Exploring the link between Learning for Sustainability and attainment

Exploring the link between LfS and attainment

Analysis of the interviews identified key findings in relation to the link between LfS and attainment. These are explored in detail in this section.

Improved engagement and motivation can lead to improved performance

All 15 research participants, from both primary and secondary schools, observed that the meaningful and real-life contexts of LfS led to increased engagement, enjoyment, and motivation for all learners. This is because these are contexts that pupils can connect with and are therefore keen to learn about. This then potentially leads to improved cognitive and non-cognitive outcomes.

For secondary practitioner school J, learners’ high levels of motivation from engaging in an LfS project translated into improved attendance, achievement and enjoyment across all ability levels:

‘They really enjoyed it… the degree of motivation was unbelievable. I’ve never seen anything like it. It was amazing to watch them… What they achieved at the end of this project; I mean it was phenomenal… I was worried that at break time they wouldn’t come back [to the class]… They all came back… They came back every day… and they pretty much all came back for the presentation stage as well.’ Secondary practitioner school J

For secondary practitioner 2 school E, LfS had the potential to motivate less academic learners – in this case, engaging in the local context and participating in a camping trip. Reflecting on a particular learner with behavioural issues, the practitioner observed that participating in relatable contexts and outdoor activities was something different to the norm and lead to higher levels of engagement in class. Therefore, he saw these contexts and activities as a tool for engagement.

This was also the case for secondary practitioner school K, who saw the John Muir Awards as a context for engaging disengaged learners and school refusers, or pupils who, in her words ‘struggle to stay in a lesson for 50 minutes let alone in the school from 9 o'clock until 3 o'clock… [where] you must sit and be quiet’. She received feedback from parents that learners were more inclined to attend school when they knew they were going to be outside for part of the school day.

Primary practitioner 3 school B noted that for learners who were disengaged and/or not traditionally high achievers, the ‘Home is Here’ project (see Case Study 1, the ‘Home is Here’ project, below) had a positive impact in terms of an increase in participation across the whole school.

‘I mean maybe there was one or two Primary 7s who were a bit not interested, but it was basically almost all children in the school like one hundred percent engaged… I do believe it because… where you get pupil engagement then good learning happens.’ Primary practitioner 3 School B

The next sub-sections examine what this ‘good learning’ is, looking at the potential outcomes of LfS activities which practitioners identified, particularly as a result of increased engagement and motivation.

LfS contributes to improved self confidence among learners

Participants observed that meaningful topics covered in LfS can lead to better engagement in literacy and numeracy, improving outcomes and potentially also increasing confidence among learners, giving them a chance to shine.

Most of the primary practitioners and one secondary practitioner observed that the relevant contexts of LfS activities can help with engagement and motivation for reluctant writers. In their experience, learners enjoy and feel passionate about the topics, which can also improve the quality of their writing. Primary practitioner 2 from school A found that engaging in an LfS-specific writing activity increased learners’ engagement with writing:

‘I have obviously, as every teacher does, several reluctant writers, children who face lots of barriers to learning with dyslexia… We wrote to the giant, and just the level of engagement then meant that children were so enthusiastic about writing… they were writing not as “wee Cameron in primary six,” but as “Sergey the farmer who lived in Mount Peaceville”… Yes, there was still all the barriers to learning, but even getting them to put pen to paper, where it was difficult before, I just found the level of writing and the amount of time [concentrating]… was just so much higher.’ Primary practitioner 2 school A

LfS related engagement and motivation also helped to develop talking and listening skills in primary schools. Primary practitioner 1 school B observed how children in intervention groups for writing or phonics had the confidence to stand up in front of an audience to talk about their ‘home in a box’ (a creative project to work on with families to create a home in a shoebox) because they were interested in the topic. Primary practitioner 2 school B observed that the LfS project helped learners to build active listening and talking skills through discussions and presentations, including widening their vocabulary and improving their sentence structure (see Case Study 1, below). She noted that engagement in a topic that learners know about helped them to learn new language skills, to express themselves and to communicate. Although practitioners commented that language skills can be taught in any context, they considered that the ‘Home is Here’ project was successful because the topic was meaningful for learners and their families. Practitioners noted that working on LfS topics, doing group work, talking, and researching are all conducive to pedagogies for teaching talking skills and they are effective at improving literacy skills for low attainers.

Case study 1: ‘Home is Here’ Project (Primary School B)

‘Home is Here’ was an LfS migration project at Primary School B. The school considered migration to be a pertinent topic, given their diverse community, which includes many migrant families. The project was about inclusion and used books and stories to explore the topic. A whole school approach was adopted that brought in every child and family in the school, recognising the benefits of parents and carers gaining an insight into the work going on at school.

The school used the Global Storylines methodology. In order to support children’s safe and active engagement in the classroom, school staff undertook a Global Storyline training programme with West of Scotland Development Education Centre (WOSDEC - an organisation that provides professional learning on global citizenship to educators in the west of Scotland). In the past, WOSDEC provided global storylines for the school. However, this time the teachers decided to work together to develop their own storylines, so that they could include P1-3 learners, as well as giving teachers a chance to use their creativity.

The storyline was about Luna and a travelling suitcase. Luna arrived from the moon and came to Scotland because she wanted to access the right to an education, as on the moon girls were not allowed to be educated. The fictional context worked well because the children loved the story. As it was still connected to the real world, it could help the children to understand what is going on in the real world.

The project also used graphic novelists (Metaphrog) to engage with reluctant writers, as the school recognised that graphic novels can be a route to enabling learners to be authors of their own stories. The project was showcased to the school’s families and included music, drama, and writing.

‘They had to create their own characters, they had to create the story and the journey of that character. Some focused on the journey, some focused on arrival, some focused on the push and pull around migration. So, there was a whole variety of focus points for their stories.’ Primary practitioner 1 school B

The project extended the children’s learning about children’s rights – in this instance, the right to education. The interdisciplinary nature of the project engaged the children in reading, writing, talking and listening, art and drama, as well as facilitating family engagement. The project was inclusive – everyone was involved and could bring their own diverse experiences to it. Practitioners observed that the children were very motivated and produced high quality work. This included written work, delivering presentations, and working with their families to create a ‘home in a box.’

Engaging in LfS also had an impact on numeracy outcomes. Secondary practitioner school K and primary practitioner 1 school D observed that maths lessons delivered outdoors resulted in higher levels of engagement, enjoyment and in secondary school attendance. In school K, for low attaining S3-S5 maths classes, learners who struggled to concentrate in the classroom were able to focus better outside. By using natural materials as learning aids, learners were supported to put their learning into context. The secondary practitioner in school K found that attendance improved on a formative assessment day, which was also held outside, and that results improved. However, the practitioner was not able to comment on whether this translated into improved SQA results.

In school D, practitioners observed that P6 pupils benefited from the opportunity to apply their learning in the outdoors:

‘[They] developed a much stronger understanding of what they were actually learning about in the outdoors… [the children said] “actually building the shapes helped me understand it more”… it's more of an active learning approach.’ Primary practitioner 1 school D

Case study 2 in school H also shows how pupils in lower attaining groups were more engaged with LfS related context, and this then translated into improved understanding.

Case study 2: Maths lessons in Secondary School H

In school H, a maths teacher integrated LfS content into lessons for pupils with low numeracy skills. For a decimal scales lesson, rather than using standard resources, the class developed their own decimal scales, based on carbon footprint per annum for 11 countries. The practitioner considered that this made the context more meaningful for learners, and more connected to other curriculum areas. For a lesson on misleading graphs, the practitioner used a graph of the UK’s carbon dioxide emissions from 1990 to 2021 and asked learners what they noticed.

‘They kind of came alive in the discussion we were starting to have… You know, this is a set with folks who have real issues with their numeracy, like [they] struggle to remember their times tables… They were giving me all these reasons why this one [graph]… was misleading and it was leading us to… “can we take graphs like this at face value?”... [Through doing this] folks can access what are essentially numerical things, like interpretation of graphs, through a kind of critical literacy sort of lens.’ Secondary practitioner school H

The pupils engaged enthusiastically with the content and exceeded the practitioner’s expectations in what they were able to notice, question and interpret from the resources. The practitioner found that even pupils who were struggling with numeracy engaged with the content and identified issues with the graphs, including issues that he had not thought of himself. In so doing, the LfS approach and content supported learners to develop their critical thinking skills at the same time as their numeracy skills.

All of the eight primary practitioners interviewed talked about how learners’ confidence grew through engaging in LfS activities, in particular with respect to sharing their learning with others and giving presentations. They observed that this then contributed to learners’ self-belief, which then impacted positively on their learning.

One participant referred to an LfS project, on the Scottish independence referendum in 2014, as an example of how, for low attainers, a learner’s interest in a particular topic could result in improved performance in literacy, which in turn led to increased motivation and self-confidence. For one learner who had low literacy skills, his passion for children’s rights motivated him to write a speech which allowed him to demonstrate his skill in speechwriting. This resulted in the other children in the class responding to him differently and seeking his advice when writing their speeches, making him feel more confident and believe in himself. This example illustrates that LfS can give lower attaining pupils the chance to shine.

‘This wee boy was amazing at writing a speech now… if you were to get him to write a creative story about something random, you would barely get three lines down and he would be humming, you know, all kind of worked up about it, needing lots of motivation and encouragement… He was just on it, you know, when it came to writing a speech about the injustice of there being hunger in the world, and hunger in a country that’s the - I remember, this was part of his speech - the sixth most richest country in the world, you know?’ Primary practitioner 1 school A

Primary practitioner 3 school B reflected on how the confidence that this builds then supports learning:

‘It isn’t just about the actual sort of act of talking, it's as much about that whole emotional security that you hope that comes with these things. Which of course, is the foundation to good learning as well.’ Primary practitioner 3 school B

These examples illustrate that engagement in meaningful LfS topics can support not just the development of literacy and numeracy skills, but also learners’ confidence and self-belief.

Connections across learning

Beyond the impact of LfS on literacy and numeracy, participants observed that LfS can also contribute towards learners’ ability to make connections across their learning. This speaks to the cross-curricular nature of the approach that underpins LfS in Scotland. For one practitioner, the LfS context supported learners’ ability to make connections across the curriculum and apply their prior learning:

‘When you frame this learning through a lens of Learning for Sustainability, it makes it real to them and then not only are they learning these things, but they're starting to think ‘Oh wait, my prior knowledge matters because I know this about this concept or I know this about this issue that's happening in the world’, which I don't think you would get if you weren't teaching it through Learning for Sustainability.’ Primary practitioner 2 school B

At the secondary level, some of the schools timetabled LfS modules or projects in the Broad General Education (BGE). School F runs sustainability classes in S1, where time is allocated in the timetable every week. A practitioner there reported seeing the learning from these sustainability classes reflected in other classes, for example in biology:

‘[For] the healthier Scotland task, a couple of pupils were talking about poverty within that and the link between poverty and health. So instead of it just being actually purely science based and, you know, the usual things we would talk about - smoking, alcohol, drugs and having a healthy balanced diet exercise - they were actually bringing in, linking in some of the other sustainable goals into that kind of project.’ Secondary practitioner school F

Secondary practitioner school J likewise found that found that learners were able to apply knowledge from other areas of the curriculum for their projects.

Case study 3: Interdisciplinary projects in Secondary School J

The science department at Secondary School J developed an interdisciplinary LfS project for S2 learners. Groups of learners were invited to select a project from three themes which practitioners had developed in collaboration with learners. These were:

• plant-based food – is it better than animal-based food and does it contribute to or help to solve climate change?
• fast fashion and climate change
• how to bring the 2028 UEFA Euro football championship to Scotland and make it sustainable

The groups of learners were tasked with researching their topics over the course of four days and then presenting their findings. The practitioner found that the groups were able to apply their prior knowledge from across the curriculum. For example, for the plant-based food project, the groups cooked recipes for plant-based and non-plant-based food in home economics. They then used the scientific method to gather and evaluate data and statistics to compare the results. The practitioner liaised with the school’s English department to identify success criteria for the presentations, based on whether the projects were delivering pitches (e.g. the football project) or informed opinion (e.g. plant-based food and fast fashion projects). Projects were assessed using a self-evaluation tool and presentations were assessed by both teachers and learners. The practitioner performed an evaluation at the end of the project, identifying a development point for future projects to ensure the pupils evaluated resources for credibility.

‘There was a lot of depth and a lot of planning, a lot of thinking that was going on … I was worried that they were just going to get lost in the doing, doing, doing and the content wasn't going to be there, but that wasn't the case at all, and the depth was there. That was the interesting thing because they weren't doing a project about climate change. We had taught them about climate change, they understood what climate change was and the chemistry behind it. What they were doing was, they were building upon the knowledge that they had already been given and taught in science… Then they were using the scientific method, and again I hadn't said anything specifically about this, they had just used that idea of science of having a control…

There was one group that wanted to do further analysis and statistics, so we taught them how to do percentage increase calculations with that, which is actually a national 5 outcome that we do in biology… There was just so much learning going on and so much application of their learning and they were drawing from their different subjects to put that all together in this one project.’ Secondary practitioner school J

From the practitioner’s perspective, this interdisciplinary LfS project demonstrated the success of pupil-led learning, which engaged and motivated learners of all abilities to extend their learning and produce a higher than usual quality of work. It also supported collaborative learning in mixed ability groups and learner-to-learner feedback. This resulted in learners working together, building relationships, and supporting each other’s learning.

In school H, LfS practitioners integrated across the curriculum, encouraging pupils to identify connections between their learning and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the end of each class. The school’s eco committee developed a resource displaying the SDGs which facilitates this interdisciplinary learning.

The practitioner at School H noted that the school’s use of the SDG resource enabled learners to start making connections not only between their learning and the SDGs, but also connections across the curriculum and across the SDGs. This participant considered that making connections across learning contributed towards a more holistic learning experience.

These examples illustrate that LfS activities support interdisciplinarity and making connections, which underpin deeper understanding and learning.

Critical thinking and problem solving

This research also identified that LfS contributes towards developing critical thinking and problem-solving skills, particularly at the primary level. For practitioners in school B, LfS was not about learning about a particular topic, but rather it was about learners having the opportunity to have conversations, ask questions and develop skills. Primary practitioner 1 school A recognised how engaging in global citizenship projects provided an opportunity for learners to consider different arguments and develop critical thinking skills:

‘So over the years we have found an impact very much on talking and listening and literacy skills… their kind of critical thinking and all these skills really. Things that they possibly hadn't even focused on really to be honest very much [in their Primary] career until then, were really improved and that totally enhanced their understanding of things in terms of looking at both sides of an argument and being able to discuss things, being able to assert their opinion.’ Primary practitioner 1 School A

For secondary practitioner school J, interdisciplinary LfS projects offered an opportunity to examine a range of information, draw conclusions, and justify positions based on that conclusion (see Case Study 3, above). Reflecting on the high standard of work produced, she noted that there was ‘differentiation by outcomes’ for learners of differing abilities, in terms of critical thinking, depth and sophistication, although they all progressed their learning. Secondary practitioner 1 school E also noted the difference in the depth of understanding and critical thinking between differing abilities, due to the interconnected nature of the learning and the need for ‘high end thinking’ and to ‘think on many different levels to make significant links’:

‘They all get that they need to be recycling their plastics and they should be using reusable water bottles and not plastic bags, and they all get that. But I would say the lower ability ones only understand that message. They don't necessarily, are not necessarily able to make the jump between more... How does that impact climate change in terms of, like our CO2 production?… Oh yeah, it's bad because fish die, but what does fish dying actually mean in terms of a healthy planet or people and our interaction with the ocean? You're not really getting to the nitty gritty of it until they’re really able to think on many levels and maybe able to make significant links. But also have that emotional literacy to be able to communicate an argument in a convincing way and persuade people that that's the right thing to do and have all that background knowledge.’ Secondary practitioner 1 school E

Furthermore, secondary practitioner 1 school E observed that learners might say what they considered to be the ‘right things’ in the classroom regarding LfS learning and related topics, but that outside of the classroom this learning did not appear to impact on their behaviours.

‘I can't say those discussions that we’ve had necessarily, when they've got out of that school situation, makes them stop and think about what they're saying and how they're behaving… they're teenagers, someone annoys you… that impulse control is not is not there… Having these conversations, it's not stopping the bullying, it's not stopping the homophobia, it's not stopping the sectarianism and all those things that go on outside.’ Secondary practitioner 1 school E

This section illustrates that LfS activities and pedagogies can help to support critical thinking and problem solving. However, practitioners consider that this varies according to ability and does not necessarily lead to changes in behaviours outside the classroom.

Meta skills/skills for life

Several practitioners noted that there was a clear link between LfS and Curriculum for Excellence’s (CfE) four capacities: to enable all young people to become confident individuals; effective contributors; responsible citizens; and successful learners. As well as learners’ increased awareness of the SDGs, practitioners identified that LfS supports learners to develop skills which may be valuable for their futures and careers (especially ‘green’ jobs), such as self-management, social and communication skills and problem solving skills.