Abstract
Higher education in Armenia is currently facing the pressure of reform as well as tremendous opportunities for development. Implementation of these reforms is conditioned by the fact that competence is emphasized among knowledge, abilities, skills and values. The package of reforms also requires a new introduction to global environmental issues in higher education. In the conditions of the present ecological crisis one of the most important issues is to develop new approaches to ESD in higher education. The main problem of ESD is to raise the competence and participation of learners regarding environmental protection and resolution.The UNESCO Chair on “Education for Sustainable Development” at the Center for Ecological-Noosphere Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia in cooperation with the National Institute of Education of the Armenian Ministry of Education and Science are carrying out a series of trainings and seminars for educators and students from pedagogical institutes to increase their competence on key environmental topics in the context of sustainable development implementing project method of teaching. Pedagogical-oriented universities and vocational training institutions have been chosen, where trainings and seminars have been carried out with the best students and the teaching staff using project method. In the result of the trainings and seminars 44 teachers and learners from 5 universities, 3 vocational colleges, 5 high schools, 3 NGOs were trained in 3 regions of the Republic of Armenia (with different environmental problems). Evaluations were carried out and the best tested projects were presented at round table discussions.
Highlights
Society regularly provokes rethinking of content knowledge and purpose
In the result of the trainings and seminars 44 teachers and learners from 5 universities, 3 vocational colleges, 5 high schools, 3 NGOs were trained in 3 regions of the Republic of Armenia
Our observation shows that implementation of the project method in different higher education settings resulted in the beneficiaries gaining the following knowledge, skills, values and competences:
Summary
Society regularly provokes rethinking of content knowledge and purpose. Educational reforms are aimed at fostering citizens’ competences, essential knowledge and skills required for effective professional performance of real-world tasks. If until the second half of the 20th century, the ecological paradigm tended to the anthropocentric idea i.e. everything for mankind, in the 1970s a new paradigm appeared: an environmental or ecocentric paradigm, characterised by the following features: harmonious development of nature and society; a beneficial unity, scientific decision-making to satisfy human needs, global activity of environmental systems and implementation of new technologies This package of reforms requires a new way of integrating global issues into the educational sector based on the key topics outlined in the strategic program on ESD. Literature studies indicate and the scheme N 1 shows that the project method helps learners to gain new knowledge, take responsibility, organize research work, offer solutions, all the while simultaneously participating in these processes (Epshtein 2002) This will help foster citizens with critical and creative thinking competencies who can make decisions based on evidence, laws, standards, views, experiences and opinions. The project method is a multilevel system of associated phases which includes four main phases: preparatory stage, planning stage, organizational research stage, results presentation stage
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