Expansive Learning of Preservice Teachers Teaching Sustainable Development during Their Practicum

Abstract

Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is a complex and multifaceted subject, including many aspects, environmental, societal, and financial. It is not a set of knowledge, which can be learned, because it is an evolving subject and in addition solutions that are successfully applied at specific locations might fail elsewhere. ESD should make students aware of the problems humankind is facing and encourage them to become active citizens. Thus, people must also have positive attitudes towards sustainability issues. In this study, we will present the results of a teaching intervention (TI) leading to a system of two expansive learning cycles. For the TI we used the topic of houses, which are a social construct, an economic entity, and have environmental influence. The researcher, an architect had to transform her knowledge to prepare the TI, thus starting an expansive learning cycle which was influenced by the outcome of the TI. The preservice teachers, who decided to use the topic of houses during their internship started their expansive cycle, which again influenced the researchers’ learning cycle. In this study, we will present the results of the TI and the implementation of the preservice teachers’ teachings of SD during their practicum. The preservice teachers reflected on their teachings in their written reports, which were used to analyze how preservice teachers chose to apply the topic ‘houses’ during their internship.