Attentiveness

The educator helps learners to understand fundamentally unsustainable aspects of our society and the way it is developing and increases their awareness of the urgent need for change.

Learning Outcomes

The educator helps learners to:

Underpinning Components for the educator

In order to achieve the above Learning Outcomes the educator should be able to:

Example activities for teaching Attentiveness

1 Building the picture
  • Suggested duration: 60-90 mins
  • Technique used: Research by students in jigsaw groups 
  • Materials required: Instructions to groups (see below); internet access or suitable reference material
  • Aim of activity: To engage the students in exploring a range of issues in some depth without subjecting them to a long lecture.
  • Connection with underpinning components (from same competence): UC 2.1; UC 2.2; UC2.3
  • Connection with other competences:

Short description

For a class of approximately 30: Split class into 9 groups of 3 (or 2-4 per group to fit numbers).

The first three groups are given the task of investigating What’s so good about...? Each of the groups receives a different topic: e.g. A. Social Justice; B. Biodiversity; C. Maintaining a Stable Climate. They are asked to find out: What is this about? Why is it important? Is this desirable? If so, why?

The second three groups are given the task of investigating What’s the problem with...? Each of the groups receives a different topic: e.g. A. Using cheap labour to make our clothes; B. Eating large quantities of cheap meat; C. Using fossil fuels for our energy needs. They are asked to find out: Why is this considered to be a bad thing? What impacts is it having on people’s lives/the environment? Why is it happening?

The third three groups are given the task of investigating How can we deal with...? Each of the groups receives a different topic: e.g. A. Exploitative employment practices; B. The negative impacts of the meat industry; C. Greenhouse gas emissions. They are asked to find out: How can we deal with this issue? How might we reduce its impact? What alternatives are there for this (in terms of materials and our actions or habits)?

Share: After 30-40 minutes’ group work ask the groups to come together in three teams comprising the Group As, Group Bs and Group Cs. The teams should now listen to each other in order to discover any links that they can between their different pieces of evidence. They should work together to develop a presentation that they can share with the other two teams.

Present: Each team gives a five minute presentation to the rest of the class and takes questions on their given issue.

2 Learning counterintuitive concepts
  • Suggested duration: 45 mins
  • Technique used: 
  • Materials required: A range of concepts
  • Aim of activity: This can help the learners notice, describe and understand processes and complex systems behind “directly observable-perceivable” aspects of the world
  • Underpinning components: UC 2.1
  • Connection with other competences:

Short description

See, for example: unlocke.org; also other concept development/conceptual change approaches (Vosniadou et al.). Look also system thinking skills (Assaraf & Orion, 2010), etc..

3 Affective education
  • Suggested duration: 45 mins
  • Technique used: 
  • Materials required: Stories, films, etc. As stimuli for multi-perspective discussions
  • Aim of activity:
  • Underpinning components: UC 2.1
  • Connection with other competences:

Short description

In addition to knowledge and thinking skills also more affect-eliciting activities (stories-films-cases and multi-perspective discussions about them)

4 Meta-cognition
  • Suggested duration: 45 mins
  • Technique used: Developing metacognitive skills of students to help them notice, how they argue, discuss and reason about complex problems, systems and processes.
  • Materials required: None
  • Aim of activity: This helps us to notice that we are not consistent in being systemic thinkers, which is a common problem of systemic thinking.
  • Underpinning components: UC 2.1

Example activities for teaching Attentiveness Sustainable Development Goals

Attentiveness SDG1 No poverty

Understand fundamentally unsustainable aspects of our society and the way it is developing regarding poverty and be aware of the urgent need for change.

Attentiveness SDG2 Zero hunger

Be aware of examples of hunger either locally, or globally and of the possible causes.

Attentiveness SDG3 Good health and well-being

Be aware of concentrations of preventable diseases and of groups vulnerable to them and be critically aware of the policies and strategies implemented to prevent and protect.

Attentiveness SDG4 Quality education

Be critically aware of inequalities in access to and attainment of education, particularly between girls and boys and in rural areas.

Attentiveness SDG5 Gender equality

Be aware of the challenges of gender inequality in society and be able to see them in relation to social justice and environmental impacts.

Attentiveness SDG6 Clean water and sanitation

Become aware of the inequality of access to drinking water and sanitation on a global and local scale and understand underlying causes of the situation.

Attentiveness SDG7 Affordable and clean energy

Participate to find ways to share clean and affordable energy.

Attentiveness SDG8 Decent work and economic growth

Be critically aware of employment and economic initiatives taken by companies and governments in relation to social justice and environmental impacts.

Attentiveness SDG9 Industry, innovation and infrastructure

Understand fundamentally unsustainable aspects of our society and the way it is developing and the urgent need for change towards resilient infrastructure, inclusive and sustainable industrialization and innovation.

Attentiveness SDG10 Reduced inequalities

Recognise examples of inequality locally and globally and understand possible causes.

Attentiveness SDG11 Sustainable cities and communities

Recognise and discuss the unsustainable practices of human settlements locally and globally and identify aspects of our cities, communities and societies that need to change in order to improve our life-quality (e.g. energy, water, transportation, food, safety, waste, health, accessibility, education, inclusion, green etc.).

Attentiveness SDG12 Responsible consumption and production

Be critically aware of inequalities in access to sustainable and affordable products, particularly in urban areas and the developing world.

Attentiveness SDG13 Climate action

Be aware of the challenge of climate change for humankind and be able to see, and describe the limits and resilience of natural and human-made systems, the flaws that cause unsustainability and the multiple consequences, in terms of environmental and social impacts of such a planetary change. Stay alert to data which points out changes that are occurring in the climate and to social consequences.

Attentiveness SDG14 Life below water

Be aware of the impact of climate change on coastal areas. Understand the risks associated with overfishing and the importance of marine ecosystems.

Attentiveness SDG15 Life on land

Be aware of the impact of our consumption model in the global north on the life, land and water systems elsewhere in the world and how it is reducing global biodiversity, both in the global north and south.

Attentiveness SDG16 Peace, justice and strong institutions

Be aware of specific examples of marginalisation, disadvantage, power imbalances and their actual and potential impacts.

Useful reading for Attentiveness

  • George S 2010 Whose Crisis, Whose future? Towards a Greener, Fairer, Richer World. Cambridge: Polity Press
  • Urry J 2011 Climate Change & Society. Cambridge: Polity Press
  • Wals A 2017 Sustainability by Default: Co-creating Care and Relationality Through Early Childhood Education International Journal of Early Childhood 49 (2). - p. 155 - 164.