Creating learning environments for the future-Research and practice share knowledge
26 - 28 March 2009
Katholieke Hogeschool Leuven Belgium, (Leuven University College)

Since its inception in 1986, ENSI has brought together school initiatives, educators and other stakeholders in countries primarily across the OECD area to promote environmental understanding, proactive approaches to teaching and learning, and citizenship education through research and the exchange of experiences internationally. The ENSI philosophy is expressed through three important European projects: SEED, CSCT and SUPPORT.

SEED:
The Comenius Project SEED addresses ESD as a driving force for school development to foster the integration of ecological issues into daily life at school. The SEED-project includes a comparative study across 13 countries on implicit and explicit criteria in regards to eco-school developments. One of the outcomes of this study has been the Quality Criteria for ESD schools.

CSCT:
The partners of the Comenius 2-project, CSCT, developed a framework for a competency-based curriculum for ESD for initial teacher training and in-service training institutions.

SUPPORT:
The Comenius network ‘Partnership and Participation for a Sustainable Tomorrow’ (SUPPORT) was established in order to address the need to enhance the quality of educational practices and materials in line with ESD.

The outcomes of these projects, together with former ENSI publications, form the backbone of the upcoming enSI conference in Leuven. ENSI invites the participants to reflect on and to share ideas and knowledge about the following questions:

• How to improve the quality of ESD?
• How to measure quality of ESD?
• What criteria should be used to measure quality of ESD?
• Which learning environments might improve ESD?

CONFERENCE PROGRAMME
Thursday 26 March 2009

- Opening of the conference by Dr. Willy Sleurs, president of ENSI
- Education for Sustainable Development and its relationship with global education Prof. Roger Standart, Director Curriculum Development, Flemish Ministry of Education & Training
- Keynote: ENSI as the driving force for international networking in ESD, Prof Frantz Rauh, University of Klagenfurt, Austria
- Keynote: Learning environments for ESD, Prof. Juri Manninen, Joensuu University Finland
- Interactive poster session on “learning environments for ESD”

Friday 27 March 2009
- Keynote: Development of and reflection on quality criteria in the area of the whole school approach to sustainable development, Prof. Michela Mayer, Invalsi Rome, Italy
- Keynote: The professionalisation of ESD teachers, Prof Frantz Rauh, and Dr Regina DR. REGINA Steiner, University of Salzburg, Austria
Parallel working sessions on:
- Implementation of Quality Criteria;
- Learning environments;
- Teacher competences for ESD and their relationship with quality criteria.

Saturday 28 March 2009
- New questions arising from the conference
- Requests and recommendations of researchers and practitioners Conference information:

Location: Leuven University College, Leuven, Belgium.

How to reach Leuven?
Via Brussels airport, 15 minutes by direct train from the airport to the Leuven railway station. Detailed information is available at www.ensi.org

Registration only possible through website: www.ensi.org

Registration fee:
Before 15 February 2009: 70 €
After 15 February 2009: 80 €
included is the conference dinner on Friday, March 27 in the historically rich environment of the Great Beguinage of Leuven.