why Use It?
4. How to Implement Real-world Connections
a. Manipulating and Experiencing Objects
b. Making Something Useful
c. Solving Real Problems or Issues
d. Getting Information from Authentic Sources
e. Directing Learning to an Audience beyond the Classroom
f. Community Partnerships

Key Strategies that Transform Learning for Environmental Education, Citizenship and Sustainability 42
1. What Is It?
Connecting learning to the world beyond the classroom has many advantages. It is highly
relevant since it relates directly to students, their families and the community.

2. Visualizing Real-World Connections Concept Map

Using Real Sources of Hands-on experiences

Information - with real objects
- text sets - manipulating materials
- surveys - making something
- monitoring
- measurement
- online resources include
- interviews
involve

REAL-WORLD Students
made communicating
CONNECTIONS through with an audience
beyond the classroom
Case studies
available
includes through
addressing
through

Community-school
Real problems partnerships
by forming

3. Why Use It?

• Addresses concepts, problems, or issues that are similar to ones students have encountered
or are likely to encounter in life
• Brings the relevance, complexity and motivation of the real world to learning
• Includes sensory experiences, which appeals to and assists a wide range of learners
• Raises student achievement through the authenticity of the learning
• Supports character education as relationships between the community, the school and other
students are strengthened
• Generates issues or questions to pursue through inquiry
• Provides greater opportunity to learn how our communities and societies work

43 Connecting the Dots

4. How to Implement Real-world Connections
The best context for learning is life in the real world. Real experiences can be incorporated into
the learning process.

a. Manipulating and Experiencing Objects

Often referred to as hands-on learning or activity-based learning, this can be described as “any
educational experience that actively involves people in manipulating objects to gain knowledge
or understanding” (Haury & Rillero, 1994).

Examples
What is a Filter? (Grade 2)
During an inquiry-based investigation into water, one of the students used the term “filter”
but did not have the meaning quite right. The teacher used this opportunity to expand on this
tentative use of new vocabulary by bringing many samples of filters into the classroom and
having students use them to “clean” mixtures of soil and water. A lively discussion ensued as to
how the filters worked. The next day the teacher brought in additional examples of filters, a flour
sieve, an aquarium filter, a safety mask filter and a furnace filter — all objects she collected at
home. Students linked their experience of filtering to cleaning dirty water through a funnel filled
with playground sand. Having the opportunity to observe and use the various filters prompted
lots of writing and illustration in student journals, and the use of new vocabulary.
River in a Box (Elementary)
Students were given a trunk of materials. These included maps of the watershed, eroded stones,
biological and historical artifacts, taped stories from several people who live along the river and
taped historical reenactments, as well as newspaper clippings. With these items students got a
better grasp of the size, complexity and history of their region, leading to insights as to how they
can help improve watershed health. The collection was organized on a large watershed floor
map. As students moved along the river system map they pulled objects out of labeled pouches
that related to a place and a story line, in this case an historic journey down the river. The real
materials were supplemented with books and audiotapes (Mack, 1998).

“No student should graduate without understanding how to analyze

resource flows and with the opportunity to participate in the creation of
real solutions to real problems.”
—Orr, 1991

Key Strategies that Transform Learning for Environmental Education, Citizenship and Sustainability 44
The first project of the semester for this construction class was a nest box. Through a partnership, a community group pays
the cost of busing so that the builders can also erect the boxes in a nearby conservation area.

PHOTO CREDIT: STAN KOZAK

b. Making Something Useful
Necessity is a powerful motivator.

Examples
Building a Bird Nest Box (Grade 4)
Drawing on children’s need to help other living things, a nest box construction project required
them to practice many skills. The learning project included reading for information, measuring
and calculating to determine materials required, learning to use hand tools safely and writing to
explain to others why their structures were important.

Craft as an Environmental Learning Experience (All Grades)

This refers to making items from materials from the land that are then used. Local materials can
be harvested and used to make items such as a wooden spoon or a canoe paddle in a relatively
short time. The maker reflects, connects to the land through the material and achieves a sense of
accomplishment when the item is put to use (MacEachren, 2007).

45 Connecting the Dots

c. Solving Real Problems or Issues
A real-life problem or task makes learning authentic. When it is not possible for students to have
direct involvement in a task or problem, a case study approach can be used.

Examples
Planning a Trip Using the Transit System (Grade 7)
Senior elementary students were asked by their teacher to plan a field trip to a suitable location
in the community using public transit. Small groups researched possible destinations and the
routes by transit and presented these to other members of the class. Based on the presentations,
one of the trips was selected. The students finalized the arrangements and the trip was
conducted all with the teacher taking a “back seat” in the learning process.
Case Studies in Tragedies of the Commons (Secondary)
A secondary school teacher selected the collapse of the northern cod stock in Canada as the
context for students to learn about the challenges of sustainability in a resource issues class.
Media reports and other documentation provided real-world sources of information and
these were supplemented by telephone and email interviews with individuals who had direct
experience with the event.

d. Getting Information from Authentic Sources

Gathering data can occur in the schoolyard or reach to anywhere on the planet with technology.
Using real-world data provides authentic opportunities to use literacy and numeracy skills in
contexts that learners find more meaningful. Students can:

• Apply technical skills to maintain and develop networks, communicate, collaborate and
share information
• Develop skills to use, evaluate and judge real-world sources of information
• Apply critical literacy skills to find credible information and identify perspectives and bias.

“The sequence is important. When we do, we sense. When we sense, we

respond. When we do, sense and respond, we learn.”
—Martin, 2001

Key Strategies that Transform Learning for Environmental Education, Citizenship and Sustainability 46
i. Text Sets Rather than Textbooks
A text set is a collection of trade or library books and other print information on a particular
topic that is used as a source of information for learning. Different titles provide learners with a
range of reading levels, perspectives and writing genre.

Example
Biodiversity Research (Grade 6)
In an investigation of biodiversity in local habitats, the teacher assembled a collection of titles
from the school and public library for each of four local habitats studied. Based on the research
from the text sets, each group of students prepared a guided tour of their local habitat.

ii. Digital Libraries and Libguides

Access to online sources allows for a very wide range of information resources. To control or
limit this vast resource, teachers can work with their teacher-librarian to create a Libguide to a
topic to help facilitate research and explicitly teach digital research skills.

iii. Measurement, Surveys, Monitoring

Many projects can involve students in collecting data and making observations to achieve
valuable insights.
Example
Measure Up! (Grades 7 to 12)
The Association for Canadian Educational Resources (2013) helps citizens become more
environmentally literate through working with their local ecosystems. In the Measure Up!
Program, students measure and monitor trees in their schoolyard or local community and submit
data for use in monitoring the effects of a changing climate.

iv. Accessing Governmental and Non-governmental Organizations

Government provides services to citizens to help them address challenges. Students as citizens
have access to these resources and should have experience with them. Similarly it is valuable
to understand that democracies are made stronger through the participation of civil society
organizations. These organizations have tremendous resources that can support learning on
many topics.

Example
Identifying Pollution Sources in the Community (Secondary)
The overused term “pollution” takes on new meaning when it is something that students
experience directly. Project Pollution Watch (Environmental Defence & Canadian Environmental
Law Association, 2014) provides government data to the public on pollution sources for each
community in Canada by simply typing in a postal code. It provides students with relevant
information to launch further research into options for action.

47 Connecting the Dots

The Telephone: Important Tool and Important Skill
People working in institutions, government, post-secondary education and business can provide
students with valuable information by phone. Help students develop this important skill with
these guidelines:
• Plan your call and know what you want from it. Be prepared with follow-up lines of inquiry if
your primary one is not successful
• Be persistent and polite
• Ask for clarification if you are not sure what someone says
• If the person can’t help you, ask them who can
• Leave a clear message if you need to and include your name and number, the time you
called and specific details as to the information you are after. Speak slowly so that your
message is clear
• Get a time commitment if someone is going to send you something
• Keep notes of your calls and who you spoke to so that you can refer to these later if needed.

e. Directing Learning to an Audience beyond The Classroom

This is a simple yet powerful learning practice. Design the learning experience so that students
must direct the product of their learning to an audience beyond the classroom (Newmann,
Secada, & Wellage, 1995). This alone strongly enhances and shapes the learning since the project
must be of interest to others outside the school. Once students realize that their learning will be
shared with others for a purpose, their motivation soars.

Audiences can be reached by:

• Bringing people into the school such as a panel of community members
• Students communicating to an audience beyond the physical school
• Taking students out of the school to connect with the audience directly.

Examples
Storefront Displays (Grade 1)
Students each created an example of a structure found in their community then displayed these
in an empty storefront window. Proud of their work, they brought other family members to view
the display. The teacher arranged for the local newspaper to cover the event.
Health Note (Grade 1)
Grade 1 students shared their understanding and concerns for their family members by sending
them a “health card” (a postcard) on how to avoid germs.
Postcards (Grade 3)
Student-created postcards featuring a local ecology park were sent to community members
informing them of the living things found there and how these can be helped.

Key Strategies that Transform Learning for Environmental Education, Citizenship and Sustainability 48
Teach food with food. The contents of a Garden Fresh Box started the learning about food. This included surveys of
favourite fruits and vegetables, identifying sources and taste testing. Students then went on to promote the program in the
neighbourhood.

PHOTO CREDIT: STAN KOZAK

Panel Displays (All Grades)
Following a field trip to a local natural area, students created three-panel displays of what they
found there, and then set them up for viewing in a local hospital waiting room.
Mall Displays (Grade 8)
Students researched an animal rights issue and created A-frame displays. These were set up in a
local mall where students could interact with local shoppers.
Street Theatre (Grade 8)
Students created short, street theatre plays about local waste management issues and presented
them in the mall and on the main street of town.
Emailing a PowerPoint Presentation (Grade 9)
Using The Acid Rain Primer (Pollution Probe, 2006), students analyzed the information and
identified community groups who could benefit from a better understanding of this form of
air pollution (car sales people, mechanics, auto columnists in the local paper). They created
PowerPoint presentations, contacted target audiences, sent them the presentation and asked
them to respond.
Peer Teaching (Grade 11)
Secondary students using a business model (they charged for their service), organized and
led two-day fieldtrips for grade four classes that explored four common habitats from the
perspective of a scientist and an artist. Each elementary class paid a fee to participate. The
profits were used to fund parts of the secondary school program expenses.

49 Connecting the Dots

 f. Community Partnerships
A partnership implies give and take involving both parties. Learners have much to offer their
communities and in turn communities can provide learners with many resources, insights and
experiences.

Examples
Conservation Area Composting Toilet (Grade 4)
A neighbouring conservation area was closed to Belfountain Public School classes and the public
during the off-season because there were no washroom facilities. The class, with the guidance
of their teacher, suggested a partnership. They would get a suitable facility constructed and in
turn the area would be open for them to use throughout the school year. The students found
the expertise in the area to design the facility, raised the funds and monitored its construction.
Classes and the public now use the conservation area all year.
Wetland Centres of Excellence —Ducks Unlimited (DU) (Secondary)
This national non-governmental organization partners with a number of secondary schools that
adopt local wetlands. In New Liskeard, Ontario, DU and Learning for a Sustainable Future provide
funds for the program where secondary students prepare and deliver an elementary field trip
program to Grade 4 students (Ducks Unlimited, n.d.).
Commissioned Community Projects (Grade 11)
The Gosling Foundation provides funds to secondary school integrated programs to help cover
costs and in turn asks students to research a local issue and share insights with the community.
Students from the Ecoshores Program on the Bruce Peninsula were asked to find out about the
current status of the Massasauga Rattlesnake. They conducted research, came to a position they
thought the community should know about and communicated it through market displays, radio
interviews and public service announcements (The Gosling Foundation, n.d.).
Ecoshores students took their learning about Massasauga rattle snakes to a local farmers market to reach an audience that
they identified as being important players in determining the future of this endangered species.
PHOTO CREDIT: STAN KOZAK

Key Strategies that Transform Learning for Environmental Education, Citizenship and Sustainability 50
Numeracy and literacy expectations can be met within the context of a useful project. These students are making shopping bags
from discarded clothing.

We learn if we have something in our hands.

—Jean Piaget
PHOTO CREDIT: STAN KOZAK

51 Connecting the Dots

 ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION
LEARNING
LOCALLY

SHARING RESPONSIBILITY
FOR LEARNING WITH
STUDENTS

ACTING ON
LEARNING

REAL-WORLD
CONNECTIONS

SUSTAINABILITY

CITIZENSHIP
INTEGRATED
LEARNING

STRATEGY 5
CONSIDERING
INQUIRY ALTERNATIVE
PERSPECTIVES
Bringing alternative perspectives to the attention of students is an invitation to
critical thinking.

Strategy Outline 1. What Is It?

2. Visualizing Considering Alternative Perspectives Concept Map
3. Why Use It?
4. How to Implement Considering Alternative Perspectives
a. Perspectives Provided by Different Subjects and Disciplines
b. Uncovering Alternative Perspectives among Students through
Multiple Points of View Activities
c. Learning and Assessment Tasks that include Alternative Perspectives
d. Juxtaposing Cultural Differences
e. Temporal Perspectives –Considering the Past, Present and Future
f. Revealing Minority Views through Literature and the Media

Key Strategies that Transform Learning for Environmental Education, Citizenship and Sustainability 52
1. What Is It?
Considering Alternative Perspectives exposes student to different ways of looking at issues,
solutions, strategies, experiences, world views and ways of knowing, in the process of solving
problems, forming opinions, clarifying values and taking an informed position.

2. Visualizing Considering Alternative Perspectives Concept Map

Different subjects
and disciplines An emotionally safe
learning environment

Uncovering those
among students
requires

Inclusion in
assessment tasks available
through CONSIDERING Prompt critical
ALTERNATIVE thinking
PERSPECTIVES

Uncover hidden
Juxtaposing cultural can values
differences

Identifying minority
Applying temporal views
perspectives Develop
open-mindedness

Provide additional
solutions to problems

“Hear one side and you will be in the dark. Hear both and all will be clear.”
—Thomas C. Haliburton

53 Connecting the Dots

3. Why Use It?
• Exposes our values to critical thinking, preparing students to make better decisions as
informed citizens
• Creates a thinking dilemma through which reflection techniques, critical analysis skills and
informed opinions can be developed
• Develops open-mindedness, “an intellectual virtue that involves a willingness to take
relevant evidence and argument into account in forming or revising our beliefs and values”
(Critical Thinking Community, 2009)
• Provides more options for solving problems and addressing challenges
• Develops an ability to respect and understand different viewpoints by making students more
aware of their own values and biases. This is an essential element of character education
• Supports respect for diversity, creating an emotionally safe place for students to express
their current views and compare them to those of others
• Addresses the issue of bias and indoctrination. The learning process shifts from the transfer
of accumulated knowledge to the evaluation of two or more perspectives or interpretations
of knowledge.

4. How to Implement Considering Alternative Perspectives

This learning strategy is based on practices that introduce students to multiple sides of an
issue and prompt them to gather and compare information in order to make a judgment or
take a position. A variety of techniques can be used to access students’ views and advance
the understanding of everyone in the class. From there, learners can explore the range of
perspectives found within their community and beyond.

a. Perspectives Provided by Different Subjects and Disciplines

Subject perspectives provide insight into different ways of understanding. Teachers can plan
to bring different subject perspectives to a topic. Learning about a wildflower meadow can be
approached through science, which could examine the interaction of species found there. Visual
art can be used to explore form and colour. Numeracy can provide numerical insights such as
numbers of members of plant species per defined area. In this way each subject contributes to
an understanding of the concept of a wildflower meadow.

b. Uncovering Alternative Perspectives among Students through

Multiple Point of View Activities
Each group of students brings a diversity of background, experience and understanding. There
are a number of techniques that can be used to bring forth these different perspectives to aid
learning.

Key Strategies that Transform Learning for Environmental Education, Citizenship and Sustainability 54
Examples
Four Corners (All Grades)
Students individually select and write about their own position on an issue. Meeting with others
who have the same position, they compare and articulate a group response. The four corners of
a classroom are posted with four positions on a statement concerning the topic or issue under
consideration: Agree - Strongly Agree - Disagree - Strongly Disagree. Students are asked to select
the one closest to their position. Alternatively, students can be assigned a point of view, which
they then support and present. Following a class debate or discussion, individual students each
write a paragraph outlining the position they have come to after hearing from others (Learn
Alberta, 2008).
De Bono’s Six Hats (All Grades)
The Six Thinking Hats process can improve the quality of group decision-making. Six Hats looks at
a decision from different perspectives.
• The Blue hat keeps order, allows each person to speak and collects the data.
• The White Hat focuses on available data, analysis of past trends and extrapolating from the
past to the future.
• The Red Hat uses intuition, gut reaction, and emotion in responding to the proposal or
statement under consideration.
• The Black Hat is a pessimist, always cautious and defensive, who tries to see why ideas and
solutions won’t work.
• The Yellow Hat is always positive, one who sees all the benefits, values and opportunities.
• The Green Hat is creative and offers freewheeling ideas.
The process can be modified to assign each coloured hat a particular position on an issue (Mind
Tools, 2013).

c. Learning and Assessment Tasks that include Alternative Perspectives

These students have each researched a living creature and are speaking on their behalf at
the Council of All Beings to let humanity know how they think they should be treated.
PHOTO CREDIT: LCDSB

55 Connecting the Dots

Tasks that require students to consider alternative solutions, strategies, perspectives, or points of
view in addressing a concept or problem, enhance learning (Newmann et al, 1995).

Examples
The Council of All Beings – Communicating on Behalf of Another (All Grades)
Research and creative imagination helps students understand how others might communicate if
they had the chance. The Council of All Beings activity calls on participants to identify with and
speak on behalf of living creatures or some aspect of nature. Participants prepare by becoming
familiar with the entity they are representing and reflecting on what it would have to say to
humanity if it could, and what it might ask of us.

Students choose the entity that they will represent. The project is highly integrated requiring
students to do research, prepare oral introductions, create a visual image, and determine issues
that are relevant to the beings they represent.

The Council of All Beings has been modified to be a Rich Performance Task modeled on a
Webquest format for Grades 5 to 8 (London District Catholic School Board, 2013).
Climate Change Briefing Paper (Secondary)
You are an advisor to the Provincial Premier and are to prepare a briefing note on the actions
that the province should take to reduce carbon emissions. Your briefing note should address:
• The sources of carbon and the reasons why controlling them is necessary
• A summary of the evidence supporting the need to control carbon emissions
• The various means of reducing carbon emissions and their relative merits
• What sectors of society will likely object or disagree and an analysis of options that they may
provide as alternatives
• Conclude with a final summary that will lead the Premier to take your advice.
Business Plan Preparation (Grade 11)
Students in a business course were asked to prepare a greening plan for a local business.
Students had to consider the needs of the owner, the environment, laws on the product, the type
of customer already being served by this business and potential new clients.

“Educators can and should find ways to present environmental and

sustainability concepts that will allow learners to draw their own
conclusions about important environmental and societal issues.”
—British Columbia Ministry of Education, 2007

Key Strategies that Transform Learning for Environmental Education, Citizenship and Sustainability 56
d. Juxtaposing Cultural Differences
Dominant world-views and an understanding of one’s own culture come into focus when
comparisons can be made. Within most communities, pockets of alternative, minority cultural,
religious or philosophical practice exist and these can be brought to the attention of students
(Duenkel & Pratt, 2001).

Examples of cultural differences found in many communities include:

• A local cooperative and a privately owned enterprise
• A vegan restaurant and a steakhouse
• An Old Order Mennonite family farm and an agri-business
• Someone following volunteer simplicity practices and a regular household
• A non-car owner and a car owner.

Minority perspectives can be brought to students’ attention directly through juxtaposing

experiences or through indirect means (literature, online, the arts, etc.).

The assignment involved identifying minority points of view that would benefit the community then communicating them
using sidewalk chalk messages.

PHOTO CREDIT: STAN KOZAK

57 Connecting the Dots

e. Temporal Perspectives — Considering the Past, Present and Future
Thinking for the short term limits our understanding of current realities that stem directly from
the past, and limits our ability to make choices to influence the future positively.

Timelines provide visual representations that are easy to grasp. Through research, students can
create a timeline that connects them to a time that was quite different. Timelines can be used to
consider future possibilities.

Examples
Local Biodiversity Timeline (All Grades)
Most people have very little awareness of the changes that have taken place in biodiversity in the
region in which they live. Students can see the changes more clearly by creating a biodiversity
timeline with visual and written components. The timeline can be extended into the future to
identify species that could return to the area if certain actions were taken.
Alternative Futures (Secondary)
In contemplating the future, students can brainstorm using graphic organizers to show a number
of alternatives:
• The future that is possible
• The future that is probable
• The future that is preferred.
Consideration of these alternatives for a range of issues helps us make informed decisions to
achieve a sustainable future. (Pike and Selby, 1988)
Appliance Life Cycle Costs (Secondary)
Our consumer culture and the advertising methods that support it, emphasize the purchase
price of an item and pay little heed to lifetime costs. Examining lifetime costs presents students
with a broader picture of the impact and cost of a purchase. Students can compare the cost
of purchase and operation of two appliances listed in the Energy Star ratings. Include costs for
water and electricity consumption, as well as initial purchase cost. Prepare an advertisement for
the product that you think people should purchase. Base your ad content on the social, economic
and environmental considerations associated with the products involved.

“One of life’s biggest challenges is accepting that there are numerous

interpretations and that there is rarely one right way to view the world.
Literature can introduce characters who have learned to accept that
different viewpoints exist, demonstrating how they persevere when faced
with difficulties. Books can also change readers’ perspectives about what
they already know and extend their knowledge through new ways of
seeing familiar things.”
—Giorgis and Johnson, 2002

Key Strategies that Transform Learning for Environmental Education, Citizenship and Sustainability 58
 “Experiencing another culture teaches us that we are not as free as we
might have thought, that we have been formed by forces of which we are
largely ignorant. This new viewpoint then helps us to discern these forces
and their values. In being able to identify them, we can begin to make
choices about how we wish to direct or create our own lives henceforth.”
—Duenkel and Pratt, 2001

f. Revealing Minority Views through Literature and the Media

Literature and media are rich sources of different views on many issues.

i. Using Fiction
Fiction has often been used as a means of conveying different perspectives.

Example
Picture Books (Elementary)
Two Bad Ants by Chris Van Allsburg provides students in Grade 3 to 5 with an insight into
the world of another living thing with which they would not normally identify. Through the
examination of the graphics and the text, they can compare the views of people and those of
ants. This story triggers a discussion on how people might respond when ants are found in their
house (Read Write Think, 2009).

ii. Using Media

Media sources can be used directly. A high-profile news event can be examined from many
perspectives and many viewpoints can be encountered using different media. For example, the
fatal train explosion in Lac Mégantic, Quebec in 2013 can be reviewed and discussed through
news coverage, looking at issues that include transportation safety, the pros and cons of moving
shale oil over long distances, collateral pollution damage, the debate over whether pipelines
should be built or expanded or whether society should be moving more aggressively to wean
itself off dependency on carbon-emitting fossil fuels.

Environmental issues are covered in different ways by different media outlets and they can be
depicted differently in print, in broadcast, online and via social media.

59 Connecting the Dots

 Example
Six Views on Tree Sitting (Grade 7)
In a front page story, a national newspaper featured the views of six people on a young woman
who had taken up tree sitting to protest the logging of an old growth forest. A Grade 7 teacher
used the story as a context for her students to explore the role of hero.

Using the school’s speakerphone in the library, the teacher set about preparing students to do
interviews to explore the perspectives in the news story to see whether these people thought
the tree sitter was a hero or not. Interviews provided perspectives from the tree sitter and five
other community members identified in the media report (municipal official, First Nations leader,
Ministry of Natural Resources staff member, non-governmental organization member, and a
tourist operator).

Following the interview, the results were analyzed and students individually prepared a written
paper on the question.

What is the most important part of the environment? This Grade 4 group chose water and prepares their presentation to
other members of the class to support their selection.
PHOTO CREDIT: STAN KOZAK

Key Strategies that Transform Learning for Environmental Education, Citizenship and Sustainability 60
Responsibility to Learners
Educators have four kinds of responsibility to learners (Scott, 2002):
1. To help them understand why a consideration of sustainable development is in
their interests
2. To use appropriate pedagogy for active engagement with issues
3. To help learners gain plural perspectives
4. To encourage learners to continue thinking about such issues beyond their formal education.

The challenge is to guide the learning, providing access to a variety of perspectives without
indoctrinating. Presenting learners with minority perspectives is within the realm of the
Considering Alternative Perspectives learning strategy.

61 Connecting the Dots

 ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION
LEARNING
LOCALLY

SHARING RESPONSIBILITY
FOR LEARNING WITH
STUDENTS

ACTING ON
LEARNING

CONSIDERING
ALTERNATIVE
PERSPECTIVES

SUSTAINABILITY

CITIZENSHIP
INTEGRATED
LEARNING

STRATEGY 6
INQUIRY
REAL-WORLD
CONNECTIONS

Inquiry-based learning is most consistent with the development of skills for lifelong learning.
It prepares students to know what to do when the options before them are unclear.

Strategy Outline 1. What Is It?

2. Visualizing Inquiry Concept Map
3. Why Use It?
4. How to Implement Inquiry
a. Shifting to Inquiry — Expressing Curriculum as Key Questions
b. Lesson Plan Remodeling for Inquiry and Critical Thinking
c. The Experimental Method
d. Learning Cycles
e. Problem-Based Learning
f. Open or Free Inquiry
g. Critical Thinking Occurs In the Context of Inquiry
h. Creativity and Inquiry
Key Strategies that Transform Learning for Environmental Education, Citizenship and Sustainability 62
1. What Is It?
Inquiry is an approach to learning that is directed by questions, problems, an hypothesis or
a challenge that individuals and groups of learners work together to address. At its best the
learning is driven by student-generated questions. Students, assisted by the teacher, clarify the
questions being asked and determine how to answer them. As knowledge is pursued, unplanned
but important learning territory is often uncovered.

2. Visualizing Inquiry Concept Map

to Facilitator,
Teacher coach,
co-learner
An effective
community of learners
changes the
role of
can create

Expressing Questions important

curriculum INQUIRY means to students lead
as "big" questions the learning

Problem-based processes addressed

learning include addresses through

Critical thinking
Open or Learning
free inquiry skills and content

3. Why Use It?

• Provides a context to develop critical thinking and problem solving skills
• Connects school learning with students’ own knowledge and experiences
• Requires students to acquire information for an authentic purpose
• Provides students with opportunities to apply a wide range of reading, writing, talking,
listening and thinking skills
• Student learning improves when schools adopt a consistent model of inquiry across all
grades and subjects (Expert Panel on Literacy in Grades 4 to 6 in Ontario, 2004)
• Supports the development of a community of learners where group knowledge building
contributes to individual understanding (Scardamalia, 2002)
• Inquiry learning supports the expression of creativity, the development of a positive outlook
and independence.

63 Connecting the Dots

4. How to Implement Inquiry
Inquiry learning has been characterized as ranging from “traditional,” “hands-on,” “structured,”
“guided,” to student directed (Bonnestetter, 1998). Over this range students take greater
responsibility in determining the topic, the questions to be pursued, the learning processes and
how the learning is applied.

Elements in effective inquiry learning experiences include student opportunity to:

• Build on their existing knowledge and skills
• Select topics of interest
• Use a variety of resources
• Select the best way to communicate their findings
• Share with real-world audiences
• Be evaluated on both process and product
• Evaluate themselves, their peers, their resources and teachers (Information Age Inquiry,
2009).

The following examples provide a range of inquiry processes from closed to open.

a. Shifting to Inquiry — Expressing Curriculum as Key Questions

Educators are required to organize learning based on expectations found in curriculum. A subtle
but profound shift occurs when teachers take curriculum expectations and present them to
students in terms of “big” questions.

Content curriculum exceptions for Grade 3 for the topic of plants can be expressed as five
questions:
1. What do plants need to live?
2. What different parts do plants have and why?
3. What is the life cycle of plants?
4. How do plants and animals help and hurt each other?
5. How do people help or harm plants?

Turning curriculum expectations into big questions is a means of engaging readers and writers
(Wilhelm, 2007). All the questions on plants identified above for Grade 3 could be addressed
through one “big” one — where is the best place for plants to live?

“No longer are we passive receptacles of facts but actively involved

explorers, constantly interpreting our experiences.”
—Awbrey and Awbrey, 1995

Key Strategies that Transform Learning for Environmental Education, Citizenship and Sustainability 64
b. Lesson Plan Remodeling for Inquiry and Critical Thinking
By using a lesson plan remodeling process teachers can take the lessons they currently have and
improve them to incorporate inquiry and critical thinking (Critical Thinking Community, 2009).

Example
Reconsidering Kitchen Utensils (Grade 10)
A standard Home Economics lesson on kitchen utensils was remodeled to incorporate critical
thinking. It expanded the learning from kitchen utensil use to exploring what students should
consider when purchasing these. The remodeled lessons included questioning and investigation
of the practice of continually accumulating kitchen tools, gadgets and electronic equipment in
relation to long-term impact. The learning experience was reframed in terms of the question:
What factors ought to guide consumer decision making related to kitchen tools and technology?
(Smith, 2009)

c. The Experimental Method

Experimentation is a formal scientific process used to gain understanding of phenomena.
Classically, it has discrete steps used to test a hypothesis or guess but in reality it is not so cut
and dried. Of significance in scientific experiments is the use of controls to limit the influence of
variables. Experimentation is a powerful investigative process. It is only useful when a hypothesis
is testable.

The term experiment is often used incorrectly. An activity that demonstrates a science principle
undertaken by following predetermined instructions is not a science experiment. At best, it is a
science demonstration.

In a formal science experiment, the experimenters don’t really know the answer and are using
scientific processes to find out if what they think will happen might be true.

Example
An Experiment to Determine If Plants Need Water to Live (Grade 3)
Students in Grade 3 included water in a list of what plants need to live based on their experience.
The teacher asked how they could prove that this was so. The students suggested that they could
test their guess and with the teacher’s help they used onion bulbs to see if these would grow
with, and without water.

With the teacher’s help the students devised an experiment using three onion bulbs of about the
same size and identical containers. The amount of water given to each onion was the variable.
The control onion received no water, one onion received 2 cm of water and one onion had
enough water to submerge it.

The water levels were maintained over three weeks, observations were made and recorded.
At the end of the experiment it was noted that the onion with no water had not changed, the

65 Connecting the Dots

 onion with 2 cm of water had sprouted and was growing vigorously, while the submerged onion
had grown but then died and was rotting. Based on this experiment the students had evidence
that some water was good for plants but they might get too much to live, as well. The teacher
suggested they repeat the experiment with bean seeds to see if what they had learned applied to
another plant.

d. Learning Cycles
Learning cycles guide students through a prescribed set of overlapping learning activities. The
suggested number of steps in the process varies. Though developed for use in science learning,
E-learning (based on the names of each step) cycles are applicable in many subject areas.

Object, event or question used to engage students.

Engagement Connections facilitated between what students know and can do.

Exploration Objects and phenomena are explored through hands-on activities.

Students explain their understanding of concepts and processes.

Explanation New concepts and skills are introduced as conceptual clarity and cohesion
are sought.

Students apply concepts to real-world contexts and build on or extend

Elaboration
their understanding and skills.

Students assess their knowledge, skills and abilities. Activities permit

Evaluation
evaluation of student development and lesson effectiveness.
(Coe, 2001).

Fieldtrips play multiple roles in inquiry learning, sometimes being a shared event that starts an inquiry or being a means of
pursing answers to questions.
PHOTO CREDIT: Learning for a Sustainable Future

Key Strategies that Transform Learning for Environmental Education, Citizenship and Sustainability 66
e. Problem-Based Learning
Problem-Based Learning is Characterized by:
• Involving students as stakeholders in a situation
• Organizing curriculum as a holistic problem, enabling student learning in relevant and
connected ways
• Creating a learning environment in which teachers coach student thinking and guide their
inquiry, to facilitate deeper levels of understanding (Torp & Sage, 2002)
• Keeping the focus on formulating a solution.

Problem-Based Learning has Three Main Steps:

1. Understanding the problem
a. The problem is introduced
b. Students determine what they know and need to know
c. Students define the problem and what a successful solution might look like
2. Exploring the Problem
a. Students gather information from many sources
b. Students share the information and determine its relevance
c. Possible solutions are generated through synthesis
3. Resolving the Problem
a. Solutions are analyzed
b. A solution is presented to an audience beyond the classroom
c. Debriefing of solutions considers feedback and the work of others (Problem-based
Learning Network, 2009)

There are eight major steps for guiding students through the process of Community Problem
solving (UNESCO, 2002):
1. Exploring community concerns
2. Selecting problems
3. Assessing, evaluating and developing student skills
4. Investigating the problem
5. Developing visions of a sustainable future
6. Planning actions
7. Taking action
8. Judging actions and changes.

“Complexity of scenarios has been shown to increase student motivation

and engagement.”
—Finkle and Torp, 1995

67 Connecting the Dots

Examples
Ecological Footprints (Grades 7 to 9)
Mathematics teachers devised an interdisciplinary learning challenge for students that required
using all the steps in the problem solving process.
Problem: What is the ecological footprint of a city that you are familiar with? Can everyone on
the planet live like North Americans live today? (Flewelling, LeMaistre & Saarimaki, 1996)
Future Problem Solving (Grade 7 and up)
Future Problem Solving uses a process similar to Community Problem Solving but incorporates
a futures perspective, an important element in environmental and sustainability education. A
futures perspective, looking ahead five, 10 or 50 years, can be incorporated into the Community
Problem Solving sequence of steps (UNESCO, 2002).

Solving problems through inquiry leads students to activities that they would not normally
find relevant. These elementary students conduct a chemical test to prove a point.
PHOTO CREDIT: Learning for a Sustainable Future

Key Strategies that Transform Learning for Environmental Education, Citizenship and Sustainability 68
f. Open or Free Inquiry
Somewhat contrary to its name, Open or Free Inquiry follows prescribed learning processes. The
inquiry is open to the participation and lead of the learners involved. Within limits, students take
the lead in determining the direction for the inquiry, the steps in the process and the actions to
be pursued.

The teacher’s role is first that of coach or facilitator assisting students. When required, direct
instruction is used to teach a specific skill or include relevant curriculum content within the
context of student-driven inquiry. The teacher often introduces the topic or theme to be
pursued; however, she/he is always attuned to the interests, observations and initiatives that
arise from the students. These provide the most authentic directions for learning since they are
what interest the learners themselves.

This way of facilitating learning requires mastery of a challenging skill set for teachers; balancing
the direction of an inquiry driven by students with the need to address curriculum policy
expectations.

Example
Environmental Inquiry through Natural Curiosity (Elementary)
Staff at the Laboratory School of the Dr. Eric Jackman Institute for Child Study use the process of
learning through inquiry as the pillar of their approach to learning, articulated in the publication
Natural Curiosity (Chiratto, 2011).

A key feature is the interplay of learning between the individual and the group that includes the
practice of the Knowledge Building Circle. This is a process of respectful listening, in which ideas
are put forth to the group where they become commonly owned and developed.

The inquiry learning process is driven by learner interests and insights. Yet it has a framework:
• The context and general topic or concept are identified by the teacher
• Learners engage in an experience or provocation that prepares each individual to have a
personal connection and relevant questions. The inquiry is then informed by these insights
• Exploration experiences take place that extend and provide insight into student
understanding
• Observations are made and ideas and questions are identified.

As a whole class, learners participate in a knowledge building circle (refer to page 91) to share
ideas, build on those that others put forth, extend and clarify student theories, and share further
questions and wonderings. These student insights provide the direction for the learning inquiry.
The teacher does not intervene directly to contradict student perceptions even if adults would
consider them incorrect. As facilitator she/he waits for student experiences and learning to bring
understanding closer to commonly held understanding.

69 Connecting the Dots

 Key elements of this inquiry approach include:
1. Integration — Content and skills from all subject areas are addressed during the inquiry
process
2. Experiential Learning — Prior experiences of students and planned experiences are used as a
basis for idea and question generation and to test knowledge assumptions.
3. Stewardship— Classroom learning leads to application in the community to help improve it.
Learning inquiries follow the curiosity of the individual and group involved and so can vary
greatly.

Learners lead with their questions and interests. Teachers support through facilitating, coaching
and modeling. Environmental inquiry is one strategy used and may be limited to as little as two
half days a week. The rest of the learning timetable may follow traditional subject allocations.

The Grade 2 curriculum topic of water is expressed as key questions. Students contribute answers to the understanding of the
class. Upon general agreement information gets added to the shared understanding chart.
PHOTO CREDIT: STAN KOZAK

Key Strategies that Transform Learning for Environmental Education, Citizenship and Sustainability 70
 A Structure of Inquiry Learning

Question Generation,
Sorting, Refinement
-list, re-fine, re-state, clarify, prioritize
-other

Initiation/Provocation Group Knowledge Building

-a shared experience or event -Knowledge building circles (KBC)
-following an "I wonder ..." leads to -wikis/ knowledge building software
-a problem, conflict or need -shared understanding charts
-a critical thinking question -alternative perspective activities
-other -other

Determining
Understanding
(initial and ongoing)
-concept map
-listening
-Know, Want, Learned (KWL) chart
-journals
-KBC
-other

Open or free inquiry is best viewed through a systems perspective. Each inquiry involves the
illustrated elements that occur in a variable sequence with much repetition, hence the description
open or free. The teacher facilitates the process and uses each stage of the inquiry to address
curriculum from across the range of subjects. A highly authentic and naturally integrated learning
experience is the result.

71 Connecting the Dots

 Applying Knowledge and Skills
within School
-products
-through artistic expression
Individual Knowledge -project-based learning
Consolidation -other
-reflection journals
-V heuristics
-individual research
-discussions
-other

Making Connections and Moving On

-KBCs
follows with -question recycling
-link and move inquiry to a related topic
-other

can be a form of
Pursuing Knowledge
-research
-interviews
-discussions
-fieldtrips
-hands-on activities
-other
Acting on Learning beyond School
-knowledge and skills enhance the community
-project-based learning
-volunteering and service learning
-other

Key Strategies that Transform Learning for Environmental Education, Citizenship and Sustainability 72
g. Critical Thinking Occurs in the Context of Inquiry
Carefully selecting the right questions to drive learning will lead to a learning process that
requires students to make judgments that develop critical thinking skills. For example, in a Grade
2 examination of the topic Growth and Changes in Animals, an overriding question that leads
to critical thought could be: “How should we treat animals?” Teachers can address all of the
curriculum expectations in the curriculum policy document as this question is pursued.

Designing Critical Challenges (Critical Thinking Consortium, 2009)

Inquiry learning experiences driven by critical thinking challenges can

be designed using the following criteria:
• Does the question or task require judgment?
• Will the challenge be meaningful to students?
• Does the challenge address key aspects of the subject matter?
• Do students have the tools? Or can they reasonably acquire the
tools needed to address the challenge competently?

Examples of Critical Thinking Questions to Frame Inquiry through

Environmental Education:
• Is water a special substance?
• Are plants important?
• What does our community need to make it a better place to live?
• Does nature produce garbage?
• How is our part of the province special and unique?
• What is a healthy environment?
• How can the lives of indigenous people of the past and present
teach us how to live more responsibly?
• How do we get what we need to live from nature without
compromising it?

73 Connecting the Dots

h. Creativity and Inquiry
Creativity-oriented occupations require workers to apply their knowledge to changing situations,
make responsive decisions and communicate.
—Florida & Martin, 2009

In reading what two leading thinkers prescribe for the future of the Canadian economy one
cannot help but see the link to inquiry-based learning. Florida and Martin (2009) could as
easily add the social and environmental crisis that we face as drivers of the increasing need for
developing creativity in our students.

The best niche to elicit creativity is complex, unsolved problems. Unleashing the creativity of a
classroom of students is the essence of transformative learning; classroom creativity will outdo
that of the individual teacher. The nature of the issues we face, and the complexities of the
society we live in require that we cultivate creativity in all learning endeavours.

Example
Six Tools to Make Climate Change Art (Secondary)
Artist Franke James has learned that long-winded written pieces about climate change simply
don’t grab the public’s attention. Her website has many examples. She prompts students to be
creative and use visual art to convey a message using the following tools:
1. SYMBOLS: How can you show climate change when you can’t see it?
2. METAPHORS MAKE THINGS STICK: How can you give old phrases new meaning?
3. WITNESS: How do you help the viewer see what you see?
4. CULTURE CHANGE: What will we lose?
5. HUMAN NATURE: Can you touch a nerve?
6. ACTION: Do something green and record it!
(James, 2009)

Creativity is important in addressing the challenges that arise during inquiry. Artist Franke
James (2009) suggests one tool is the use of symbols. “How can you show climate change
when you can’t see it?”

Key Strategies that Transform Learning for Environmental Education, Citizenship and Sustainability 74
Living things such as composting worms spark genuine interst. A casual wondering “Do worms have eyes?” led to an indepth
investigation by the whole class.

PHOTO CREDIT: STAN KOZAK

PHOTO CREDIT: STAN KOZAK

75 Connecting the Dots

 ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION
LEARNING
LOCALLY

INQUIRY

ACTING ON
LEARNING

CONSIDERING
ALTERNATIVE
PERSPECTIVES

SUSTAINABILITY

CITIZENSHIP
INTEGRATED
LEARNING

STRATEGY 7
SHARING
REAL-WORLD
CONNECTIONS RESPONSIBILITY
FOR LEARNING
WITH STUDENTS
STUDENT
Preparing for active and engaged citizenship requires educators to shift responsibility for
learning to students. This requires that teachers prepare learners to be able to assume
responsibility by addressing individual and group learning capacities. It involves deep
listening to understand and respect student motivations and needs and to support their
learning journey in becoming who they wish to be.

Strategy Outline 1. What Is It?

2. Visualizing Sharing Responsibility for Learning Concept Map
3. Why Use It?
4. How to Implement Sharing Responsibility for Learning
a. Developing Self-Awareness to Support Sharing Responsibility
for Learning
b. Evolving the Role of Teacher to include Facilitator, Coach, Co-learner
c. Developing Peer Collaborative Learning Communities
d. Learning Spaces, Information Technology and Pedagogy

Key Strategies that Transform Learning for Environmental Education, Citizenship and Sustainability 76
1. What Is It?
Sharing Responsibility for Learning involves viewing each student as a whole person –a citizen
learner – from the time they start school when they arrive ready, able and needing to contribute
to their communities. It involves the planned and appropriate transfer of responsibility, from
teacher to student(s) in determining what is learned, how it is learned, how learning is used, and
what is assessed and evaluated.

Preparing students to take responsibility for their learning requires ... attending to an individual’s
capacity to enhance emotional and mental health through greater self-awareness and regulation.
Similarly by attending to social awareness and skills, the capacity for individuals to be effective
contributors and beneficiaries of collaborative group learning is enhanced.

With support at the personal and group levels, teachers should allow students to make authentic
decisions with consequences, individually and as collaborative learning groups.

2. Visualizing Sharing Responsibility for Learning Concept Map

-Respectful listening
-Collaborative determination of class/school culture -Reflection
-Open-ended, challenging learning tasks -V heuristics
-Sharing assessment and evaluation and other tools
-Negotiating the curriculum/differentiated learning employing
-Program choice
-Direct instruction in context
employing

Facilitator, coach, and co-learner

recognizes Self-awareness of emotions,

mental health and habits of mind
so teacher
becomes
Students as
"citizen-learners"
by developing
SHARING RESPONSIBILITY FOR LEARNING
evolves the student-teacher-peer group
part of relationship
Peer collaborative
learning communities

is enhanced through employing

Peer "citizen-learner
communities"

Learning spaces and technology

who for self-directive and -Group knowledge building
collaborative learning -Collaborative learning skills
-Group reflection and other tools

Experience
deep democracy

77 Connecting the Dots

 “Education becomes powerful when everyone has a voice in the decisions
and power is shared. When we trust our students to make wise decisions
and to take control of their education, they can and do create change.
They find their voices; they become empowered and prepared to take a
role in maintaining a democratic society.”
—Dockstader-Anderson, 1994

3. Why Use It?

• Helps our students become independent learners and contributing citizens
• Allows teachers to model and mentor the creation of a classroom culture of knowledge
building (Scardamalia, 2002)
• Supports democratic values
• Contributes to the development of students’ voice
• Ensures that educators gain greater insight into what learners know and what they
wish to know
• Promotes reflection and positivity, which fosters enduring understanding.

These grade one boys are helping each other find words they know in the text of a story that is result of a fieldtrip to find
living things in the schoolyard. It is their story in their own words hence they are highly engaged in a challenging task for the
first week of school.
PHOTO CREDIT: STAN KOZAK

Key Strategies that Transform Learning for Environmental Education, Citizenship and Sustainability 78
4. How to Implement Sharing Responsibility for Learning
To share responsibility for learning, educators can structure the learning environment to
bring a balance between the teacher, the individual learner and the peer group. They can also
prepare themselves to look for unplanned learning opportunities arising from student interests,
observations or questions.

Strategies outlined earlier in this document require sharing responsibility for learning. In
authentic student-led inquiry, the teacher may help shape the questions that set the context of
the learning but the student questions are respected. When addressing real-world problems,
the learning involved will be dictated by the options available. In considering alternative
perspectives through critical thinking, insights outside those of the prescribed course or teacher’s
understanding and experience will arise and offer directions for learning. In using digital tools,
learners can quickly access knowledge beyond teacher expertise to bring perspectives from the
community to the learning.

Setting the learning environment up to share responsibility for learning effectively involves a
systems perspective. It considers the whole curriculum and the whole child. It includes attending
to aspects of the individual’s social-emotional development:
• Developing emotional self-awareness and maturity as well as certain habits of mind are
viewed as necessary for a successful life (Casel.org, 2013)
• Evolving the role of teacher into an active facilitator, coach and co-learner
• Taking advantage of the potential of peer learning groups
• Establishing the context that supports all of these elements, including facilities and the
design of learning experiences.

a. Developing Self-Awareness to Support Sharing Responsibility

for Learning
How we are taught strongly influences what we will do when no one is looking. Teachers can
assist students in knowing their own learning strengths and challenges, their awareness of
their emotions, and the tools needed to manage them such as positive self-talk. Supporting
development of habits of mind such as persistence equips students for daily life and for the life
they wish to have in the future.

“Although many of us may think of ourselves as thinking creatures that

feel, biologically we are feeling creatures that think.”
—Bolte Taylor, 2009

79 Connecting the Dots

 i. Emotional and Mental Health
Emotional maturity includes greater emotional awareness, coping with negative emotions,
effective self-control, and sustaining attention. These can all be learned. Successful learning
activities have been developed to support children in dealing with negative emotions (Goleman,
2003). Similarly, cultivating positive emotions can also be addressed. Learning is affected
profoundly by an individual’s emotional and mental health. Mental health is “the state of well-
being in which the individual realizes his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses
of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to his or her
community.” (World Health Organization, 2014). Spending time in nature is increasingly being
recognized as a contributor to positive emotional and mental health.

ii. Habits of Mind

Most children come to school with curiosity and an ability to persevere when pursing something
challenging that is of interest to them. Formal school should build and develop these habits of
mind, which include: thinking about thinking, flexibility, persisting, striving for accuracy, thinking
independently, creating and innovating, wonderment and awe, and taking responsible risks
(Heick, 2013).

Mapping out a model community in the schoolyard. These students have demonstrated that they can learn on their own
while their teacher facilitates other groups nearby.
PHOTO CREDIT: Learning for a Sustainable Future

Key Strategies that Transform Learning for Environmental Education, Citizenship and Sustainability 80
iii. Tools Educators Currently Use to Enhance Self-Awareness
An underappreciated but important aspect of formal learning is self-awareness. This includes
developing in each person an awareness of values, priorities, goals and what makes us happy. A
number of techniques can be employed to develop this awareness.

Examples
Reflective Journaling (All Grades)
A reflection journal is a learning log where the student records his or her experiences, thoughts
and feelings on the learning process and records what has been learned.
Reflection journals:
• Should be used regularly to guide and articulate the learning process
• Can contain writing, drawings, quotes or whatever the student feels is relevant to the
learning
• Can be started with teacher prompts to assist some students
• Are an excellent assessment tool when it is understood beforehand that the teacher will be
assessing journal content.

Solo Spots in Nature (All Grades)

This established practice in the outdoor/environmental education community involves
introducing students to a natural area and then developing their capacity to sit on their own,
in one spot, to experience the setting and listen to their own thoughts. It is often used in
conjunction with some form of journaling. Extended solo experiences can go for a full day.

Cognitive Awareness and Values with V Heuristics (All Grades)

A V Heuristic requires students to think about their values at the beginning and end of the
learning process (Ahlberg, 2005). It is a concept-mapping tool through which: “learners are
trained in decision-making, reflection and problem solving skills by effectively identifying the
child’s ‘internal environment’ ” (Vanhear & Pace, 2008).

“Teachers are often nervous that they may not know the answer to a
child’s question. In that case, the proper reply should be, ‘I don’t know.
How do you think we can find out?’”
—Ward, 1997

81 Connecting the Dots

example

2. Value basis (The 1.Bringing awareness 8. Value Claim

student expresses why of the learning process (The student expresses
he/she thinks the begins with the focus his/her value position
question is worth question. on the learning
pursuing) (Example -What is the experience)
atmosphere and its
3. Theoretical basis processes?) 7. Knowledge claims
(The student completes (The student completes his/her
his/her initial concept next concept map for the
map for the question) question that indicates changes in
understanding that result from
4. Methodological basis the learning process)
(The student identifies how
further information will be 6. The student gives his/her
pursued) perspective on the quality of the
data gathered

5. The student records what

he/she actually did to
answer the focus question

The Elements of a V Heuristic (adapted from Ahlberg, 2005)

For each learning experience or inquiry, students individually record their thoughts on the process
as each step is reached. The eight-step process includes students identifying their values about
the learning, determining what they know initially, planning a process to learn more, through to
concluding with a value claim on the process and result.

“Highest priority should be given to encouraging the curiosity about the

world that children bring to school.”
—American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1993

Key Strategies that Transform Learning for Environmental Education, Citizenship and Sustainability 82
b. Evolving the Role of Teacher to include Facilitator, Coach, Co-learner
Teaching now means a greater emphasis on activating prior knowledge, selecting learning
experiences for differentiated instruction, facilitating the inquiry process, and coaching
individuals. Teachers use their expertise to co-construct new knowledge with students and model
what it is to be a curious and collaborative learner.
Facilitating means:
• Prompting and guiding individuals’ reflection, analysis, and experimentation
• Finding curriculum expectations in the inquiry process and guiding learning so that these are
addressed
• Asking good questions, activating prior knowledge, providing resources and teaching
learning skills
• Helping students make responsible choices for their learning
• Establishing open and honest communication, participating in shared decision making,
maintaining a respectful environment, and promoting common understandings
• Noting and moderating the interactions between individuals, groups and the entire class
• Assisting group functioning while groups engage in the learning process
• Ensuring that students share with the teacher a common understanding of what is to be
learned (learning goals) and what constitutes successful learning (success criteria).
Coaching means:
• Providing direct instruction when it is needed to individuals, small groups or the whole class
• Monitoring progress
• Providing descriptive feedback through ongoing assessment
• Scaffolding learning tasks.
Co-learning means:
• Modeling inquisitiveness
• Demonstrating options on how to learn when one knows they don’t know
• Exemplifying appropriate risk taking in learning
• Practising self and peer assessment.

i. Respectful Listening to the Thinking of All Students (Fletcher, 2009)

Respectful listening shows that the teacher values all contributions of learners, a significant shift
from being the arbitrator of what is right and wrong.
Ways of Respectful Listening Include:
• Extend response wait time after a teacher’s question. This can engage more students to
think and acknowledges that all student thought is important
• Pass around a talking stick
• Ask students to discuss with partners and share with each other (Think-Pair-Share)
• Ask everyone to write their responses before sharing. This gives all more time to think and
express their ideas
• Reduce the use of right or wrong responses. Instead, “Tell me more” or “Tell me how you got
to that conclusion” helps learners to evaluate their own thinking
• Have students respond to each other instead of going back to the teacher each time
• Model body language and facial expressions that positively support all learners.

83 Connecting the Dots

 ii. Collaborative Determination of Class/School Culture
The process of establishing class and school culture contributes to the social development of
those involved through the negotiation of rules and acceptable behaviour.

Schools that are intent on listening to and engaging students in determining norms and practices
have many tools available to them. These have been developed for organizations working to
involve stakeholders including discussions, surveys, exit surveys, advisory teams, and focus
groups.

Example
Rights-Respecting Schools (All Grades)
The rights-respecting schools program assists in creating a positive learning environment based
on inclusiveness, active participation, and citizenship. The scope of activity ranges from what
is taught in the classroom to student participation in determining school culture including
administrative and policy decisions. The program is based on the UN Convention on the Rights of
the Child (UNICEF, n.d).

When students are given authority in learning projects to benefit the community, they can come up with good solutions. This
group wrote and performed a song about biodiversity to communicate to shoppers.
PHOTO CREDIT: STAN KOZAK

Key Strategies that Transform Learning for Environmental Education, Citizenship and Sustainability 84
iii. Sharing Assessment and Evaluation
Assessment and evaluation for many learners is a black box (Black & Wiliam, 2001). They get the
results but they have little idea as to how it all took place. Sharing Responsibility for Learning
calls for significant changes including:
• Undertaking assessment in such a way that students learn to assess themselves to become
effective lifelong learners
• Making assessment an ongoing part of the learning process that provides feedback which
guides further learning activity
• Assessment that involves and takes advantage of the participation of the individual, the
teacher, and the peer learning group
• Having assessment of performance based on criteria standards and not on the basis of
relevance to other learners present.

Enabling Student Self-Assessment

Developing student capacity to effectively self-assess their learning progress helps them to
become independent, self-monitoring learners. Black and Wilam (2009) identify five key
strategies:
• Clarifying and sharing learning goals and criteria for success
• Engineering effective classroom discussions and other learning tasks that elicit evidence of
student understanding
• Providing feedback that moves learners forward
• Activating students as instructional resources for one another
• Activating students as the owners of their own learning.

When teachers implement these practices, student/teacher and student/student relationships

evolve and students become empowered to direct their own learning.
Peer Teaching and Assessment
Peer assessment is an important element of peer teaching. It:
• Requires that assessment criteria are well understood by all involved and are clearly posted
for ongoing reference by all learners
• Involves students learning how to give feedback to peers by following the model provided by
the teacher.

Through informed peer assessment, learners exchange ideas that help internalize learning.

Clarity in assessments, including rubrics, is vital. This is best achieved when rubrics are developed
with students using criteria and exemplars.

85 Connecting the Dots

iv. Negotiating the Curriculum/Differentiated Learning
Through negotiation and a willingness to differentiate learning and assessment, teachers can
provide students with an appropriate level of choice in what they learn, what process is followed,
and what products are created.

Differentiated learning allows students to learn in ways most relevant to themselves and
supports their development as autonomous learners.

The KWL learning technique — what do we Know, what do we Want to know and what have we
Learned (North Central Regional Educational Laboratory, 1995), has been used by elementary
teachers and includes elements of negotiated learning.

When providing learners with the opportunity to direct their learning on a topic, the teacher’s
role shifts to finding the curriculum that goes in the direction that the students have taken. It
is often surprising how students, themselves, end up suggesting learning activities that closely
address expectations in curriculum policy.

One negotiating strategy for assessment involves asking learners how they can demonstrate what
they have learned.

Examples
How to Study Ancient Civilizations (Grade 5)
A Grade 5 teacher described an example of providing students with a lot of latitude in what and
how they would learn: “Right now I am doing an early civilization theme, as mandated by the
social studies curriculum. I literally handed it over to my students to plan. I equipped them with
excellent resources, and they came up with the learning activities” (Drake & Burns, 2004).
Ten UP (Grade 10)
The Ten UP program involved four teachers and about 80 secondary students following a
school-within-a-school model that ran for the semester. Based on students’ personal concerns,
questions and important local issues, teachers practiced negotiating how the curriculum was
addressed. Students learned that people and organizations have ways of resolving differences
and making and enforcing decisions for the common good: “The changes we have introduced
help to engage and empower students while acknowledging student intention as essential to
successful learning” (Ast, 1995).

Key Strategies that Transform Learning for Environmental Education, Citizenship and Sustainability 86
 “Learning is easier when learners understand what goal they are trying
to achieve, the purpose of achieving the goal, and the specific attributes
of success.”
—Chappuis and Stiggins, 2002

v. Authentic, Open-Ended Learning Tasks

Inquiry Learning and Acting on Learning projects can put the student at the centre of the learning
process where important decisions are to be made.

Example
Good Food through Good Learning (Grade 6)
A Grade 6 class was invited to help increase support for the local good food box program as a
way to help school neighbours get access to fresh food and vegetables. This learning challenge
provided opportunities to address expectations in many subjects. Through discussion and some
initial research, students identified several projects with the guidance of their teacher. One
authentic measure of success was the increase in food box orders the following month.

87 Connecting the Dots

vi. Program Choice
Curriculum expectations can be met in many ways. Offering a diversity of programs to students
allows them to choose learning that matches their interests. A sense of belonging often develops
when students choose their learning community.

Examples
CyberARTS (Grades 7 to 12)
Students apply to attend this program. Projects are created throughout the year, which address
curriculum expectations in all subject areas through student interest in cyber art learning. The
opportunity to attend a cyber-arts focused program has been extended to Grade 6 students
(Toronto District School Board, 2013).
Secondary School Integrated Programs
Students attending secondary schools in Limestone District School board have a choice of more
than 40 programs (known locally as Focus Programs). Each semester, more than 800 students
move from their home schools to one of the 13 secondary schools that offer more focused
programs (Limestone District School Board, 2013).

vii. Direct Instruction in Context

Direct instruction is most appropriate when the purpose of the learning is clear, the benefit to
the student is clear, and the skill or content are relatively straightforward. Direct instruction is
less successful when complex understanding is required.

There is always a place for direct instruction as part of a larger learning context when a specific
skill or knowledge is necessary to get a task done to reach goals that matter.

c. Developing Peer Collaborative Learning Communities

A learning community “includes a conscious, reflective and analytic approach to current
conditions and practices achieved through identification of common goals, respect for one
another, a culture of safety and trust, participatory leadership and an appropriate level of
autonomy” (Mitchell, 1999, 286).

The teacher-individual-peer learning community triad is an essential element of transformative

learning. The goal of peer collaborative learning communities is to bring out the best in each
participant. This is accomplished by focusing on relationships (Riel, 2013). Once achieved, a
collaborative learning community contributes to the skills and attitudes of positive interpersonal
relations, the process of learning, and the projects and problems that the group addresses.

Key Strategies that Transform Learning for Environmental Education, Citizenship and Sustainability 88
i. Collaborative Skills Development
Learning to be a productive and positive member of a group is a requirement of effective
citizenship and success in the workplace. These skills can be developed over a student’s school
experiences through their participation in learner/citizen communities.

Sharing Responsibility for Learning requires development of group skills consistent with
successful citizenship and the world of work. Peer-learning groups, citizenship and the workplace
all require that individuals be adept at working with others and also be able to:
• Understand and work within the dynamics of a group
• Ensure that a team’s purpose and objectives are clear
• Respect and support the thoughts, opinions, and contributions of others in a group
• Recognize and respect people’s diversity, individual differences, and perspectives
• Accept and provide feedback in a constructive and considerate manner
• Contribute to a team by sharing information and expertise
• Lead or support when appropriate, motivating a group for high performance
• Understand the role of conflict in a group to reach solutions
• Manage and resolve conflict when appropriate.

In peer learning groups students can be taught collaborative skills such as consensus building and
conflict resolution, preparing them for when these skills are needed in the classroom or in life
outside school (Burgess, 2013).

ii. Group Knowledge Building

Knowledge building is simply “creative work with ideas that matter to the people doing the work”
(Bereiter & Scardamalia, 2003). Collaboration, determined by the ability of a group to function as
a community of learners, is recognized as important in constructivist learning through knowledge
building.

89 Connecting the Dots

Substantive Interactions and Collaborative Knowledge Building
An effective learning community engaged in collaborative knowledge construction results in
many meaningful interchanges between students as observed in this mapping of interchanges
between those present in a classroom.

STUDENT STUDENT STUDENT STUDENT

STUDENT STUDENT STUDENT STUDENT

TEACHER

STUDENT STUDENT STUDENT STUDENT STUDENT STUDENT STUDENT STUDENT

STUDENT STUDENT STUDENT STUDENT STUDENT STUDENT STUDENT STUDENT

TEACHER

STUDENT STUDENT STUDENT STUDENT

Substantive Interactions in the Traditional Classroom –The teacher

dominates the exchange of information.
STUDENT
STUDENT STUDENT STUDENT STUDENT
STUDENT
STUDENT
OUTSIDE
STUDENT CONTACTS

STUDENT STUDENT

STUDENT

STUDENT
TEACHER STUDENT STUDENT
STUDENT
STUDENT
OUTSIDE
STUDENT CONTACTS
STUDENT STUDENT
STUDENT STUDENT STUDENT
STUDENT STUDENT
STUDENT

TEACHER STUDENT
STUDENT STUDENT
OUTSIDE
CONTACTS STUDENT
STUDENT
STUDENT
STUDENT
STUDENT STUDENT

STUDENT
OUTSIDE
CONTACTS STUDENT

Substantive Interactions in the Transformed Classroom –Student-student

interactions dominate the discourse and the teacher facilitates knowledge
building among those participating individuals. Some learners engage in
meaningful interactions with contacts from beyond the class.
Adapted from Zhang, Scardamalia, Reeve, and Messina, 2009

Key Strategies that Transform Learning for Environmental Education, Citizenship and Sustainability 90
Examples
Knowledge Building Circles (All Grades)
The term Knowledge Building Circle refers to the seating configuration of students as they
engage in Knowledge Building Discourse. The circle is an intentional physical configuration that
is conducive to successful knowledge building (Chiarotto, 2011). Knowledge building circles can
be used with learners of any age. They feature respectful dialogue where students exchange,
negotiate and build on each other’s ideas. The process is more important than the product since
the product is always under review. Knowledge building circles are employed with the principle
that “all ideas can be improved” (Scardamalia, as cited in Chiarotto, 2011).

The physical set-up in the form of a circle promotes communication and reduces hierarchy.
Students learn to participate respectfully, building on the knowledge of others in the group.

The teacher is not expected to know about everything that is brought up in the circle. The talk
moves from student to student most of the time. The teacher facilitates the dialogue and when
appropriate assists by posing questions, asking for clarification, working to ensure appropriate
participation, recording contributions and offering follow-up learning experiences that can help
address the questions that have been raised.

Grade 6 students participate in a knowledge building circle sharing insights on the needs of salmon following a recent fieldtrip.

PHOTO CREDIT: Stan Kozak

91 Connecting the Dots

Example
Learning Circles: Face to Face and Online, Building Knowledge through
Collaborative Projects (All Grades)
A learning circle is a highly interactive, participatory structure for organizing group work. The goal
is to build, share, and express knowledge though a process of open dialogue and deep reflection
around issues or problems with a focus on a shared outcome. Online learning circles take
advantage of social networking tools to manage collaborative work over distances following a
timeline from the opening to the closing of the circle. Circles have a final project that collects the
shared knowledge generated during the interactions. Learning circles are a great way to organize
learning in massively open online courses (Riel, 2013).

Learning circles in schools consist of groups of classrooms that work together over several
months on projects based on a theme. At the end of the session each class publishes their work
and the learning circle comes to an end. The use of online collaborative software allows learning
circles to involve classes from anywhere in the world.

A guide is available to support teachers in using cross-classroom collaboration online (Riel, 2013).

iii. Group Reflection

Reflection gives an individual the opportunity to think about learning and become more aware
of it. Discussion in a learning group can prompt individual reflection. Individual reflection can
contribute to group exchange and positioning on an issue, contributing to group reflection
(Mitchell, 1999).

Group reflection processes are used to advance a learning project, the learning process, and
relationships within the group, making group members active participants in this overall learning
experience. As group members, students learn from each other and increasingly develop the
skills to support the overall aims of the group and its members.

The features of group reflection include:

• Individuals expressing their insights or point of view
• Analysis used to weigh the options
• Decisions made as to the best way to proceed.

Group journaling has been suggested as a tool for reflection, fun, and group development
(Asfeldt, 2012). This tool can also be used in any group-learning situation. After each day one
person is chosen to write in the group journal in relation to the topic or project. At the beginning
of the next day the next writer reads the entry. It becomes a regular feature that starts each day.
This can be done with a class website or blog.

Key Strategies that Transform Learning for Environmental Education, Citizenship and Sustainability 92
iv. Tools to Prompt Peer Interaction
Teachers can increase peer group formation and development by remodeling their lessons to
make them more active and social. Practices aimed to do this include:
• Jigsaw learning
• Assigning roles to group members for specific tasks (facilitator, recorder, resource manager)
• Think-pair-share
• Group adventure challenges.

Example
Tribes (Elementary)
Tribes is a program that works to establish effective learning communities. Every school should
be a model home, a complete community, actively developing compassionate citizens capable of
creating, leading and contributing to the kind of democratic communities in which we all long to
live. Tribes community agreements include: attentive listening, appreciation/ no put-downs, right
to pass and mutual respect (Tribes Learning Community, 2014).

d. Learning Spaces, Information Technology and Pedagogy

Differentiated learning includes students working individually, in small groups, and as an entire
class, at different times. This puts demands on school buildings and facilities including computers
and related equipment.

The Learning Spaces, Information Technology and Pedagogy Matrix presents a hierarchy
supporting self-directive and collaborative learning leading to the transformative learning goal of
anywhere/anytime learning.

In most schools the variety of spaces for learning is limited and includes the classroom and
sometimes the school library, with the school hallway filling in when there are no other options.
Teachers have adapted to using these options to support collaborative and self-directive learning.
Most school architecture however only supports self-directive and collaborative learning at a low
level.

The utility of spaces and facilities in the schoolyard and community to support learning are
usually overlooked.

Example
Allowing Learners to Determine the Most Effective Learning Spaces (All Grades)
Teachers can share how the learning space of the classroom is configured with the learners
involved. At different times of the year task students with arranging the classroom to maximize
the learning that takes place there.

93 Connecting the Dots

Learning Spaces, Information Technology and Pedagogy Matrix

Traditional to Transformative Learning Goal

traditional -individual support
Self-directed individual individual
classroom carousels office and studio individual
Learning work special project
is teacher -learning spaces initiative to
Spaces stations work areas
centred centres learn

-small group small group -whole group

traditional group special support the
Collaborative work areas conference meeting spaces
classroom project rooms, ability of
Learning -moveable rooms/ -labs
is teacher media groups to
Spaces furniture for discussion -learning
centred rooms learn
flexible groups areas commons

-wikis and
-wireless knowledge
global
-lap tops building,
Information classroom information
computer lab -blogs and -hand held devices presentation
Technology desk tops sources and
chat and other
sharing
sharing
software

schoolyard
individual
government, melding of
and group neighbourhood
school library civil society learning
traditional learning purpose designed
Facilities and private and broader
classroom spaces - facilities and
sector community
natural and natural spaces
workplaces functions
built

Learning spaces, information technology and facilities all effect how students learn. The school
library has traditionally been allocated responsibility for many of these needs. Adapted from
Webster and Johnson (2008).

“We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us.”

—Winston Churchill

Key Strategies that Transform Learning for Environmental Education, Citizenship and Sustainability 94
The impact of information technology on self-directive learning is powerfully evident in our
“digital native” learners. Advances in technology that allow for collaborative work are providing
exciting examples in which students take over and continue their learning outside the context of
school and sometimes throughout the summer vacation months. Student interest and skills can
be harnessed by using digital tools and apps that provide virtual learning spaces and use in the
field. They provide creative contexts for building and sharing work fluently and give teachers data
and evidence of learning.

Wikis are one example showing the capabilities that technology provides to advance peer
collaboration (Educational wikis, 2014).

Other software programs that allow for group knowledge building include Knowledge Forum
(Knowledge Building Concepts Inc, n.d.).

Cmap Tools (IHMC, n.d.) allows the use of concept maps and learner collaboration. It is the
software that was used to create the concept maps in this document.

It is important to note that cognitive research is now investigating the importance of balancing
our digital and nature experiences both for mental health and improved thinking and attention.
For example, studies indicate that the kind of attention used to experience the sensory input
of nature can restore the kind of attention needed for computer and academic work (Berman,
Jonides & Kaplan, 2008).

“The future will belong to the nature-smart — those individuals, families,

businesses, and political leaders who develop a deeper understanding
of the transformative power of the natural world and who balance the
virtual with the real. The more high-tech we become, the more nature we
need.”
—Louv, 2012

95 Connecting the Dots

 ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION

REAL-WORLD
CONNECTIONS

SHARING RESPONSIBILITY
FOR LEARNING WITH
STUDENTS

INTEGRATED
LEARNING

CONSIDERING
ALTERNATIVE
PERSPECTIVES

SUSTAINABILITY

CITIZENSHIP

ACTING ON
LEARNING LEARNING
LOCALLY

INQUIRY

CONCLUSION VISIONS OF LEARNING

Connecting the Dots explores strategies that engage students as active citizens in
supporting environmental, social and economic sustainability.

Key Strategies that Transform Learning for Environmental Education, Citizenship and Sustainability 96
This work is meant to support change in practice to prepare learners to meet the challenges we
all face. It aims to prompt professional discussion, collaboration and the creation of the learning
experiences our students need to become active citizens with an interconnected worldview.

Change requires a vision or destination to pursue. We note the following examples:

Educating for an Effective Democratic Society
Learning addresses three kinds of citizenship: the Personally Responsible Citizen who acts
responsibly in his/her community, the Participatory Citizen who actively participates in the
civic affairs and the social life of the community from the local to national level, and the
Justice-oriented Citizen who seeks change to improve society by addressing social issues
and injustices through an understanding of root causes.
Westheimer and Kahne, 2004

from Friluftsliv* Education: Learning through Nature, Experience and Culture

“We strive to co-create an educational environment that is non-hierarchical and
collaborative, valuing the contributions of each individual and recognizing that the most
profound teachings are often from spontaneous and unpredictable sources. We challenge
the notion that education is a one-way street and realize that in order to be effective
teachers we too need to be learning.”
Duenkel and Pratt, 2001
*A Norwegian term with no English equivalent.
The Eco-restorative School
“The eco restorative school increases the natural and social capital of the location in which
it operates. High efficiency buildings are standard. The buildings might even be energy
positive; i.e., the school generates more power than it uses for its traditional functions. The
eco-restorative school contributes to the optimization of the local community as a system
by acting as one node in a decentralized power grid or as a community workshop space for
social enterprises focused on “repair and reuse” flows of materials.

“In land use terms, the eco-restorative school increases local wildlife diversity through
careful planting and habitat management. Recreational access to such areas is encouraged.
In curricula, a sustainable school has many practical connections to the community.
Vocational and training opportunities are tied into how the school and local community
operates as eco-restorative – in relation to energy, technology, food, waste as food systems,
ecology and design, business to name but a few.”
Webster and Johnston, 2008

We hope that this resource and the many examples of transformative learning described in it will
help you to create the learning experiences needed to help students achieve a sustainable future.

Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.”

—William Butler Yeats

97 Connecting the Dots

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Key Strategies that Transform Learning for Environmental Education, Citizenship and Sustainability 108
 About Learning for a Sustainable Future
Learning for a Sustainable Future is a Canadian charitable organization founded in 1991 to promote, through
education - the knowledge, skills, values, perspectives, and practices essential for a sustainable future. Working
with business, governments, school boards, universities, communities, educators, and youth across Canada,
LSF acts as a connector, a resource, and a facilitator for change.

LSF’s innovative programs and strategic partnerships are reshaping education policy and transforming
learning methods to address the increasingly difficult economic, social, and environmental challenges of the
21st century.

Policy
LSF is actively involved in advancing education policy, standards and good practice toward active, responsible
citizenship in all provinces and territories across Canada.

Learning Resources
Resources for Rethinking (www.r4r.ca) is a free, on-line database which provides the best available peer
reviewed, curriculum connected, learning experiences, children’s literature and videos on sustainability themes
from hundreds of organizations.

Professional Development
LSF supports educators with professional development that is based on inquiry methodology, modeling for
educators the transformational pedagogy, techniques, tools and resources they can use to engage students in
making positive changes in schools and communities. Please contact us for a list of professional services LSF
provides to the educator community.

For more information about LSF and our programs

• visit our website at www.lsf-lst.ca
• email us at [email protected]
• or contact us at 1 877 250 8202

About the Authors

Stan Kozak has combined his career as educator with a keen interest in nature and
the outdoors, graduate work in science and an active role as an engaged citizen. His
experience includes teaching in elementary and secondary schools, and serving as a
teacher-librarian, board of education curriculum consultant and curriculum and policy
education officer for the Ontario Ministry of Education.

Since 1997 Stan has worked as an independent education consultant. His ongoing work
with Learning for a Sustainable Future includes providing leadership in research, policy
change and professional development for educators.

Susan Elliott is Executive Director of the Learning Forum at Toronto French School.
Susan has a B.Sc. from the University of Waterloo, an M.A. in English from the University
of Toronto and a Ph.D. from the University Of London Institute Of Education (United
Kingdom), where her research focused on Assessment and Teacher Reflective Practices.

Susan worked as Middle Years Coordinator of the Wernham West Centre for Learning
at Upper Canada College in Toronto, developing the program from its inception. She
provided academic support in learning strategies and best practices in experiential
learning. She continues to write and present as a consultant with Learning for a
Sustainable Future.

109 Connecting the Dots