Developing learning materials and planning lessons to teach GCED

The project on introducing GCED to pre-service teachers of English was held by Ms Priyambika Preethimali from September till October at the Pasdunrata National College of Education in Sri Lanka as a part of APCEIU’s 2021 Mentorship and Grant Competition programme line with the 20th Asia-Pacific Training Workshop (APTW) on EIU/GCED. The main purpose of this project is to educate pre-service teachers on the value of GCED, as introducing the key area of GCED will allow them to incorporate GCED into their teaching in the future. It is expected that they will eagerly prepare GCED lessons for the students from various ethnic groups in Sri Lankan society, including Sinhalese, Tamils, and Muslims. 20 pre-service teachers from Pasdunrata National College of Education in Sri Lanka, representing various ethnic and religious groups, gathered online to participate in the project. During the sessions, various thematic topics such as sustainable development, gender equality, cultural diversity, climate change, and globalization, were introduced to plan the lessons on GCED. In addition, several activities were carried out during the three months, such as panel discussions, presentations, lectures, group discussions, documentary analyses, and team teaching.

Particularly, small groups have formed for the project assignment. Each group of four participants was tasked with exploring the theoretical knowledge of GCED concepts and sharing their findings and knowledge with other groups. As a result, participants from each group conducted an online teaching session in mid-October to demonstrate how they could apply GCED in their teaching, reflecting what they learned during the project. Some of the participants expressed their gratitude for being a part of this project during the feedback sessions as below:

“We did the GCED project as our group project under the guidance and support of Ms Preethimali. At first, we were given videos and information by her about GCED. Then we engaged in writing and searching about them further and did presentations, discussions, group work and peer teaching sessions where we learnt many new things, the new and innovative techniques of teaching, and practical ways which will surely help us in our future career in putting forward the idea and knowledge to the society. We enjoyed working together as a team. I thank Ms Preethimali for her immense support.” - S. Benazeer

“This was a really good and fruitful project for all of us. With the help of our lecturer, we did self-studying, making presentations, discussions and peer teaching on GCED. As we are future teachers, when we step into the classroom, this experience will guide us” - Lilani S Abenayake

“As a pre-service teacher, I gained lots of benefits and knowledge from this project. And also, it changed my attitude positively to be responsible person in this society.” - M.N.Asaarath Fathima Nawf

Ms Priyambika Preethimali said that she could effectively work on the project even during the lockdown situation under the support from APCEIU. She also said that “The selected twenty pre-service teachers who participated in the project have been very enthusiastic. They showed positive attitudes towards learning about GCED and practicing them in their teaching-learning process.” she plans to continuously implement this project next year with newly recruited students in her sociology class.