Abstract:

Research aim and questions:
Topics such as climate change and other societal challenges at the intersection of technology, science (STEM) and society are gaining an increasingly prominent place in the public debate. Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) tries to prepare young people to participate in this debate and make sustainable choices. Three ways of thinking are central in ESD: system thinking (thinking from a large framework), values thinking (developing one's values framework) and action thinking (thinking about one’s actions). Both primary and secondary school teachers find it challenging to address these competences. An approach based on philosophical dialogue provides a promising instrument to work on it as it allows students to discuss and explore questions at the crossroads of science and society. This approach allowed to develop a teaching method to help teachers stimulate value thinking, system thinking and action thinking of 10- to 14-year-olds.

In this study we aim to answer the questions:
RQ1 What conditions should the method meet to promote young people's systems, values and action thinking in the STEM-class?
RQ2 What is the attitude of teachers regarding the developed method?
RQ3 Which contextual factors hinder and facilitate the implementation of the method in schools?

Methodology:
Through an Education Design Research approach, a teaching method was developed, tested, evaluated and adapted over the past three years. The method had been implemented in several Flemish schools,. These include try-outs in primary and secondary education in cooperation with a researcher through a three-step model in which the teacher observes, assists and executes; (b) try-outs with pre-service teachers in their teaching training; (c) try-outs with in-service teachers during training sessions. Class observations were performed and interviews with all participants were conducted during these try-outs.

Results and conclusion:
RQ1 We develop more than 15 different types of exercises in five themes: climate, biodiversity, water, waste, and technology. Exercises which make thinking visible, for example by taking positions in space, especially stimulate students. This approach strengthens substantive involvement for STEM and sustainability, and meets teachers needs by linking ESD content to different STEM contexts.
RQ2 The material has been positively evaluated by teachers.
RQ3 An important requirement of this method is the attitude of teacher who facilitates the exercises.

The teacher should only ask open questions and not give answers himself. When asked about the challenges teachers experience, teachers indicate that these mainly relate to this requirement. They want to intervene in a directive way and they experience discomfort with confusion among students. Teachers also point out that the language skills of students is a defining context factor. However, the absence of right and wrong answers in philosophizing also turns out to be a tool to get children with lower language proficiency to talk. Ready-to-use learning material and thorough training in the field of dialogue skills appear to be central to learning the method. Implications of our findings for teacher training in ESD education will also be discussed.

Keywords:

Teaching method, Education Sustainable development.