{"id":6930,"date":"2017-03-28T06:51:42","date_gmt":"2017-03-28T06:51:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/?p=6930"},"modified":"2017-03-29T07:08:03","modified_gmt":"2017-03-29T07:08:03","slug":"tedious-learning-objectives-from-unesco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/2017\/03\/28\/tedious-learning-objectives-from-unesco\/","title":{"rendered":"Tedious Learning Objectives from UNESCO"},"content":{"rendered":"

I've been trying to take seriously UNESCO's latest output\u00a0on the Sustainable Development Goals,\u00a0but it's hard going.<\/p>\n

UNESCO says that its new publication, \"Education for Sustainable Development Goals: Learning Objectives,<\/em> targets policy-makers, curriculum developers and educators, and that it contains learning objectives and suggestions for classroom activities to address each of the SDGs as well as guidance on how to integrate ESD into policies and teaching. You can download it\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0if you really want to.<\/p>\n

In a Foreword, UNESCO's Deputy Director writes:<\/p>\n

\"... This publication is designed as a guide for education professionals on the use of ESD in learning for the SDGs, and\u00a0consequently to contribute to achieving the SDGs. \u00a0The guide identifies indicative learning objectives and suggests topics\u00a0and learning activities for each SDG. It also presents implementation methods at different levels, from course design to\u00a0national strategies. \u00a0The guide does not aim to be prescriptive in any way, but to provide guidance and suggestions that educators can select and\u00a0adapt to fit concrete learning contexts. \u00a0...\"<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This ends:<\/p>\n

\"I am confident that this guide will help to develop sustainability competencies for all learners and empower everyone to\u00a0contribute to achieving our ambitious and crucial global agenda.\"<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Well, I suppose someone has to be. \u00a0I'm not, as I doubt that many not on\u00a0the UNESCO payroll\u00a0will read it; indeed, those millions who take\u00a0UNESCO's shilling but\u00a0who know that ESD is a dead-end, won't be reading it either. \u00a0All this might well have a greater impact had it focused on\u00a0'education' rather than 'ESD', as it then would have had an appropriate audience in mind \u2013 that is, all those involved in education across the world \u2013 as opposed to the pitiful few who know anything about ESD.<\/p>\n

But even so, it's doubtful that they'd take much notice as what's set out here is clearly written by insiders for insiders, and done so with an astonishingly uncritical eye. \u00a0Here's one example. \u00a0It's in\u00a0Table 1.2.2. and sets out the cognitive learning objectives for Goal\u00a02 \u201cZero Hunger\u201d:<\/p>\n

The Learner:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. knows about hunger and malnutrition and their main physical and\u00a0psychological effects on human life, and about specific vulnerable groups.<\/li>\n
  2. knows about the amount and distribution of hunger and malnutrition\u00a0locally, nationally and globally, currently as well as historically.<\/li>\n
  3. knows the main drivers and root causes for hunger at the individual, local,\u00a0national and global level.<\/li>\n
  4. knows principles of sustainable agriculture and understands the need for\u00a0legal rights to have land and property as necessary conditions to promote it.<\/li>\n
  5. understands the need for sustainable agriculture to combat hunger\u00a0and malnutrition worldwide and knows about other strategies to combat hunger,\u00a0malnutrition and poor diets.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    There are also 5 socio-emotional\u00a0learning objectives<\/em> and 5 behavioural\u00a0learning objectives<\/em> about this Goal as well.<\/p>\n

    You really do have to ask: which learner is this? \u00a0Is it a\u00a016 month old toddler in a Koln nursery school? \u00a0A 7 year old in a New York elementary school? \u00a0A benighted teenager\u00a0in a Lahore madrassa? \u00a0A masters student in politics at Sciences Po? \u00a0A trainee teacher in Durban? \u00a0A student\u00a0in a Sydney grammar school? \u00a0An undergraduate in Milan on an Italian Fine Art degree? \u00a0A\u00a0vocational education track student in a Stockholm\u00a0high school? ...<\/p>\n

    It is of course Everylearner<\/em>, and therefore none. \u00a0My favourite among all the 255 [17 x 3 x 5] learning objectives is this:<\/p>\n

    \"The learner is able to understand that with changing resource availability (e. g. peak oil,\u00a0peak everything) and other external shocks and stresses (e. g. natural hazards, conflicts)\u00a0their own perspective and demands on infrastructure may need to shift radically\u00a0regarding availability of renewable energy for ICT, transport options, sanitation options,\u00a0etc.\"<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    But it was a hard choice ...<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I've been trying to take seriously UNESCO's latest output\u00a0on the Sustainable Development Goals,\u00a0but it's hard going. UNESCO says that its new publication, \"Education for Sustainable Development Goals: Learning Objectives, targets policy-makers, curriculum developers and educators, and that it contains learning...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":237,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comment","category-new-publications"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/237"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6930"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6930\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}