Sustainable Development Goals
UN SDGs (Agenda 2030): Seven years left! Following Sustainable development goals was established after a successful and most-needed global collaboration to eradicate poverty, protect children, women, and vulnerable people, societies, and, more importantly, protect our planet. The SDGs, or Sustainable Development Goals, were established by the United Nations in 2015
HE sector in general and higher education institutes in particular have a great responsibility in disseminating these ambitious goals. HEIs, by embedding them into the university curriculum, provide opportunities for students to become ambassadors of sustainable development across the globe.
Three-Step Model for Embedding the Goals into the Curriculum
I have created a model to embed the goals into the university curriculum in three simple and straightforward steps.
Step One:
Considering the module/program of study learning objectives/outcomes
Step Two:
On a light touch, go over those 17 goals and pick the most relevant goals to the module/program learning objectives. Depending on the subject discipline, educators might come up with a handful number of goals. Thus, they could reduce 17 SDGs into a handful number of relevant goals to their module/program, which in turn reduces 169 targets to a maximum of 30-40. Not all of these indicators are relevant to the module/program learning objectives, which again reduces the number.
Step Three:
Now, educators need to consider Social, Economic, and Environmental dimensions to design appropriate activities/classroom tasks for their students.
This three-step model allows educators to create opportunities to promote soft skills alongside the subject knowledge. This provides opportunities for students to develop those skills and competencies they need to be able to tackle, engage and solve real-world complex problems.
Authentic Curriculum and SDGs
Integrating the SDGs into the University curriculum makes the curriculum authentic for the following clear reasons:
1- Links the curriculum to the real-life
The SDGs, by nature, are related to those issues and problems that countries across the globe are struggling with. No single country can resolve them on their own, and it needs a collective and collaborative approach.
2- Cognitively challenges the students:
By engaging students with tasks related to socio-economics and environmental activities, educators could cognitively challenge their students and push them out of their comfort zones.
3- Evaluative judgement and making feedback central:
Educators, by designing rubrics and appropriate instructions, could provide opportunities for students to evaluate the quality of their own work and also assess the quality of their peers. This approach makes feedback central and sustainable in students' learning journey.
