Promoting Relevant Education in Science...

Overall aim: PRESS aims at innovations in science education at schools and in the public understanding of science via innovating higher education, namely science teacher education courses. PRESS teaching and learning materials will be prepared for pre-service science teacher education courses about the theoretical basis of sustainability and education for sustainable development (ESD), e.g. as described in the target 4.7 of goal 4 “Quality Education” by the Agenda 2030 suggested by the United Nations (UN), and its practical application in class – and beyond. PRESS tries to contribute to several of the overarching EU priorities, namely the Green Deal, digital transformation, and the external dimension of EU policies in education.

Purpose: The purpose of the PRESS project combines three horizontal aspects mentioned in the call. It aims at environmental sustainability by promoting education for sustainable development (ESD) via training of prospective and current science teachers. In PRESS, ESD is promoted in general, but also with a specific focus on digital media education as a contribution to the preparation of teachers and students for the digital transformation. In fostering critical scientific digital media literacy in the context of ESD and networking teacher education, school student learning with businesses and societal stakeholder groups it contributes to preparing the young generation for civic engagement and participation.

Objectives: A first needs analysis among the partners in the partner countries showed that ESD, as suggested in the Agenda 2030 by the UN, is hardly implemented in their countries and that there is no systemic approach in the partner HEIs. The same holds true for critical scientific media education and concepts for connecting formal education in schools with out-of-school partners for ESD. PRESS will design and implement courses on ESD in each of the partner country institutions for preparing science teachers to promote ESD, critical scientific media literacy and opening the school classroom to out-of-school learning environments for ESD. As a base, a PRESS toolkit of materials will be developed that will be adopted to the different educational environments for the training of prospective science teachers and to create continuous professional development offers. The PRESS courses will be designed in a learner-centred way and contain relevant, up-to-date problem-based contexts that address the challenges of a world with growing complexity.