Learning Collective Intelligence and Competences for Sustainable Development
A comparative analysis of higher education-pedagogical approaches, knowledge systems and competences for sustainable development
Friday, 24 April 2009, from 2:30 to 3:30 pm at UNU-IAS in Yokohama
Abstract
The goal of this presentation is to facilitate an intellectual discussion on the pedagogic principles for developing collective intelligence and learning competences for sustainable development in higher education. The presentation will show the results of a comparative analysis of the pedagogic approaches and the competences expected to be learned.
The transition from traditional pedagogies to education for sustainable development is very controversial. For instance, postmodern theoreticians and practitioners criticize the risk of implementing neocolonialist knowledge paradigms with traditional conceptions of education. In other cases, it is argued that competence-based education may lead to mostly market-oriented competences. In addition, sustainable development educators are very concerned with the different implications of implementing conductivism, constructivism or other approaches of teaching-learning in higher education. Nonetheless, researchers are increasingly turning their attention to ethno-science principles of knowledge construction regarding sustainable development.
The presentation has three parts: first, knowledge systems, individual and collective intelligence, learning theories and pedagogic models will be introduced; second, general competences in higher education, and the main contents of selected master programmes related to sustainable development will be described; finally, based on the analysis, general pedagogic principles will be proposed which contribute to higher education pedagogy in the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development.
Speaker’s Biography
Miguel Chacon is a JSPS Postdoctoral Fellow with the Education for Sustainable Development Programme of the United Nation University Institute of Advanced Studies in cooperation with the International Graduate School of Social Sciences of the National University of Yokohama, Japan. His research is concerned with proposals for innovations in Higher Education for Sustainable Development in Latin America.
He is alumni of the Foundation Carolina in Spain and Fulbright in the USA. He was a postdoctoral researcher at Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, Spain after earning a Ph. D in Geography with a focus in Human Geography, and a Master in Urban Planning with focus in Global Development, both at the State University of New York, USA. He specialized in Architecture & Development at Lund University and Cochabamba University in Bolivia and holds a bachelor’s degree in Architecture from Guatemalan National University.
Dr. Chacon’s current academic interest is knowledge and education innovations for sustainable development, including higher education, community learning and ethno-science. Previously, he participated in several research projects and published essays regarding urban heritage, urban regional planning, indigenous and community development, and knowledge representation.
He was faculty representative in university reforms processes and participated in social-environmental alliances and social-academic networks in his region. For several years, he was a professor of planning and development courses in undergraduate and graduate programmes such as development planning and environmental education in his home university, where he also participated in the design of a master program.
For the Programme, download the event announcement here.
Venue: United Nations University Institute of Advanced Studies (UNU-IAS), 6F International Organizations Centre, Pacifico Yokohama, Minato Mirai, Yokohama
Registration: Free and open to the public.
For further information, please contact:
UNU-IAS Reception
Tel: 045-221-2300
Email: reception@ias.unu.edu
Or register at www.ias.unu.edu/events
