LEARNING IN SUPPORT OF ACTIVE AGEING Irena Rashkova Tsvetelina Petrova
Funded by the ERASMUS+ Programme of the European Union...Tsvetelina Ventsislavova Kostinbrod Dr....
Transcript of Funded by the ERASMUS+ Programme of the European Union...Tsvetelina Ventsislavova Kostinbrod Dr....
-
Funded by the ERASMUS+ Programme of the European Union
Created by JA Bulgaria in collaboration with JA Greece, JA Latvia, Ungt Entreprenorskap Sogn og
Fjordane (Norway), and JA Romania
This publication has been created with the financial support of the European Union through
the Erasmus+ Programme. It reflects only the author's view and the National Agency and
the European Commission are not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it
contains.
-
I. Teacher feedback after individual lessons delivery
A total of 14 lesson activity reports were submitted by teachers from Bulgaria. The 7 different
lessons piloted by Bulgarian teachers are:
First
Name Last Name City / town Name of school
Name of the GREENT
lesson you delivered
Hristiyana Tsenovska Vratsa
Nikola Vaptsarov
Technical Vocational
School
4. Natural cycles and flows –
material and energy
Hristiyana Tsenovska Vratsa
Nikola Vaptsarov
Technical Vocational
School
4. Natural cycles and flows –
material and energy
Katya Zamfirova Varshets Ivan Vazov High School 22. Circular economy
Katya Zamfirova Varshets Ivan Vazov High School
5. Biodiversity and natural
systems
Mariyana Vasileva Pazardzhik
Georgi Benkovski High
School
16. Sustainable solutions
and their importance for the
environment. Climate,
energy and waste handling.
Petya Peeva Sofia
23rd High School "F.J.
Curie"
16. Sustainable solutions
and their importance for the
environment. Climate,
energy and waste handling.
Rozalia Dimkova
Veliko
Tarnovo
Vela Blagoeva High
School
4. Natural cycles and flows –
material and energy
Rumyana Aleksieva Plovdiv
St. Paisiy Hilendarski High
School
16. Sustainable solutions
and their importance for the
environment. Climate,
energy and waste handling.
Shizen Izet Kostinbrod
Dr. Petar Beron High
School
18. Examples of sustainable
businesses
Shizen Izet Kostinbrod
Dr. Petar Beron High
School
17. Sustainable solutions in
everyday life – global and
local impact
Shizen Izet Kostinbrod
Dr. Petar Beron High
School
16. Sustainable solutions
and their importance for the
environment. Climate,
-
energy and waste handling.
Tsvetelina Ventsislavova Kostinbrod
Dr. Petar Beron High
School
5. Biodiversity and natural
systems
Tsvetelina Ventsislavova Kostinbrod
Dr. Petar Beron High
School
4. Natural cycles and flows –
material and energy
Vladimir Donov Pazardzhik
Georgi Benkovski High
School
4. Natural cycles and flows –
material and energy
The students to whom the lessons were delivered ranged from 9th to 11th graders. According to the
information submitted in the forms, a total of 276 students participated in the lessons. The actual
number of unique students may be lower because teachers who piloted more than one lesson may
have piloted it to the same group of students. The teachers who delivered the lessons are teachers
in Geography, Biology, Physics, English, Entrepreneurship, Economy, History, as well as
specialized subjects such as Biomass Energy Production Systems, Technologies for Using Wind
Energy, etc.
Almost all teachers used 1 school hour to deliver the respective lesson, although in 4 cases
teachers used 2 or more school hours to teach the lesson. They focused equally on delivering the
introduction, the theory, the practical activities, the case studies and the reflection sections of the
lessons. They did not focus so much on the entrepreneur profiles and the homework.
In terms of timing, the feedback from the teachers is that in general the time is not enough to deliver
all parts of the lessons and they had to skip some parts, although several teachers managed to do
all core sections of the respective lessons. This may be due to the fact that lessons 4, 5, 16 and 17
that several teachers chose to pilot are among the most voluminous in the GREENT course. Almost
100 % of teachers thought that the indicative timings proposed for each section in the teachers’
manual is a good reference for them when planning the lesson.
The overall assessment presented in Chart 1 below reveals the high appreciation that Bulgarian
teachers give to the relevance and appropriateness of the overall content and level of difficulty of
the lessons, including their theoretical sections, entrepreneur profiles, and case studies. Moreover,
teachers think that the lessons they piloted provide opportunities for real blended learning (4.46 out
of 5).
-
Chart 1. Assessment of Bulgarian teachers related to GREENT lessons’ content, difficulty, age
appropriateness and relevance of presented information.
Results show that teachers in general are not comfortable with the fact that the online videos that
the lessons link to are in English and have no subtitles in Bulgarian. This was a problem in 8 of the
cases, while it was not a problem for 6 of the cases. The situation becomes even more complicated
when teachers are asked whether the English language in the videos is a problem for their students
– according to teachers, this was a problem for their students in 10 out of 14 cases.
An important aspect of the GREENT lessons is their influence on fostering and/or changing
students’ attitudes. The teachers were requested to give their assessment of whether the lessons
they piloted have an impact on students’ creativity, environmental responsibility and willingness to
generate their own sustainable business idea. The scores are presented in Chart 2 below:
4.77
2.85
4.38
4.3
4.46
4.46
THE CONTENT OF THE LESSON IS APPROPRIATE FOR THE AGE OF THE STUDENTS
LEVEL OF DIFFICULTY OF THE CONTENT (LANGUAGE AND TERMINOLOGY)
THE THEORETICAL SECTION PRESENTS RELEVANT AND APPROPRIATE INFORMATION ON THE TOPIC
THE EXAMPLES PRESENTED IN THE CASE STUDIES AND ENTREPRENEUR PROFILES ARE RELEVANT
THE PRACTICAL ACTIVITIES REINFORCE THE THEORY IN AN APPROPRIATE WAY
THE LESSON PROVIDES OPPORTUNITIES FOR REAL BLENDED LEARNING
GREENT lessons’ content, difficulty, age appropriateness and relevance of presented information according to Bulgarian teachers
Average Score N = 14 (1 = No, 5 = Yes)
-
Chart 2. Assessment of Bulgarian teachers related to GREENT lessons’ ability to foster attitudes and
creativity.
In terms of skills that piloting teachers thought were mostly developed by the GREENT lessons
piloted in Bulgaria, reflection and self-assessment stands out as the leading skills. Critical thinking,
analysis of information and environmental responsibility were also among the leading skills to be
developed by the GREENT lessons. Data is summarized in Chart 3 below:
Chart 3. Skills developed by GREENT lessons piloted in Bulgaria, according to piloting teachers.
4.3
4.46
4
3.7 3.8 3.9 4 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5
Lesson develops students' creativity
Lesson inspires students for environmentally responsiblemindset
Lesson inspires students to think about their ownsustainable business idea
GREENT lessons' ability to foster attitudes according to Bulgarian teachers
Average Score N = 14 (1 = No, 5 = Yes)
Reflection and self-assessment
Critical thinking
Analysis of information
Environmentally responsible mindset
Creativity
Empathy and emotional
intelligence
Teamwork
Decision making
Holistic thinking
Digital skills
EntrepreneurshipSynthesis of information
Presentation
SKILLS DEVELOPED BY GREENT LESSONS PILOTED IN BULGARIA
-
It is reassuring to see that the teachers who piloted the content saw a number of cross-curricular
links of the respective piloted lesson with the other subjects from the compulsory educational
curriculum. English language teachers, for instance, saw good connections with vocabulary
practice, listening and reading comprehension, speaking skills. Lesson No. 4 was thought to make
very good interdisciplinary connection with the “Biosphere” section from the Biology textbook for the
9th grade. In general the content was seen to link particularly well with general subjects such as
Geography, Entrepreneurship, Biology, Chemistry, as well as with more specialized subjects such
as Facilities and installations for biomass energy production.
A lot of the more general recommendations focus on the English language in the videos. Several
teachers requested that we subtitle the videos so that they are more easily understandable both for
the teachers and the students.
One of the good practices in Bulgaria was the delivery of a public lesson from the GREENT course
during an extracurricular educational day organized by 23rd High School in Sofia. Students and
teachers from 4 other Sofia schools were invited too. One of the sessions during the day was
devoted to piloting Lesson 16. Sustainable solutions and their importance for the environment.
Climate, energy and waste handling. The public lesson was initiated and delivered by Petya Peeva -
teacher at 23rd High School "F.J.Curie" in Sofia. The GREENT team is grateful for the flexible way
in which the lesson was presented, using our materials as a foundation from which further activities
were initiated by the teacher. The students learned about sustainability, unsustainable extraction of
natural resources, the impact of their everyday decisions on the planet, plastic-to-fuel technologies,
etc. In the end, every student made a pledge of one thing they would change in their lives starting
from tomorrow so that they decrease their negative footprint on the planet.
-
II. Teacher recommendations on individual lessons
Lesson 4. Natural cycles and flows – material and energy
The visualization of natural cycles and flows is really helpful.
Students could cooperate and share, the lesson gave the opportunity for students with
different types of intelligence to be actively engaged.
The lesson gives a good opportunity, provided every student can be seated at an individual
computer desk, for self-paced learning.
For some students in specialized vocational schools the content was too easy and a
recommendation is to add schemes and definitions that would increase the complexity of
the lesson and make it more attractive for students on a more advanced level.
The practical activity and the reflection part went particularly well.
Lesson 5. Biodiversity and natural systems
As I liked all of the three cases, I divided the class in groups and let the students go over
their case study and then the three groups shared what they had learned.
-
The practical activity went particularly well.
Lesson 16. Sustainable solutions and their importance for the environment. Climate, energy and
waste handling.
The lesson gives a lot of opportunities for team work and ways to link theory with practice
and everyday life.
Case study 2 is quite difficult to solve, it requires specific knowledge.
The best part were the case studies.
It was difficult to do the quiz with all students.
The practical activities were really interesting and the answers to the questions were very
creative. The group discussion were very good.
The theoretical part was a bit difficult for the students and took longer to deliver.
Lesson 17. Sustainable solutions in everyday life – global and local impact
The video in the theoretical part was very interesting for the students. They also thought the
concept about Gross National Happiness was quite interesting.
The time was not enough to reach the practical activities part.
Lesson 18. Examples of sustainable businesses
Students created a very good poster as a homework. They were impressed by the videos in
the lesson and definitely started thinking about their actions and impact on the environment.
Lesson 22. Circular economy
The students easily understood the idea behind circular economy and came up with ideas
how they can be part of it.
The entrepreneur section is too long to be carefully read and discussed. Maybe, it's a good
idea to give it as a homework assignment.
III. Overall teacher self-assessment after delivery of all planned lessons
Apart from the feedback and recommendations teachers gave after piloting each lesson, they were
asked to fill in a short self-assessment survey designed to gauge their perception regarding
possible improvements in the level of their teaching skills and knowledge as a result of participating
in the pilot. A total of 6 teachers filled in the survey although more teachers participated in the pilot.
Although by no means representative, the results show a marked improvement in the way teachers
see their green entrepreneurship and blended learning knowledge and skills after the end of the
pilot:
-
Chart 4. Before & After delivering pilot lessons teacher self-assessment for Bulgaria
Teachers evaluated positively the fact that blended learning helps students understand topics that
they are not familiar with in an accessible way and makes them think critically on subjects they have
never heard of before. They also thought the lessons present useful and up-to-date information
which helps develop their environmentally-friendly mindset and culture. The video materials were
assessed as appropriately chosen and interesting for the students. The lessons in general are well
structured and innovative, they manage to “catch” the students’ attention. Even if a difficulty arises
with the English language in the videos, therein also lies an opportunity for cooperation in the
classroom because the students with more advanced levels of English comprehension translated
for the others.
All teachers expressed their desire to implement the full GREENT course in the 2017-2018 school
year.
IV. Student pre- and post-test results
In order to gather information on the improvement of students’ knowledge and perceptions, we
designed a test with 10 closed- and open-ended questions which teachers were asked to distribute
to students before and after the piloted lessons. The results should not be treated as too reliable, as
some students who took the test were exposed to only 1 pilot lesson while other were exposed to 3
and more, thus the level would undoubtedly vary because the test questions cover aspects from
several of the GREENT lessons. Also, mainly due to the fact that the piloting was done at the end of
the school year, many students did not fill in the post-test (and filled in only the pre-test) which does
not allow us to compare like for like. However, we believe it is useful to present the results as a
vantage point.
In Bulgaria, a total of 113 students completed the pre-test and 58 completed the post-test.
4
4.2
4.4
4.6
4.8
5
5.2
5.4
Level of green entrepreneurshipknowledge
Level of entrepreneurship teachingskills
Level of knowledge and skills in usingonline digital platforms for blended
learning
Before & After delivering pilot lessons teacher self-assessment Bulgaria
Average score (N = 6, scale of 2 to 6) BEFORE Average score (N = 6, scale of 2 to 6) AFTER
-
4%
2%
9%
9%
26%
17%
49%
50%
13%
22%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%
Before %
After %
Before %
After %
Before %
After %
Before %
After %
Before %
After %
Stro
ngl
yd
isag
ree
Dis
agre
e
Ne
ith
erag
ree,
no
rd
isag
ree
Agr
eeSt
ron
gly
agre
eI am responsible for waste recycling.
3%
2%
2%
3%
23%
19%
54%
47%
19%
29%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%
Before %
After %
Before %
After %
Before %
After %
Before %
After %
Before %
After %
Stro
ngl
yd
isag
ree
Dis
agre
e
Ne
ith
erag
ree,
no
rd
isag
ree
Agr
eeSt
ron
gly
agre
e
I take care of the surrounding environment.
-
4%
2%
7%
5%
29%
22%
45%
48%
15%
22%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%
Before %
After %
Before %
After %
Before %
After %
Before %
After %
Before %
After %
Stro
ngl
yd
isag
ree
Dis
agre
e
Ne
ith
erag
ree,
no
rd
isag
ree
Agr
eeSt
ron
gly
agre
eI am interested in finding out about the
sustainability problems our society is facing.
4%
2%
8%
7%
23%
19%
50%
48%
15%
24%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%
Before %
After %
Before %
After %
Before %
After %
Before %
After %
Before %
After %
Stro
ngl
yd
isag
ree
Dis
agre
e
Ne
ith
erag
ree,
no
rd
isag
ree
Agr
eeSt
ron
gly
agre
e
At this moment, I understand the drivers and consequences of global natural resource changes.
-
4%
2%
8%
5%
20%
28%
46%
41%
21%
24%
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45% 50%
Before %
After %
Before %
After %
Before %
After %
Before %
After %
Before %
After %
Stro
ngl
yd
isag
ree
Dis
agre
e
Ne
ith
erag
ree,
no
rd
isag
ree
Agr
eeSt
ron
gly
agre
eAt this moment, I am willing to introduce changes in my daily life so that I become more sustainable.
7%
2%
23%
19%
39%
34%
23%
36%
8%
9%
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45%
Before %
After %
Before %
After %
Before %
After %
Before %
After %
Before %
After %
Stro
ngl
yd
isag
ree
Dis
agre
e
Ne
ith
erag
ree,
no
rd
isag
ree
Agr
eeSt
ron
gly
agre
e
At this moment, I feel I am prepared if I want to start my own sustainable green business.
-
7%
0%
19%
12%
35%
40%
27%
34%
12%
14%
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45%
Before %
After %
Before %
After %
Before %
After %
Before %
After %
Before %
After %
Stro
ngl
yd
isag
ree
Dis
agre
e
Ne
ith
erag
ree,
no
rd
isag
ree
Agr
eeSt
ron
gly
agre
eAt this moment, I feel inspired and willing to start my own green business sometime in the
future.
29%
46%
46%
16%
19%
65%
36%
52%
53%
28%
38%
72%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%
Solving complex problems like climate changerequires the action of:
It is NOT true that waste:
How do our current lifestyles impact the naturalresources of the Earth today:
It is a condition for a sustainable society that:
If a company is part of the circular economy:
Green entrepreneurship is different fromentrepreneurship in that:
Correct answers on knowledge questions Bulgaria
% correct answers after % correct answers before
-
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
Strongly disagree
Disagree
Neither agree, nor disagree
Agree
Strongly agree
Students' perception of the value of GREENT Bulgaria
This program helped me adopt a more eco-friendly attitude.
This program connected what I learned in the classroom to real life.
In this program, I learned things that will be important in the future.