Education in Sustainable Development Goals Using the Spatial Data Infrastructures and the TPACK Model

Javier Álvarez-Otero,María De Lázaro Y Torres

doi:10.3390/educsci8040171

Abstract

Education in Sustainable Development Goals is a basic step in attaining its objectives, and, therefore, it has been undertaken by broad sectors of the teaching community. Nevertheless, the “sustainability curriculum” derived from the Sustainable Development Goals, in this case based on the data of the Spatial Data Infrastructures, in spite of its teaching and research potential, is something with which the teaching body is not yet familiar. The results of the fieldwork carried out (questionnaires and Delphi technique) prove this to be the case. For this reason, in order to educate geographically in reflection and collaboration with the aims of the Sustainable Development Goals, the viewing, in a GIS on the Cloud (WebGIS) of indicators of interest is proposed for the Sustainable Development Goals taken from the Spatial Data Infrastructures within the framework of the TPACK (Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge) model. To facilitate all these learning objectives, a proposal for good practices in the classrooms of secondary schools and another proposal for university lectures have been designed, and the results applied and analyzed. These examples demonstrate empirically that, with adequate pedagogical tools, an education in geography for global understanding by integrating Sustainable Development Goals and Spatial Data Infrastructures can be achieved, which is what the TPACK model pursues.

Highlights

The concept of sustainable development originates in the definition given by the NorwegianPrime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland in the report “Our Common Future” (1987), which expressed the growing concern of society about the limitations of our resources and their inequitable distribution.Various initiatives have taken up this global problem, which remains unsolved
The working objectives are based on three pillars that constitute the aspects defended by the TPACK (Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge) model: the first would be to show the problems of the present-day world from the Sustainable DevelopmentGoals (SDGs) viewpoint, using the information of the SDIs and to look for solutions by means of viewing this information on a WebGIS; the second would be to prepare the teachers in these problems and form technological tools as a key piece so that the student can make sense of the data; and thirdly, design and experiment with interventions that should demonstrate that all the previous objectives are possible
The majority of the students are familiar with the acronym of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) (81.82%), which can be attributed to the information provided in the media

Summary

Introduction

Various initiatives have taken up this global problem, which remains unsolved (the 1992 Rio Summit, the 2000 Millennium Summit, the 2012 UN Summit on Sustainable Development Rio+20, Agenda 21, and others). Goals (SDGs) which, approved in 2015, should enter into force on 1 January 2016, with the aim of achieving them in fifteen years This roadmap, which is known as Agenda 2030, includes 128 goals, a “plan of action for people, planet and prosperity. The SDGs seek a multidimensional model of development that would guarantee sustainability. This is a complex process of political and economic discussion, with no consensus and different viewpoints, which must be addressed through education

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion