Curriculum for Excellence: Joined-up Thinking for the ... - WWF UK

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Joined up Thinking for the Classroom: Summary24Education for sustainabledevelopment is aboutlearning to:• Respect, value and preserve theachievements of the past• Appreciate the wonders and thepeoples of the Earth• Live in a world where all peoplehave sufficient food for a healthy andproductive life• Assess, care for and restore the stateof our Planet• Create and enjoy a better, safer, morejust world• Be caring citizens who exercise theirrights and responsibilities locally,nationally and globallySource: UNESCO http://portal.unesco.org/educationLearning Points for DiscussionLearning to think in a more integrated (orconnective) way is essential for living in ahighly interdependentworld.Working on relevant,real world issues in anactive, participative wayis good teaching andlearning.Linkingthinking isthinking ‘out of the box’,a web is a useful way oflooking at it.Everything is connected(but not equally strongly). Humans are linkedto nature and other living beings. Most issues arerelated to other issues and can be better understoodin this way. There is no such thing as opposites (e.g.environment vs. economics), only things that arerelated to each other.“We can’t solve problemsby using the same kind ofthinking we used when wecreated them.”You can never do only one thing, issues have tobe viewed in context and as a whole. The simplestaction can have consequences far beyond the originalintention, for example buying a car, building a newschool.A change in one part of a system affects the wholee.g. extending a school car park, and a change inthe whole affects a part, for example a new WholeSchool Policy.The whole is greater than the sum of the partsof a system. There are ‘emergent properties’ (forexample the ethos in a ‘good’ and ‘bad’ school).The way we think influences what we see andawareness of this is important. We need to lookbeyond our boundaries of concern to understandwider effects we are having on the world and theinfluences on us.Most human and environmental systems arenot linear. Problem solving is not a linear process.Some solutions just generate more problems, somegenerate more solutions.For complex problems a Linkingthinkingapproach is required, going beyond simplestatic, linear problem solving to look at andtake responsibility for the whole, recognise itscomplexity and consider the long term. ButAlbert Einstein 1879-1955• Who defines theproblem?• What constitutes‘improvement’• Who says?• At what cost?• Have thingsimproved or not?What criteria can beusedIt is impossible to predictoutcomes in most human and natural systems andthe more complex systems are the less predictablethe behaviour and outcomes will be, for example aneconomy, a family.So in the 21st Century we all need flexibility, toaccept change and to be able to participate in andlearn from change.
Curriculum for Excellence: Joined-up Thinking for the ClassroomLinkingthinking QuizDo you...OftenSometimesNeverDon’tKnow1 Examine and question your own and others’assumptions?2 Ask different questions about things/issues (deeperand more inclusive questions)?3 Look for connections and patterns between eventsand/or ideas?4 Try to have a critical perspective and synthesisingoutlook, bringing issues together?5 Value other people’s views and perspectives on anissue?6 Look for multiple causes/consequences rather thanonly notice simple ‘cause-effect’ relationships?7 Look at the ‘big picture’, trying to place issues in abigger context?8 Think long term?9 Examine critically narrow, simplistic, or ‘obvious’explanations in a complex situation?10 Suspend judgement rather than rush to judgment?11 Try not to blame the components in a system (forexample the people) if things go wrong, but ask questionsabout ‘purpose’ and ‘relationships’ in the system first?12 Recognise uncertainty and ambiguity and try to workwith them?13 Have a concern for the overall health and wellbeing of asystem?14 Try to be open-minded?25
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Curriculum for Excellence: Joined-up Thinking for the ... - WWF UK

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