Enfoque
Introduction
The Member States of the United Nations unanimously adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by General Assembly resolution A/RES/70/1 of 25 September 2015. The aim of this resolution is to achieve these 17 goals by 2030. The SDGs are a set of universally applicable goals that set quantitative outcomes in the three dimensions (social, economic and environmental) of sustainable development.
Cities will be key to achieving the global SDGs. The SDGs are proposed and implemented in an increasingly urban world. More than half of the world’s population already lives in cities. The process of urbanization has created some of the greatest challenges to global sustainable development, but at the same time provides enormous opportunities to advance fair and sustainable development.
This paper focuses primarily on SDG 11 on making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe and sustainable. Thus, thirty 3rd year ESO students from IES Francisco Salinas in Salamanca studying on the British Council-ME-JCyL Bilingual Project are tackling the improvement of life in their city within the thematic framework of urban development.
Objectives
-To show an educational initiative to address SDG 11 in a bilingual classroom.
-To develop a series of innovative educational proposals with which to work on the SDGs in a secondary school classroom from the subject of Urban Geography.
-To implement a project to improve the city where the students live in three phases: research, proposal for improvement and communication to the community.
-To encourage teamwork and implement educational actions that favor community service and problem solving in the framework of sustainable development.
Methodology
CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) is the starting methodological approach. CLIL is an innovative educational approach that combines the teaching of subjects (in our case Geography) with language learning (English). Two other teaching-learning methods have allowed us to develop our objectives correctly: Project-based Learning (PBL) and Problem-based Learning (PBL).
Results/outputs
Students have analysed different areas of their city to highlight the weaknesses and strengths of housing, gardens, parking areas, level of cleanliness, etc. After proposing possible improvements, the students designed a project to improve the lives of their fellow citizens in a previously built-up area that is currently abandoned. The last part of the project focused on the recording of a video aimed at promoting the use of public transport.
Conclusion
Education is a powerful tool for fostering critical thinking, making active people, with a global vision and committed to the construction of a society that is supportive, fair and that advocates for the common good. To achieve this, it is necessary to move towards a humanist educational model that fosters a comprehensive vision of citizenship. These teaching-learning proposals are intended to contribute to achieving these goals.
Natalia Tello Burgos
Comentó el 22/11/2024 a las 10:25:33
Dear M.ª Isabel,
I would like to thank you for sharing your innovative and well-grounded educational proposal. I found it extremely interesting how you successfully address the SDGs within a bilingual classroom. The combination of active methodologies, such as project-based learning (PBL) and problem-based learning (PBL), is a highly effective approach to developing key skills such as critical thinking, teamwork, and social responsibility among secundary students.
The integration of themes like urban sustainability and practical activities — from designing proposals to improve their environment or promoting public transport — is highly meaningful. I find it admirable how you connect academic content with the real challenges of communities. Additionally, the creative focus on video and graphic creation highlights the importance of effective visual communication in educational projects like these.
One question that arises is: how do you assess the long-term impact of these activities on students’ environmental and social awareness? Moreover, I am curious to know if any follow-up is conducted to observe changes in student behavior or their engagement with community issues.
Thank you again for your valuable contribution.
Kind regards,
Natalia T.
María Isabel Gejo-Santos
Comentó el 22/11/2024 a las 18:54:14
Dear Natalia,
Thank you for your interest and your question.
At the end of these projects, the students always reflect on the challenges they have had to face and what it has given them as people and as students in the field of Geography. Their answer is always similar and coincidental: after these projects, we see our city with different eyes and with a more critical sense. I have no systematic data on how these students have evolved. The data is more limited to how the British Council Project and the working methodology in the subject I teach have impacted on their academic and personal development. They always emphasise that it provides them with a solid training and valuable intellectual development tools.
Regards.
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