The pedagogical twists

LIST OF PEDAGOGICAL TWISTS

Use AI tools in the classroom: Use AI to learn new conceptions

The potential of AI can be harnessed by training students to use AI tools properly and by encouraging them to examine the information generated by AI with a critical and skeptical lens.

Assign students to research and choose an SDG they are passionate about. Instruct them to use ChatGPT tools to gather information (e.g., what is SDG1? Why does it matter?) on the chosen goal. Have students present the SDG to their peers. Teachers can divide students into 17 groups, and each group chooses one SDG and gives a presentation to others.

Setting goals

For each lesson clear learning goals must be set. As explained in Department of Education and Training (2019), learning goals should set further challenges while remaining achievable for students who need to get acquainted with them in the beginning of the lesson to know what they will be able to do once they have completed their tasks. At the same time, this helps teachers plan activities better and design assessment tasks. Therefore, teachers should clearly explain the links between learning goals, activities, and assessment tasks so that students can utilize the learning goals to keep track of their progress (Department of Education and Training, 2019).

Apply collaborative/cooperative learning (CL).

Divide the students in small groups (maximum of 4 students). Give students the questions (brainstorming session) that they will ask each other. Finally, they report their findings on paper, and each group reports their findings.

To ensure effectiveness, it is important to compose groups according to the activity and other criteria (e.g., common interests, mixed academic abilities, friendship, etc.) and ensure students share roles, responsibilities, and outcomes ownership (Department of Education and Training, 2019).

Multiple exposure.
Exposing the students to various opportunities over time to learn and engage with new knowledge and skills proves to be effective (Department of Education and Training, 2019). 

Therefore, complex and extensive topics can be presented to students over time (within a week instead in a single lesson) through different activities. 

In order to ensure effectiveness, the multiple exposures, spaced over time,, should be planned in a strategic way (Department of Education and Training, 2019).

Invite an expert.
For the initial brainstorming session, invite an expert in the field. Gaining insights or feedback  from an expert in the field can trigger deeper engagement and foster motivation among students. 

Explicit teaching.

Explicit teaching effectiveness is high and translates into the acceleration of students’ performance (Department of Education and Training, 2019). It consists of teachers explaining to students the learning goals to achieve, how to achieve them and demonstrating them by modelling and providing examples. Teachers' support, monitoring and feedback is essential throughout the whole learning process (Department of Education and Training, 2019).

Flip the classroom.

Prepare and assign theoretical content to study at home (articles, reports, slides, videos, etc). In the next class, start discussions (through the brainstorming session) and facilitate students in the other planned activities.

Flip the classroom (+ constructivism). 

As homework, ask students to do some research at home on the SDG in question. Provide only some guidelines of where to search material but let them explore and find material on their own. In the next class, start discussions (through the brainstorming session) and facilitate students in the other activities.

Ensure support and confidentiality. 

In the beginning of the lesson, explain that the topic in question is very broad, and due to time limitations, it is impossible to focus on every aspect of it with the attention it deserves. Therefore, tell students that if there are topics they want to talk about, even related to personal experiences or problems, they can reach out to you by leaving a little message in a box in the class. They can be free to write their name on it or keep it anonymous. The box will be removed every day, safely stored, and relocated for the next class (this should be done for a few weeks in a row to ensure everyone has the chance to ask something). 

It is up to you how to proceed in the case someone confidentially confides in you (e.g. private meeting in school or outside)

Make space for students' voices and knowledge sharing: students' tips.

Before starting with the first activity, ask students to give tips about a topic/SDG (for instance, a book or article to read, a video, series, movie, or documentary to watch, a game to play, etc.) and ask them to give a little explanation of the proposed source (the main content, the author, where to find it, etc.). 

Create a shareable Google spreadsheet where students can add the sources or links to their suggested material.

Bear in mind: You can also learn from your students!

Constructivism: Identify students’ learning goals at the beginning of the lesson cycle (Van den End, F., 2020).

Ask students to sit in a circle in the middle of the classroom and give a little introduction about the subject of the lesson. Now, it’s up to the students to think about their own learning goals (“What do I want to learn?”) for the lesson. The first student who shares his learning goal is given a ball made of rope which will be thrown to another student, till everyone has told their own learning goals. This first exercise gives students a voice and shows them that their learning goals are highly interconnected.   

Constructivism: Knowing___want to know___what I have learnt exercise_ what I still want to learn.

Ask students to identify what they know already about the SDG/topic in question and what they want to know. Ask these first 2 questions in the beginning in order to have an overview of students’ prior knowledge and make the lesson more personalized to the specific group of students.

At the end of the lesson/ lesson cycle ask them to identify what they have learnt and what they still want to learn about this topic. In particular, this last question addresses all the possible doubts and/or further interest of the students about the topic.

Place-based learning.

Prepare a tour to an organization/ centre (that works to e.g. eradicate poverty, reduce hunger, help refugees, etc.)  in the neighborhood of the school to learn about a specific SDG. The development of the brainstorming session can be guided by the organization director or any other member of the organization. Foster students to ask additional questions (if interested). Afterwards, a little group activity to solve a problem or carry out an activity for the good of the organization can be planned in advance and implemented in the field.

Constructivism.

Go to a specific environment in the town or closeby (a forest, woods, a lake, an agricultural land) and let students (in small groups) explore the environment. Provide them with the initial brainstorm questions so that they can answer them while exploring and learning via interaction with the environments they are in. Both their prior knowledge, cooperative learning, and exploration of the environment will help answer the questions or trigger possible answers.

Inquiry-based Learning (IBL).

Instead of starting with asking questions, let students pose their own questions and seek answers to their questions via research and direct observation. Then, they present their supporting evidence to answer the questions. They draw connections between their pre-existing knowledge and the knowledge they’ve acquired through the activity. Finally, they draw conclusions, highlight remaining gaps in knowledge and develop plans for future investigations.

Gallery walk strategy.

Instead of asking questions and let students answer from their desk, make them walk around the room and “visit” an art gallery that you have set up for them within the classroom walls. Attach posters with questions and/or images and divide students in groups walking around each station to answer their ideas on the poster itself or on a post-it note to attach to the poster. By reading each other’s responses students will collaborate to answer the question in a comprehensive way. 

See this example of a gallery walk I applied to a History lesson.  
 

Use AI tools in the classroom - Utilize AI responses to stimulate scientific thinking (Daniel Leonard, 2023）

The potential of AI can be harnessed by training students to use AI tools properly and by encouraging them to examine the information generated by AI with a critical and skeptical lens. 

Teachers can upload the transcripts of digital stories into ChatGPT and then request it to identify the relevant Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) associated with these stories. After receiving responses, teachers can prompt students to engage in discussions and analyze the accuracy of the responses. This activity can be conducted either in the entire class or in small groups.

Back in time activity.

“Ask everyone the following question: Suppose you could go back in time, to which period would you travel back? Ask the students to share their thoughts. Be sure to ask why they would like to travel back to this moment. As a teacher you can also choose to link this assignment to the topic that is being discussed in the lessons. In this case you ask the question: Suppose we go back twenty years. How would this topic have been discussed then? What did the developments look like on this subject? The same can of course also be done with a step forward in the future. As a teacher you are now asking the question: Suppose we would go forward twenty years in time. What would the world look like on this subject?” (Van den End, F., 2020).

Foster peer teaching.

You can engage “expert” students in teaching peers on a defined subject (e.g. a student who is/has been volunteering in a project for a social cause can give a presentation to show some data and some initiatives of the organization they volunteer for; a student who has done a private course into energy studies can help students understand specific or more complex topics, etc.).

Peel the fruit (thinking routines).

To explore a topic, an idea, a concept or to analyze a text, apply the peel the fruit thinking routine. Follow these explanatory slides.

This can be done as a whole class activity or assigned individually to each student.

Pick your own digital story of Comundos.

In each SDG sheet, some digital stories were chosen, based on the learning goals of the lesson. To ensure a certain degree of autonomy students can access other digital stories on Comundos website and pick one in particular to be analysed. As follows videos are divided based on the country in question:

Stories spoken in French were made in Benin, Rwanda, Cameroon, Congo and Senegal

Stories spoken in English were made in Cameroon, South Africa, Philippines and Belgium ( mixed languages in Belgium and Cameroon, look for the original language)

Stories spoken in Portuguese were made in Brazil and Mozambique.

Stories spoken in Spanish in Honduras, Guatemala and Columbia.

Use AI tools for learning - Debate with AI

The potential of AI can be harnessed by training students to use AI tools properly and by encouraging them to examine the information generated by AI with a critical and skeptical lens. 

Teachers encourage students to debate with ChatGPT on the topic of whether we should phase out or phase down the use of fossil fuels in the future. Students can support the phase-out of the use of fossil fuels, while ChatGPT will insist on the side of phasing down the use of fossil fuels. Teachers will first introduce background information to students and then let them debate with ChatGPT to determine the winner of the debate.

Use AI tools for learning - Use prompts to get solutions from AI

The potential of AI can be harnessed by training students to use AI tools properly and by encouraging them to examine the information generated by AI with a critical and skeptical lens. 

During the lesson, teachers can teach students how to use suitable prompts to train AI tools to get satisfactory responses. Subsequently, teachers can assign a task to students to use ChatGPT to seek solutions to achieve a specific SDG after class. Potential tasks are as follows:

• Role playing: Ask students to act on the role of a school principal and think about what policies could be made to achieve SDG4: quality education in school. Students can use the prompts to ask ChatGPT to give advice and then critically assess the feasibility of the advice. Finally, based on the actual school situation and suggestions provided by ChatGPT, formulate a set of policies.
• Solving issues in digital stories: There are many digital stories showing the issues faced by people in different countries, such as lack of electricity, gender inequality and so on. Students can be encouraged to find out what actions should be taken to solve these issues. They can think about the solutions by themselves and ask ChatGPT to give suggestions for getting inspiration.

Use AI tools for learning - Gallery/ photo exhibition

The potential of AI can be harnessed by training students to use AI tools properly and by encouraging them to examine the information generated by AI with a critical and skeptical lens. 

Organize a student-led SDG Gallery at school to raise awareness and engage the school community in global issues. After completing the SDG lesson cycle, guide students to form small groups, each assigned to a specific SDG based on their interests. Instruct them to research and gather real-life photographs depicting the challenges and goals of their assigned SDG. Introduce free AI tools like Bing Images Creator to generate images representing an ideal world achieved through SDG targets. Additionally, use AI text generation tools like ChatGPT to help students write concise and informative descriptions for their SDGs. Guide them in creating visually appealing posters using Canva. Choose a suitable location for the exhibition with the school's support, and consider organizing an opening ceremony to present each SDG, fostering reflection on the importance of global goals among students, teachers, and staff.

Back in time activity.

“Ask everyone the following question: Suppose you could go back in time; to which period would you travel back? Ask the students to share their thoughts. Be sure to ask why they would like to travel back to this moment. As a teacher, you can also choose to link this assignment to the topic that is being discussed in the lessons. In this case, you ask the question: Suppose we go back twenty years. How would this topic have been discussed then? What did the developments look like on this subject? The same can, of course, be done with a step forward in the future. As a teacher, you are now asking the question: Suppose we go forward twenty years in time. What would the world look like on this subject?” (Van den End, F., 2020).

Make space for students' voices and knowledge sharing: Students' tips.

Ask students to give tips about a topic or SDG (for instance, a book/article to read, a video, series, movie, or documentary to watch, a game to play, etc.) and ask them to give a little explanation of the proposed source (the main content, the author, where to find it, etc.). 

Create a shareable google spreadsheets where students can add the sources/link of their suggested material.

Bear in mind: You can also learn from your students!

Reflection Assignment. 

At the end of a lesson cycle assign students to create a reflection piece. Students can record their learning, generate final thoughts, ask questions, or think about how they would approach this work differently in the future. It's valuable to hear what parts of a unit stood out and why, and what parts were less meaningful and why.

This reflection assignment can be used as a reflection instrument and for peer-assessment. In this case, students are divided in groups of about six students and each student reports their reflection assignment that will be assessed by their peers in the group, through feedback and a final score. Teachers should provide students with clarified goals and criteria for assessment.  Scores are not the final scores for the teachers but help them in the final assessment process while students learn how to evaluate other fellow students. 

Media literacy: an article with photos.

At the end of the lesson cycle, students can write an article about a specific topic that they are interested in related to the SDG in question. It can be something they want to further explore or a phenomenon they have noticed in their community, city, region, etc. Ask them to document the topic of their article by taking relevant pictures (3-4 pictures). Those pictures should be added in the article to make it more compelling.

Before they start writing, ask them to read and refer to this website on how to write an article https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/z27cmnb/revision/5 .

Media literacy: Interview with recording or video (about 2-3 minutes long).

At the end of the lesson cycle, tell students that they will become “interviewers” and “interviewees”. For this closing activity, students will have to interview each other about something they pick from the lesson. The interviewers have to come up with some questions (about 5) to investigate the focus of their interview. To learn more about journalism tips on how to conduct good interviews, provide them with this link https://www.mvorganizing.org/what-are-the-6-journalistic-questions/ 

The interviewer can simply record the interview or film it with a camera (cellphone or professional camera). 

Constructionism.

At the end of the lesson cycle, assign students to create something of their own (an infographic, a poster; a video, etc) which explains and summarizes a specific topic of the lesson cycle they found interesting and worth reporting.

For free online tools: https://www.easel.ly/ and https://www.canva.com/