Teachers of all levels require some level of motivation and both modules 1 and 2 have contents related to motivation and growth as a teacher. Both modules talk about educational experiences in Finland, and many teachers around the world need to know and learn from Finland education system. Besides ESD is a new concept which is already incorporated and practiced in Finland and since ESD needs to be disseminated to children of all ages, it is important that teachers of all levels need to know ESD, being endorsed by the UNESCO, and many nations are signatory to it.
Lesson planning, whether it is at preprimary level or primary/high school, needs to be child-centric and interesting, practical based. Therefore, all teachers need to learn how to plan a lesson properly. Similarly, classroom management needs to be done perfectly be it at pre or high school level. Climate change affects people of all ages, castes, nationalities and colours; and only through a joint collaboration of teachers teaching at all levels can solve this issue. Every local issue has a global connection and vice versa, so this needs to be understood/accessed by all global citizens (Earth Summit-Agenda 21, chapter 36).
ESD is a multidisciplinary and multi-level subject that should be integrated at all levels and subject, for developing positive values right from the formative stage of the children. The teachers’ competencies need to be developed with the understanding of main global issues and also learners’ pedagogical needs, need to learn to tune up both for a balanced education.
Any teacher who is well-versed with the handling of smaller (prep classes) could easily hand upper (sr.) classes. Thus the ideas of delivering lessons mentioned in module 1 and 2 can easily be replicated in higher classes which children really enjoy. Though Science subject is focused in the course in ESD integration, same methods can/should be applied in other subjects, to make it more holistic and multi-disciplinary.
The concepts of education, global challenges and opportunities are almost the same whether it is at preprimary or other levels, and every teacher should be aware of all this. The only difference would be that the prep. Children learn the concepts (cognitive), the middle school start feeling (affective) and the high school/college students start acting (psychomotor), thus dong something rightly after a clear understanding (from awareness to action). Teachers, whether they teach preprimary of university, the main objective is to produce citizens that are aware, responsible and proactive in saving the only planet, as planetary citizens.
