Teacher's guide

“Beyond skills or competences, schools have a key role to play for developing young people’s attitudes, character traits and dispositions that will support them in confronting emerging societal challenges, such as resilience, adaptability, entrepreneurship, or sensitivity to cultural and personal differences. Cultivating such outcomes can be a more complicated process than developing skills and understanding, because it means engaging students in situations where these qualities matter and can be experienced and reflected upon (Hill & Barber, 2014). That the student is motivated is a strong incentive for learning (Illeris, 2003). To get emotionally involved in the current issue around e.g. some aspect of sustainability can mean that the student also becomes more motivated to search and review factual knowledge that is current in the matter.

Real problems in society are rarely limited by disciplinary boundaries. It is typical for various sustainability issues that they affect several different scientific areas. In order to get an answer to the current question, a certain knowledge and competence must be drawn from the various disciplines. In particular, knowledge is relatively easy to measure with traditional assessment and evaluation tools. In addition to traditional instruments for measuring knowledge and skills, teaching and learning about climate change/sustainable development also requires changes in values, attitudes and feelings, changes that are much more difficult to measure in students and adults. These aspects cannot be measured by traditional quantitative testing methods. All four national curricula within the Erasmus project describe various forms of interdisciplinary learning under terms such as phenomenon-based learning, subject-integrated learning and project-based learning.

The purpose of the learning portal "To make the immeasurable visible" is to

• support the teacher's reflection on assessment in general and more specifically assessment of different attitudes, values and competences in accordance with the school's value base

• offer examples of concrete tools that support the work around the assessment

• offer examples of interdisciplinary theme units where the assessment of attitudes, values and competences is in focus

The term assessment in the texts on the portal primarily refers not to the summative assessment, the assessment of learning, but to the formative assessment, i.e. to reflect on where the student stands, how the students think and what needs there are to process and develop different sub-goals, such as e.g. the student's readiness for action according to the text in the curricula. (More about the two forms of assessment can be read in the subsection Formative and summative assessment.) In terms of time, the largest part of the assessment takes place, i.e. the reflections and discussions, before and during the actual work with the theme or sub-theme.

The forms for the assessment are advantageously versatile and the different forms can replace each other to create a natural progression. Often, a work session begins by challenging the student to self-reflection and then extending the reflection to discussion in pairs, in groups and/or in the whole class. Discussions, notes, etc. can be documented in various ways, both analog and digital, to form a basis for reflection after the work is finished, when it is time to take a position on possible changes in different attitudes and values.

The theme for the various interdisciplinary work areas is primarily chosen according to the objectives of the curriculum and according to the age level of the students. The students' motivation for the theme and the students' participation can be promoted by choosing the theme in accordance with the students' questions, areas of interest and/or current news. A cross-disciplinary work area can also be created around a book with suitable thematic content, a so-called book-based Storyline (see e.g. tips from the subheading Sustainability-themed fiction for children). Characteristic of Storyline work is that the work begins with a key question and that the theme then grows through new key questions to create a natural whole around a "common thread". During the course of the work, the students (especially the slightly older ones) can advantageously stop to position the theme, e.g. in relation to the global goals for sustainable development (see image above).

The planning of a Storyline theme often follows a certain structure and ready-made plans are available as inspiration for other teachers. The idea is that teachers adapt the plans to the needs of the student group and the current objectives. The tools from the portal (Green Comp and the various assessment activities) and other collaborative activities can be planned and used to create opportunities for reflection, discussion and assessment during the course of the work.

Most cross-curricular theme units contain one or more problem-solving processes for students. In the best case, these activities lead to increased skills for students to deal with various problem situations in everyday life. The problem-solving process for both small and large problems often follows a given model (Polya, 1945). The model can be advantageously available to the students and its implementation involves a lot of discussion.

As support for teachers when planning and implementing a teaching unit where the student's and the teacher's assessment is present throughout the work, Bybee et al. (2006) created the so-called 5E model. The five E's stand for the concepts engage, explore, explain, elaborate and evaluate. A presentation of the 5E-model can be found here

Carrying out teaching where students are expected to communicate feelings, attitudes, values and competences is not possible if the classroom climate is not functioning. The students need to have a feeling of basic safety in the class. However, this relationship works in two directions. The more the students have the opportunity to take part in activities that challenge and encourage the students in groups to communicate about thoughts, feelings, attitudes and values, the better the classroom climate will be. Especially in a class where the students are not used to similar activities, it is good to start with simple and more playful activities.

The perceived lack of time is a major threat to activities of this kind and formative assessment in general. Students need to feel that they have time to think. For the teacher, it is important to dare to cut the material and invest instead in communication and deep learning.