Classroom for Life

Reimagining pedagogical approaches, transforming classrooms into living habitats and supporting teachers to become sustainability learning facilitators.
Many teachers in Europe have a hard time bringing climate and sustainability themes into classrooms. It is expected of them to apply innovative pedagogies to sustainability education when often they do not benefit from these pedagogies as part of their own learning. Furthermore, factory model education is inadequate in addressing the complex challenges we are facing as global citizens. The educational system in Slovenia is limiting teachers to traditional teaching methods while more innovative approaches fall behind. Furthermore, teachers have a poor understanding of how different approaches to sustainability relate to each other. This means that support for teachers at this point is crucial.
Study groups of primary school teachers creating learning scenarios, Photo: ©Maja Vrčon | Classrom for Life
In Slovenia, the project Classroom for Life introduces tools that enable teachers to shift from teacher to sustainability facilitator – a role that is critical to any type of alternative learning approach (e.g. project or research-based learning). To support teachers in their work, the project team designs a teacher training and a manual for teachers in primary and secondary Slovenian schools; develops five learning scenarios for primary schools; holds two annual conferences on environmental education and publishes an academic publication related to the project’s results. Project activities are intended to transfer knowledge from environmental NGOs, ecovillages and transition movements to public schools. The training will be multiplied by the institutions of the Ministry of Education. In addition, the Faculty of Education will incorporate it into their courses.
Updated: March 2023
Countries: Slovenia
Project duration: 11/22 - 04/25
Funding: 157,998 €
Target groups: Educational institutions, Experts, Governments, Schools
Implementing organisation:
Association Sunny Hill
Project Partners:
University of Primorska
Project Website:
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Mrs Maja Vrčon
Organisation: Sunny Hill, Association for a sustainable culture of living
Address:
Topolovec 29
Gračišče 6272
Slovenia
Email: juhu∂ucilnica.eu
This project is part of the European Climate Initiative (EUKI). EUKI is a project financing instrument by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK). The EUKI call for project ideas is implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH. It is the overarching goal of the EUKI to foster climate cooperation within the European Union (EU) in order to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions.
European Climate Initiative (EUKI)
Potsdamer Platz 10
10785 Berlin – Germany
Tel.: +49 (0)30 338424 570
info∂euki.de