EDUCATION FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN GEOGRAPHY TEACHING ON THE BASIS OF COMPETENCE-BASED APPROACH

Abstract

The article analyzes the possibilities of implementing a competency-based approach to education for sustainable development in the process of teaching geography. The authors summarize UNESCOʼs approach to the formulation of the objectives of education for sustainable development, which are the formation of key interdisciplinary competencies and special competencies. Among the key competencies are the following: systemic thinking; prognostic; regulatory; strategic and innovative; teamwork; critical thinking; self-awareness; and integrated problem solving. Special competencies take into account the specifics and context of each of the 17 global sustainable development goals and are divided into educational, cognitive, socio-emotional and behavioral components. A contextual analysis of geography programs in general secondary education has shown that school geography has the best conditions for incorporating sustainable development ideas into the educational process. The cross-cutting content area “Environmental Safety and Sustainable Development” in the primary school geography course focuses geography teachers mainly on the formation of knowledge about sustainable development, to a lesser extent on the formation of behavior adequate to the principles of sustainable development (behavioral and activity component), and in general, insufficient attention is paid to the emotional and value component. Sustainable development issues are most fully covered in the content of the 9th and 11th grade geography curricula, which complete the geographic education of students in primary and high school. The survey of geography teachers of the Poltava amalgamated territorial community showed a high level of understanding of the essence of education for sustainable development and its differences from environmental education, insufficient coverage in the content of school geography textbooks, the need to encourage geography teachers to receive professional training in the context of sustainable development and to increase their motivation to implement a school-wide approach to the implementation of education for sustainable development.
 Keywords: education; sustainable development; competence approach; teaching geography; environmental education; competence; components of education; special competences for sustainable development.