UNESCO REGIONAL OFFICES
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Summary:

1. Headteachers Training Course (HT) (1994-95)

   This is an In-Service Training Course for headteachers working in the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNWRA) schools (Jordan, SAR, Lebanon, West Bank and Gaza). Its main aim is to enrich and develop the administrative and supervisory knowledge and skills of headteachers.
   

   This course will cover a period of one academic year and comprise 30 seminars, workshops and sessions, followed by a 12-day summer course of 60 training hours. It is organized to be implemented within the framework of the Systematic Integrated MultiMedia Approach adopted by the Institute of Education.
   

   The training programme comprises the following major training topics: School administration, educational leadership, work analysis, management by objectives, delegation of authority, communication and planning skills, recording systems, the role of the Headteacher in improving the quality of teaching, curriculum enrichment, evaluation techniques, school relationship with local community, management of meetings, action research and the role of the headteacher as a resident supervisor at his school.
   

2. Educational Psychology Training Course (EP) (1994-95)
   

   This is a course providing a professional qualification for newly appointed teachers to teach in preparatory classes. Trainees are B.A. degree holders in various areas of specialization, but without a diploma in education.
   

   This course will be conducted to upgrade the professional knowledge and skills of the trainees involved. It will cover a period of one academic year and comprise 32 seminars, workshops and sessions followed by a 12-day summer course of 60 training hours.
   

   The training programme comprises the following training topics and methods:

   a) The professional training topics are: analysis of the teaching-learning process, instructional design, the curriculum, learning objectives, developmental psychology, teaching tasks, theories of learning, motivation, action research, educational technology, planning for teaching, teaching strategies, measurement and evaluation and class management.
   

   b) Special methods of teaching to cover training topics designed according to the trainees' areas of specialization.
   

Summary:

This videotape has been produced jointly by UNEDBAS and the UNFPA as a demonstration for a manual of the same title. Both manual and video aim at enabling social workers in rural development to minimize time and efforts in attaining goals related to education. This is achieved by optimizing the use of modern communication tools and employing them in education and guidance. The purpose of the manual is to identify these communication tools and equipment in the following four chapters:

1. Educational means and technologies for instruction and guidance;
2. The role of educational equipment in improving the process of education and guidance;
3. Audio equipment, such as radio and cassette recorder;
4. Visual equipment, such as TV, video and video camera, film and overhead and slide projectors.

Available for consultation at UNESCO (HQ and Regional Office)

ASIA AND THE PACIFIC

The "Learning for a Sustainable Environment - Innovations in Teacher Education through Environment Education" is a joint Project of UNESCO's Asia-Pacific Centre of Educational Innovation for Development (ACEID) and Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia, the goal of which is to assist teacher educators in the Asia-Pacific region to include the educational purposes and innovative teaching and learning strategies of environmental education in their programmes.

The purpose of the network is to support teacher educators wishing to share in the writing of carefully-researched and evaluated, and culturally-sensitive, workshop modules for use in pre- and in-service environmental education programmes. The network supports a dissemination programme which assists teacher educators to critique and adapt these modules to local cultural and educational needs and to prepare action research case studies of their use of the materials in their own continuing professional development. Thus, the project aims to create a growing, active network of innovative teacher education practices and practitioners in environmental education.

The purpose of this professional development process for teacher educators is to assist them to incorporate into their programmes knowledge and skills which can help teachers to introduce and improve environmental education in their classroom. It is also hoped that promoting innovative environmental education teaching strategies may also improve the quality of learning in other areas of the curricula.

The project is developing in 3 stages with teacher educators in a small number of countries joining the project at each stage. Stage 1 countries include Fiji, Philippines, Hong Kong, Papua New Guinea, New Zealand and Australia. Japan, India, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia will join the project in Stage 2.

During Stage 1 nine modules (*) were written and distributed to over 70 'Critical Friends' around the region for review before being redrafted. A meeting in May-June 1995 in Thailand brought together participants from Stages 1 and 2 of the Project and forged relationships between authors, critical friends, and new members of the project, besides introducing new members of the network to the materials prepared and to the action research process through which their analysis, adaptation, trial and evaluation of the materials can be documented as case studies to share with other teacher educators. Case studies will also address issues involved in using cross-cultural materials in teacher education. A synthesis of case study reports will be used in preparing guidelines for professional development in cross-cultural settings. A conference in 1996, will serve to increase numbers of participants, present Stage 2 case studies and finalize publication of a manual containing workshop outcomes and guidelines for an on-going local review and adaptation process.

(*) The modules produced by the project are:

1. Nature and Objectives of Environmental Education introduces the role that environmental education can play by promoting the knowledge, values and skills that can help create sustainable environments for people.
   
2. Whole School Approaches to Environmental, Education provides ideas for implementing environment education across the curriculum and in a range of sustainable practices which should be modelled through all school activities.
   
3. Values education and Environmental Ethics provides teachers with skills for helping students be more aware of the kinds of values they have for the environment and help them base their values on ethical approaches to environmental protection
   
4. Teaching Ecological Concepts and Principles through Systematic Analysis of Local Environments introduces the use of field studies in environmental education to teach students basic scientific analytical skills;
   
5. Using the Environment as a Resource for Learning, promotes experiential learning as critical in linking students' environmental knowledge with their everyday lives.
   
6. Issue or Enquiry-based Teaching for the Environment introduces enquiry-based teaching as an important strategy for achieving the goals of environmental education and develops teacher's skills in planning enquiry-based curricula.
   
7. Assessment of Learning in Environmental Education illustrates some innovative ways in which environmental learning may be assessed in schools.
   
8. Using Indigenous Knowledge, Practices and Perspectives and Story-Telling Environmental Education develops teacher's skills in using and critiquing indigenous stories and practices as tools in environmental education.
   
9. Action Research as a Teaching Strategy in Schools and Communities introduces action research and community problem solving as a teaching strategy in environmental education by providing a personal experience of the process.

LATIN AMERICA & THE CARIBBEAN

Summary:

1. A Series of Booklets to Strengthen Reading Skills (1989-1992)
   

   The UNESCO Office in Kingston has produced a series of booklets designed to strengthen reading at the primary and post-primary levels whilst transmitting messages to improve the quality of life, such as prevention of drug abuse, Aids and the environment.
   

   "Stefan Blows It" is a Comic book which started as a project at a Caricom/Carimac Drug Abuse prevention workshop organized in Jamaica in 1989. It explores drug abuse among teenagers in a fast moving story which shows that "it doesn't have to be like this". "Comoke King" also explores these problems. "Sharon's Song" is a poem about a family which solves the problem of staying together although torn by alcoholism, death and insanity. The style of writing uses rhythms popular with teenagers and young adults and the story lends itself to recitation accompanied by the drum and guitar.
   

   "Walk Good", is a story set in a typical Jamaican country village. When the inhabitants discover a case of Aids in their quiet peaceful village, some are angry, some are fearful, some want to take drastic action against the individual. How can Miss Bee, acting principal of the primary school prevent disaster?
   

   "Juice Box and Scandal", are three stories on the environment which identify some of the ways in which individual action affects the environment, and carry the message that concerted action at the local level can help to reverse current destructive tends.
   

   "Pointers for Parents", is a manual written in keeping with the aims of the World Declaration on Basic Education for All, its purpose being to provide a reminder for parents and to assist them in participating more fully in the basic education of their children.
   

   Hazel D. Campbell, author commissioned by UNESCO to write these booklets, is a communications specialist who has worked in the classroom and in various government communications departments.
   

   The methodology of housing messages in an entertaining fictional form has proved to be very popular reading and has helped to stimulate consciousness of the social problems involved. Because of demand, some of these booklets have gone through four print runs and one daily newspaper with a circulation of 440,000 serialized three of the books.
   
   

2. Caribbean Regional Museum Development Project (1992)
   

   "Museums can contribute to formal and informal learning at every stage of life"
   

   In 1992, the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) initiated the creation of the Caribbean Regional Museum Development Project, funded by UNDP and executed by UNESCO, the first large-scale undertaking of Caribbean museums related activities. Comprehensive Manuals are available for all training workshop topics for key museum personnel (Preventive Conservation, Travelling Exhibitions, Collections Management and Cataloguing, Museums Administration, and Museums Education). They are intended to standardize information and procedures for some of the most important areas of museology.
   

   The Project reported that one of the most significant derivative benefits has been the opportunity provided for contact among museums and related professions within the region with those outside it. Workshops, seminars and symposia have reinforced the work of the Museums Association of the Caribbean by creating occasions for frequent interaction among museum workers, strengthening the network of professionals in the field. The Project also reported that museum development would clearly be greatly accelerated if the concept of Caribbean integration and regional cooperation became an integral part of the process. Once this concept was applied to the Project the latter was able to contribute to regional development.
   

   Museum Education Manual
   

   The Museum Education Manual is a guide to the role and responsibility of museum educators in Caribbean cultural organizations. It has been developed to assist Caribbean museums and heritage organizations to create effective education programmes and provide clear guidelines to educational programming. It uses the terms "museum" and "institution" interchangeably, but the principles of education remain the same. Guidance is given on how to use the manual, working alone or with others, keeping notes, "homework", adding information and articles. The manual comprises 8 sections: Defining Museum Education; Ways of Learning; Ways of Teaching; Planning Programs; Who is the Public; Accessibility; Volunteers; Writing Exhibit Labels, each containing preliminary notes on the specific section subject, guided readings, topics for discussion and suggested activities.

Materials available for consultation at UNESCO (HQ and Regional Office).

(Also available: Report on the Status of Caribbean Museums; Cultural Heritage Act, 1993)

UNESCO HEADQUARTERS

Summary:

1. Tolerance: The Threshold of Peace (Preliminary version) (1994)
   

   A teaching learning guide for education for peace, human rights and democracy. This preliminary version addresses, inter alia, the social climate in which schools educate, deals with how to diagnose intolerance and how to include the concept of tolerance into every subject taught at every level and in every country. A more elaborated version is planned for elementary and secondary education, and for teacher education. (The preliminary version is available in English, French, Spanish and Russian; and has already been translated by the Governments of Portugal, Croatia and Finland into their three respective languages).
   
   

2. A Sense of Belonging (1993)
   

   Guidelines for values for the humanistic and international dimension of education. This document is the result of the UNESCO/CIDREE European project, the objective of which is to clarify the combination of ideals of which the notions of peace, human rights, ethical and cultural values and the ideal of international understanding are a part. It also provides guidelines and principles for the development of education, formal and non-formal, that promote the importance of values education as a means of fostering humanistic and international understanding. (Available in English, French and Spanish)
   
   

3. Guidelines for Curriculum and Textbook Development in International Education (1994)
   

   Provides guidelines and criteria for the development, evaluation and revision of curricula, textbooks and other educational materials in order to promote an international dimension in education. Besides National Commissions for UNESCO, and Ministers of Education, these guidelines are addressed to: (a) curriculum developers and syllabus writers; (b) authors and publishers of educational resources; (c) teachers, school administrators and community educators.
   
   

4. A new partnership: indigenous people and the United Nations System (1995)
   

   Written by Judith P. Zinsser, this booklet was a contribution of the Associated Schools Project (ASP) to the observance and follow-up to the International Year for Indigenous People. It describes the past and present challenges faced by indigenous people; their evolving cooperation with the UN system; and ways of meeting their needs. The booklet includes practical suggestions for classroom teaching (at the primary and secondary levels) in order to sensitize students to the situation and contribution of indigenous people.
   
   

5. La culture démocratique: un défi pour les écoles (1995)
   

   L'ouvrage analyse de nombreux exemples d'activités éducatives dans ce domaine menées à bien ces dernières années par des institutions qui participent au système des écoles associées de l'UNESCO à travers le monde. Le lecteur y trouvera un riche éventail d'exemples vivants, variés et réalisables avec peu de moyens matériels, confirmant que la démocratie n'est pas une structure, mais essentiellement une culture. Le livre traite de l'éducation aux niveaux primaire et secondaire. Pour ce qui est de l'enseignement secondaire, cet ouvrage comporte des exemples d'experiénces particulièrement enrichissantes, entre autres, de Hongrie (construire et habiter la société civile), du Sénégal (à la reconnaissance des espaces de négociation), de Suisse (de l'école cantonale à l'école mondiale). Pour la formation des enseignants, initiateurs à la vie démocratique, il y a des exemples de Colombie (créativité politique et résolution des conflits) et des Philippines (libérer de l'intolérance).

Summary:

There is increasing consensus about the need for AIDS education for young people. However, curriculum planners often lack examples of curricula, classroom activities and learning materials. This Resource Package which is a joint WHO/UNESCO Publication, has been compiled to assist curriculum planners to design HIV/AIDS/STD educational programmes for their own school systems, for students aged between 12 and 16. The programme presented in the package is based on participatory methods as these have been shown to be particularly effective for the teaching of behavioural skills.

It contains three volumes: The first, "A Handbook for Curriculum Planners" outlines the main steps in curriculum planning, and offers a choice of materials to help educators design school health curricula for students; Volume 2, "Students' Activities" contains 53 questionnaires on the nature and symptoms of Aids, preventive behaviours, discriminatory practices. Curriculum planners may choose those most relevant to their country and adapt the text and illustrations for language and content, according to the cultural context and the age of students targeted; and the third, "Teachers' Guide" provides educators with basic information on Aids and STDs and explores effective teaching methods.

The guide has been distributed to Ministries of Education and National Commissions and will be ultimately published in French and Spanish.

Summary:

The first edition of this bibliography, prepared to provide information on documents and publications produced between 1980 and 1992, drawn from the UNESCO data base was issued on the occasion of the launching of International Teachers Day on 5 October 1994. It will be regularly updated and a second edition published in time for the 1996 International Conference on Education. Titles are provided in the original languages. It is hoped that this selective bibliography will represent a step forward in the search for rationalization and coherence in activities concerning teachers in general.

This bibliography includes publications of interest to the present inventory of secondary education materials, particularly in the areas of:

Environmental education, inter alia, A0702 "A Prototype Environmental Education Curriculum for the Middle School"; A0703 "Environmental Education for our Common future: a handbook for teachers in Europe"; A0704 "Evaluating Environmental Education in School: A Practical Guide for Teachers; A0705 "Guide on Simulation and Gaming for Environmental Education"; A0706 "Strategies for the Training of Teachers in Environmental Education"

Language teaching, i.e. A0902 "A Methodological Guide for the use of Teacher Training Institutions"; A0903 "Enseignement des langues maternelles"; A0904 "International Understanding through Foreign Language Teaching;

International understanding peace and human rights, i.e. A1005 "Teaching for International Understanding, Peace and Human Rights".

It also contains a comprehensive listing of reference texts, including those discussing training approaches, along with case studies and research, as well as a section devoted to documentation published on the Status of Teachers.

Summary:

Each issue in the "Teacher Education" series, which appears four times during each biennium, focuses on a particular theme and includes a complete list of topics treated. In order to maintain links between members of the education community, the series is distributed free of charge on request. No. 3 in the series, "Informatics in the General Curriculum", written by Rhys Gwyn, offers a practical guide to understanding some of the uses of informatics in general education. Not a book for informatics specialists, but rather for ordinary teachers in schools, students training to be teachers and those training them, it seeks to identify some of the main questions to be considered by teachers across most areas - mother tongue, history, geography, natural sciences, social sciences - of the secondary school curriculum. It is hoped that it will help teachers and trainers who have not yet acquired experience of informatics in general use to acquire an overview of the subject, to gain sufficient confidence to begin to introduce informatics into their own classroom work. There is, thus, heavy emphasis throughout the book on the pedagogical implications of using informatics in the classroom.

The book first reviews some of the main families of informatics applications - wordprocessing, databases and spreadsheets, and communications, with examples of their main functions. The book then goes on to examine in more detail the pedagogic implications of classroom use, making the point that there is a logic inherent in computer technology which is that the power of the technology should be put into the hands of the user, in this case the learner. This has major implications for the teacher-puipil relationship. Attention is also given to the use of informatics for creative purposes and the links between the different classes of application are examined. Finally, attention is given to what the user needs to know about the technology as such, although technical information is kept to a mimimim, and suggestions are offered as to how the teacher new to informatics should take the first steps to acquire confidence and competence.

The cultural impact of informatics is a very important question of which every teacher should be aware. Every attempt has been made to keep the treatment of the subject free from cultural constraints and it is hoped that the book may be used across a variety of cultures.

Summary:

Information technology (IT) is one of the basic building blocks of modern society. UNESCO commissioned leading IT experts from developed and developing countries to prepare a curriculum for all secondary schools. The result is a set of practical and realistic proposals which can be implemented quickly and at minimum cost.

The curriculum has been designed in modular form so that education authorities can select appropriate elements to meet their objectives at the phase of development reached in their countries. Sufficient detailed description of each objective has been given so that local writers can produce course material to meet local cultural and developmental circumstances.

Topics for all students include computer hardware and software, computing trends, introduction to computer use and text processing, working with a database, a spreadsheet and graphics, social and ethical issues and the choice of software tools. There are optional modules on elementary programming and a range of applications including desk top publishing, multimedia, modelling, simulation, robots and expert systems.

For completeness, advanced topics are also defined to help older students to bridge from foundation level to vocational and general courses at the tertiary stage. These include the foundations of programming and software development, advanced elements of programming, applications of modelling, business information systems, process control and project management. It is recognized that not all secondary schools will be staffed and equipped to provide these advanced courses.

Summary:

This teaching guide accompanies the dissemination within the world schools network of information documents concerning the campaign "The World's still in the Making". This worldwide awareness campaign, launched by UNESCO within the framework of the world youth network "Planet Society", is proposed to schools as a real educational project. Each educator will be able to bring it into his teaching (languages, history, geography, biology, civics, etc) and, because of its cross-curricular nature, establish links with all the other subjects on the school programme. The first part is informational, presenting details of the campaign, its underlying principles, its objectives and the role of the different participants that it sets out to involved. The second part is more practical in its approach: it gives advice as to how to carry out a project (actions to be undertaken and their objectives, strategies) and shows how participation in such a project can awaken students to a new style of citizenship awareness. Some examples of projects are included, as are participation and self-evaluation forms.

The aim of this campaign is for each project to take charge of a "piece" of our environmental-human heritage in order to know it and to replace it in the context of the long chain of its significance across time and space. Each action must meet a precise objective set out after careful examination of the contexts, for example preservation of the future by cleaning up a polluted beach or replanting a desertified area or protecting an endangered species; the revival of forgotten traditions to preserve the records of the wealth of human behaviour; the collection and assembly of oral or gestural elements of tradition so as to transmit them intact; or the conception, creation and reconstruction of historical elements, transposing them to today's world to entrench the future in the sequence of the past.

As part of the follow up to the Rio de Janeiro Summit of 1992, UNESCO, with this campaign, hopes to incite young people, teachers and the school community as a whole to take part in a new adventure, offering them a forum to express themselves, a chance to enhance the quality of life and a social network within which to develop.