15.07.2020
The 2nd year of the GRETERE project implementation has finished. Despite the difficulties associated with COVID-19 and the needs to convert some classes and activities into distance format this academic year can be considered success.
Developed within the project the interdisciplinary module "Sustainable Territory Development" consists of 2 courses "Sustainable Territory Development" (6 ECTS, 72 contact hours) and " Space monitoring of landscapes. Digitalization and GEODATA" (3 ECTS, 36 contact hours). It was integrated into the curricula 07.04.01 "Architecture" (master's degree, profile "Architecture and urbanism") and piloted in full. Along with Russian cases the course content is enriched with international and European documents on sustainable development, research and lots of cases. Most of the classes were held in the face-to-face format, but some classes in April-May were transferred into on-line format because of the previously mentioned COVID-19 problem. You can view the module structure in more details here.
18 master's architect-students have mastered the module, passed entrance, intermediate and final surveys. The pedagogical research results, carried out in the framework of the project implementation period, showed that:
- Environmental problems are quite important in the students ' view and they put these problems on a par with other global problems that require solutions at the local, national and global level or even consider them the main threat to humanity;
- Unfortunately the most of the knowledge about the human footprint, global environmental issues and their relationship to economic and social issues students get mainly from the unstructured internet infoflow. They are not systematic, poorly represent the relationship of environmental, economic and social aspects. However the students have request to develop professional competences in the context of sustainable development.
- Mastering the module materials with integrated environmental and professional content developed on the basis of the contextual approach principles as well as including in the materials for studying international and European documents, research, and cases, has an impact on the development of students ' eco-professional competences. Their understanding of their professional activity impact in solving urgent problems of sustainable development becomes more holistic and meaningful.
In general students rated the module's usefulness for forming their worldview and professional competence at 4.75 (with a maximum rating of 5), and the probability that they will recommend the course to other students, friends, etc. – ranges from 7 to 10 (high level of loyalty).
From the final survey of students: "I sincerely believe that such courses are very useful, especially for the younger generation and future professionals. We are aware of the existing global problems, but we rarely think about how each of us can contribute to their solution through our professional activities. The course helped to look at problems from a new angle - from the point of view of the profession, enabled to form an understanding of the real and, very importantly, the current situation in Moscow, the country and around the world, given the awareness of the true extent of the problems".
In addition to architect-students some module topics (Introduction to sustainable development; Green economy trend; Forecasting and strategic planning; City ecosystem, etc.) were piloted in some classes of "Land Management and Cadastre" curricula (master's degree, profile "Real Estate Management and Territory Development"; bachelor's degree, full-time education) as well as in ecology classes for part-time learning bachelors of "Land Management and Cadastre" and "Applied Geodesy" curricula.
The very important result is the reinterpretation by some students of their own research project in the context of sustainable development goals. At the MIIGAiK Student Science Week on April 8 and 9, 2020, the research sections "Sustainable Territory Development" and "Architecture and Urban Planning", students research reports (11 and 5, respectively) were presented made from the sustainable development perspective. Currently the best student papers are in preparation for publication in conference book.
The GRETERE project results were presented:
- at the International conference "Lifelong Learning for Sustainable Development" (23-27.09.2019, Almaty, Kazakhstan) organized by the Kazakhstan National Agrarian University (KAZNAU) within the international ERUSMUS+ project SUSDEV;
- at the VII all-Russian Civil Forum-2019 "Future in Present" (Moscow, 30.11.2019) which brought together independent experts, leaders and activists of civil associations, social movements and NGOs, as well as well-known scientists, journalists, bloggers, entrepreneurs from all over Russia;
- at the videoconference of the Agency for Strategic Initiatives "How to make University Green", organized in support of the all-Russian program "Green Universities of Russia" (30.06.2020);
- and other events of various levels.
For wide school and university audience were organized:
- Open lecture "Cities of Future" for schoolchildren of 7-11 grades and their parents (Moscow, MIIGAiK, 7.12.2019) based on European cases of "smart cities" in Helsinki, Spain, Great Britain, etc.
- Open webinar "What is the Sustainable Development agenda and why should it be implemented in University curricula", organized with support of the all-Russian program "Green universities of Russia" (18.06.2020) for representatives of Russian Universities; link to the news.
The project results were discussed at the Round Table #2 "University education for sustainable development: European trends and Russian reality" in video forum format which was attended by teachers and students of MIIGAiK, IrSTU, MIPT, SOSU, Jagiellonian University in Krakow (Poland) as well as the head of the all-Russian program " Green Universities of Russia "(16.06.2020).
Pictures from classes and events
