The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a call to action to tackle major issues affecting people and the planet, such as poverty, inequality, and climate change. Adopted by all members of the United Nations in 2015, the SDGs have become increasingly integrated into education systems around the world, whether through direct reference, or by textbooks sharing overarching themes. Many teachers may be somewhat familiar with the SDGs but lack the confidence to effectively address them in the classroom.
One approach to teaching the SDGs is by incorporating the principles of cooperative learning. Cooperative learning emphasizes the importance of collaboration and cocreation to achieve shared aims, rather than more competitive or individualistic pedagogical approaches. The techniques used in cooperative learning complement both the SDGs and emphasize modern teaching approaches such as critical thinking and the value of independent research.
Written by a team of authors in different teaching contexts around the world, Cooperative Learning and the Sustainable Development Goals represents the collective knowledge and experience of English teachers from a variety of countries and teaching contexts to provide teaching suggestions which can be adjusted to suit any classroom scenario.
This presentation will explore some of the contents of this free book, and aims to provide practical, actionable ideas for how to teach students about the SDGs using cooperative learning techniques. The contents of the book and this presentation are meant to serve as a starting point from which teachers can apply their teaching experience and skills accumulated over the years.
Cooperative Learning and the Sustainable Development Goals is available for free from PeacheyPublications Ltd at https://payhip.com/b/obOwr.
Steven Lim has been teaching at various positions in Japan since 2005 and is currently an assistant professor in the Department of English at Meikai University. He graduated from Temple University, Japan Campus with an M.S.Ed in TESOL. He has published articles on speech modification, teacher beliefs and practices, and CALL. His current research interests include motivation, CLIL, the SDGs, and learner autonomy.
