Education For Sustainable Development

Education For Sustainable Development Professor D Warner Another interesting lecture we had was by Professor Warner who talked about education for sustainable development. Warner started off the lecture by giving us a direct quote from Brundtlant 1987, “Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” Warner gave us three main points which are important is sustaining development, there were: * Clarify and extend the ability of students to think for themselves. * To encourage students to reflect and debate issues to enable them to form their own opinions. * To foster learning that emerges from discovery and is relevant to the learners life experience. Warner explained that it is believed that there is now a more effective way of teaching children rather than the traditional way of being told information in the form of facts throughout lessons. It was suggested it is more important to centre the lesson around the learners and allow children to form their own ideas through observation. Dr Warner went on to talk about the important necessities that all education establishments should have to reach the full potential. A few examples of these are; leadership and commitment at the highest level, policies to ensure responsible behaviour, objectives and targets, effective communication and willingness to disclose information and share best practice. There was a number of other important things Dr Warner talked about most notable was the benefits our country gain from growth and also the alternative, when we move in the opposite direction. When a country is thriving there are many benefits seen such as greater employment with higher incomes while poverty decreases and the overall standard of living improves. All of these factors create a more stable economy. While some economies are growing others are on a decline which can be known as de-growth. As a result we have to reduce consumption and contract economically. Towards the end of our lecture we were told of various ways in which our government deals with keeping our country sustainable. The National Assembly for Wales has a duty under section 121 of the government of Wales Act 1988 to promote Sustainable Development in the exercise of its functions, that is, in everything it does. This suggests that it is widely felt that all members of our country are considered important in achieving sustainability and to educate individuals on the best way to go about this is vital in helping our country prosper.