Curriculum and Learning for Climate Action

Curriculum and Learning for Climate Action offers researchers, practitioners, donors, and decisionmakers insights into entry points for education systems change needed to reorient human society’s relationship with our planetary systems.; Readership: All interested in Sustainability, International Education, Environmental Education will find this book useful. This includes researchers, students, policy makers, global practitioners, as well as think tanks, and donors

Social Capital as a Determinant of School Participation in Rural India: A Mixed Methods Study

Social capital is a resource that provides access to other resources in the community. If social capital can be harnessed locally in communities, it will have the potential to enhance community development. This mixed methods study uses econometric models and Hierarchical Linear Modeling approaches in the quantitative section, along with case study in the qualitative tradition. The study investigates the forms of social capital and its association with school participation. While the quantitative sections use nationally representative survey data, the qualitative data collection is based in one of India's most marginalized districts, Jhabua (with an overall literacy rate of 37 percent), and attempts to observe how social capital plays out in this district in rural India which is dominated by "tribal" or indigenous populations. This study is also an empirical validation of the components of social capital as described in the literature. The quantitative sections find a small but significant association between specific components of social capital and school participation indicators. Social capital in turn is mainly explained by household income, adult literacy and caste and religious affiliations of the household. The qualitative section highlights the disconnectedness between social capital and education in reality. It also showcases some of the negative aspects of social capital in the communities

Using Cognitive Neuroscience Principles to Design Efficient Reading Programs: Case Studies from India and Malawi Cognitive Neuroscience to Design Literacy Programs

The hidden crisis in education has come to light since the past decade. Millions of school-going children remain illiterate, even after spending 2-3 years in school. This paper explores a cognitive neuroscience driven method to improve children’s reading in two local languages--Chichewa (Malawi) and Telugu (Telangana, India). The paper first presents the science behind how children learn using this science-driven model. It then presents the process of contextualization of this literacy method for Malawi and Telangana, India. The contextualization and adaptation processes lead to some generalized principles that could be applied to other local language literacy programs. The study looks at sequencing of letters, font size and type, teacher training modalities as well as classroom delivery processes, which are all key components for any early literacy intervention. The study also focuses on cost-cutting measures to aid in full implementation and scale-up for a low resourced educational setting

Curriculum and Learning for Climate Action

Curriculum and Learning for Climate Action offers researchers, practitioners, donors, and decisionmakers insights into entry points for education systems change needed to reorient human society’s relationship with our planetary systems.; Readership: All interested in Sustainability, International Education, Environmental Education will find this book useful. This includes researchers, students, policy makers, global practitioners, as well as think tanks, and donors

Applying a Reading Program Based on Cognitive Science in Rural Areas of Malawi: Preliminary Results

Reading fluency is a skill foundational to academic performance, and acquiring this skill in early grades is crucial. Throughout sub-Saharan Africa, reading levels of students are far below grade level, and Malawi is no exception. Research suggests that students, particularly in consistently spelled languages, acquire automaticity most easily by starting from individual letters, combining them in increasingly larger chunks, and getting plenty of practice in decoding them. Due to working memory capacity limits, students must attain a minimum reading speed in order to understand text. These concepts were tested in a rural district in Malawi. The study helps to explain the components of this science-based “learning package” needed for reading fluency. Volunteers held the classes in communities as an after school program for children from grades 1 to 5. The goal behind this innovative six-month program is students’ recognition of all letters used in Chichewa language and progress in text decoding. This study helps to explain the various components of the learning intervention and the results show that there has been improvement in knowledge of letter sounds. This study uses an already tried and tested cognitive neuroscience model, which was contextualized and implemented in the Malawi setting

Post 2015: Learning as the Measure of Education in Africa

The following is a position paper of the Education Sector at the Earth Institute intended to present recommendations regarding priorities for the post 2015 education agenda in Africa. The authors explore the relevant literature on specific topics, including experiences in the Millennium Villages and best practices of partner agencies such as UWEZO, to highlight areas key to education. This is an opinion article that is mostly based on literature review and field-based realities

Re-thinking Education for Sustainable Development: Key Learning Insights from the SDSN USA Transformative Education Summit 2023

This paper summarizes key learning insights from the 2023 U.S. Summit on Transformative Education organized by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network USA. Over 400 members from higher education institutions, non-governmental organizations, think tanks, students, and teachers, joined the online event held February 23-25. The Summit created a bridge between social justice issues with an historical lens and sustainable development. Learning insights include those shared by session speakers, dialogue among participants during thematic conversations and regional networking forums, comments made by attendees on session Jamboards and the Zoom Chat function, and post-Summit feedback. A high-level thematic review was undertaken to cluster emergent themes and develop a rubric that might help education facilitators create curriculum, lesson plans, and activities together with signposting resources to support the global movement towards a more just and sustainable world. It is clear that higher education is embracing transformation, undertaking intentional self-disruption with a focus on action, ethics, and mindfulness. The Summit shows the sector is becoming more connected to the society it serves, engaging in radical collaboration with stakeholders, with sustainable development activities fueled by the convening power of universities and colleges and the agency of students

Re-thinking Education for Sustainable Development: Key Learning Insights from the SDSN USA Transformative Education Summit 2023

This paper summarizes key learning insights from the 2023 U.S. Summit on Transformative Education organized by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network USA. Over 400 members from higher education institutions, non-governmental organizations, think tanks, students, and teachers, joined the online event held February 23-25. The Summit created a bridge between social justice issues with an historical lens and sustainable development. Learning insights include those shared by session speakers, dialogue among participants during thematic conversations and regional networking forums, comments made by attendees on session Jamboards and the Zoom Chat function, and post-Summit feedback. A high-level thematic review was undertaken to cluster emergent themes and develop a rubric that might help education facilitators create curriculum, lesson plans, and activities together with signposting resources to support the global movement towards a more just and sustainable world. It is clear that higher education is embracing transformation, undertaking intentional self-disruption with a focus on action, ethics, and mindfulness. The Summit shows the sector is becoming more connected to the society it serves, engaging in radical collaboration with stakeholders, with sustainable development activities fueled by the convening power of universities and colleges and the agency of students

Fostering Youth-Led Innovations to Accelerate Progress on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals: A Guide for Policy Makers at COP28

In today’s world, to address the most pressing global challenges, education must equip all learners with the values, skills, and knowledge that nurture cooperation, resilience, respect for diversity, gender justice, and human rights. This concept is called Global Citizenship Education which is a target of the Sustainable Development Goal 4 – Quality Education. I commend the Mission 4.7 initiative facilitated by Columbia University’s Center for Sustainable Development, UNESCO, UN SDSN and the Ban Ki-moon Centre for Global Citizens, for playing a pivotal role in addressing SDG Target 4.7 and on the release of the “Fostering Youth-led Innovations to Accelerate Progress on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals: A Guide for Policymakers at COP28. The report recommends that policymakers create supportive environments for youth innovators by establishing or opening innovation hubs, incubators, and accelerators for young individuals. A key element is the renewed emphasis on integrating global citizenship and systems thinking into school curricula to foster sustainable development. Global Citizenship Education and youth empowerment is essential for a better future, I hope that this report contributes to shaping the agenda on SDG Target 4.7 at COP28 and beyond. H.E. Ban Ki-moon8th Secretary-General, United Nations Co-chair, Mission 4.7Co-chair, Ban Ki-moon Centre for Global Citizen

Iron Deficiency Anemia and School Participation.

Abstract: Iron-deficiency anemia is among the world's most widespread health problems, especially for children, but it is rarely studied by economists. This paper evaluates the impact of a health intervention delivering iron supplementation and deworming drugs to 2-6 year old children through an existing pre-school network in the slums of Delhi, India. At baseline 69 percent of sample children were anemic and 30 percent had intestinal worm infections. Sample pre-schools were randomly divided into groups and gradually phased into treatment. Weight increased significantly among assisted children, and pre-school participation rates rose sharply by 5.8 percentage points -a reduction of one-fifth in school absenteeism -in the first five months of the program. Gains are largest in low socio-economic status areas. Year two estimates are similar, but two methodological problems -sample attrition, and the non-random sorting of new child cohorts into treatment groups -complicate interpretation of the later results