Integrated approach to ESD towards enhancing knowledge on sustainable development

Abstract

Sustainable Development (SD) is one the most discussed issue now days, which is gaining priority day by day due to the exploitation of nature in a drastic way. It is from this apprehension that ‘Education for sustainable development’ (ESD) emerged with an immediate urge to preserve and conserve our nature and natural resources.The concept of ESD entangles the different countries and states across the world as a whole for a sustainable society, which merges the environment, economic and social dimensions. The paper discusses about the effect of integrated approach to education for sustainable development on the students’knowledge on sustainable development.The investigator developed acurriculum by integrating SD concepts into science and social science of VII standard of NCERT syllabus and various learning activities for their transaction by incorporating several pedagogical strategies that lead to constructing knowledge, developing social perspectives and analytical abilities.The study was of quasi experimental in nature withtwo group pre-test-post-test design, whereby the integratedcurriculum was taught to the experimental group for about five months and the control group was exposed to the conventional curriculum and methodology. It was found that there was a significant difference on the knowledge on sustainable development between experimental and control group. The experimental group had a higher mean knowledge score than the control group.On the basis of the findings from the study, it is concluded that there is a sheer need to highlight the importance of integration of SD components in pedagogy at all levels.