THE DEVELOPMENT OF SCHOOL CURRICULUM TEACHER TRAINING FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT 2011-2013, elementary school Marjan, Split, Croatia

1. THE DEVELOPMENT OF SCHOOL CURRICULUM - TEACHER TRAINING FOR
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT project was created in order to increase teachers'
competence. In all the countries of Europe and the world, the teachers are expected to prepare
young people for living in changing circumstances. That's why teachers have to be creative,
explore new opportunities and find new models of effective teaching. Through the fellowship
and collaboration of teachers and schools in Europe, it is easier to accomplish this goal.
In our project, the partnership between schools from three European countries is realized:
Croatia, Slovenia and Turkey. Teachers in partner schools are united around a common goal:
the creation and exchange of creative methodological model of teaching, especially on issues
of sustainable development of their homeland.
Through homeland topics students have explored the immediate reality and gained experience
of what they were learning, and teachers have realized the most modern forms of learning
through project and research teaching.
Topics on sustainable development of the homeland entered the school curricula of all partner
schools, and we believe that is exceptional quality of the project. Teaching young people
about sustainable development, teachers prepare them to take responsibility for their own
future, the future of their homeland and the planet on which we all live. Although the teaching
contents need to be constantly reviewed and adapted to the needs of students, we shouldn’t
consider it as the educational goals. In this project, teachers realized that teaching contents are
primarily means of teaching that serve for achieving the educational goal - the development of
core competencies and skills of students.
Partners meetings in each partner country were extremely fruitful. The hosts were preparing
meetings with particular attention. In each school, the exhibitions of student works created
during realization of project activities were organized. Public debates on educational issues
were led, presentations of partner countries, school systems, and cultural heritage were held.
In presenting the taste of the local cuisine (Intangible Cultural Heritage), the parents of
students from host schools were involved. The hosts are also organized excursions in order to
present their cultural and natural heritage. They organized meetings with holders of local
political and educational authorities and gave statements to the media. During meetings, the
whole narrower and wider community of the host school was aware of the project.
Finally, we will emphasize: during joint work on the project partners got to know each other
well; they exchanged experiences in work, knowledge and information about their (different)
school systems. They found that despite the large differences arising from the circumstances
in which each partner school operates, the same goals can be achieved: to improve their
competence and creatively change their school curricula.
Web site of the project:
http://www.comenius-ttfsd.com/?cat=13