Sustainability Education and Phenomenon-Based Learning

Our project aimed to achieve several key objectives. Firstly, we sought to promote international cooperation in education, leveraging the enthusiasm of stakeholders to learn, share, and innovate. ...

Our project aimed to achieve several key objectives. Firstly, we sought to promote international cooperation in education, leveraging the enthusiasm of stakeholders to learn, share, and innovate. By fostering collaboration, we aimed to unlock creativity and educational advancements while embracing the diversity of the European Union's education community. Additionally, recognizing the diverse impacts of climate change across Northern and Eastern Europe, we aimed to facilitate the exchange of experiences and knowledge. This included integrating various global phenomena into sustainability education, acknowledging the unique challenges faced by different regions. In Hungary, where sustainability education and innovative teaching methods like Phenomenon Based Learning (PhBL) are less established, our goal was to provide essential resources and training. Through professional development initiatives, we aimed to empower educators with the skills and confidence to implement PhBL effectively, thereby promoting sustainability education in schools. Ultimately, our project aimed to not only enhance the professional development of stakeholders but also contribute to long-term positive outcomes for both direct and indirect beneficiaries.

During the project implementation, we produced training materials for Phenomenon-Based Learning (PhBL) workshops, including presentations, lesson plans, and follow-up questionnaires.Facilitated teacher exchanges between Tikka School and Jankay School, resulting in collaborative PhBL project weeks focused on sustainability, where all students and other stakeholders participated. We created professional videos documenting project activities and teaching methods, such as the Roundtable Discussion on sustainability and PhBL. We collaboratively authored a good-practices handbook containing practical information and personal experiences from teachers involved in the project, serving as a valuable resource for educators. Promoted project outcomes through a dedicated Facebook, Youtube page, professional presentations at participating schools, and active dissemination including international and national conferences, workshops,forum event, fostering new collaborations and sharing insights with a broader audience.These concrete results demonstrate the project's success in promoting sustainability education, enhancing professional development, and fostering collaboration between Finnish and Hungarian educators.

At the Kick-off Meeting, we planned project steps, teacher exchanges, PhBL trainings, while also creating a tailored implementation and collaboration plan. At least 21 Project coordination meetings with key coordination members tracked progress and defined roles and 8 global meetings with school partners and teachers jointly planned sustainability weeks in FI and HU and worked on the handbook writing. To prepare for PhBL-sustainability weeks, 3 hybrid professional development sessions were held for Finnish and Hungarian teachers, recorded, and shared online. Teachers from Tikka and Jankay Schools collaborated during PhBL project weeks on sustainability in both countries. We organized two hybrid roundtable discussions after each sustainability week for teachers to reflect on their experiences. We sent out surveys after all these activities to assess satisfaction and needs. We produced 60 minutes of video content and a 64-page handbook on PhBL methodology and sustainability teaching. 51 Facebook posts with some reaching 5.5k people, 15 YouTube professional development uploads with 200+ views raised awareness. We also engaged in 5 conferences and other activities to disseminate project outcomes.