Systematization of Educational Program for Developing Human Resource of SDGs Leaders For Junior and Senior High School Students and Construction of Student Evaluation System
Research Topic
Systematization of educational program for developing human resource of SDGs leaders for junior and senior high school students and construction of student evaluation system
Lead Researcher
Misuzu Asari, Associate Professor, Kyoto University Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies
Joint Researchers
Chihiro Hatanaka, Senior Lecturer, Kokoro Research Center, Kyoto University
Yuji Watanabe, Specially Appointed Assistant Professor, WPI Immunology Frontier Research Center, Osaka University
Research Objective
Less than ten years remain until 2030, the target year for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2015. The recognition rate of the SDGs in Japan is 54.2%, and social awareness is improving. In particular, the recognition rate of SDGs among teenagers is over 70%. In order to achieve the SDGs, it is essential that junior and senior high school students, who can widely recognize this issue and will be the leaders of the next generation, understand the social vision of the SDGs as their own and lead practical activities in their schools or communities for the realization of a sustainable society. For this reason, systematization of the educational program for developing human resources is required; it is expected that students can organize the multiple issues behind social problems and analyze the relationships among them, have abilities to think or discover the means for an integrated solution, and use “systematical thinking.”
Therefore, the main objective of this project is to recruit and train potential leaders for this purpose from all over Japan. We will especially focus on the Keihoku area of Kyoto City, where it is the target region of the “ ,” and Kyoto University will take the lead in implementing the program together with the “ ”, which consists of Kyoto City, Kyoto University, and corporations, namely, in the form of industry-government-academia collaboration.
Many high school-university collaborative projects have been implemented so far. When a questionnaire is conducted among such participants, many of them would evaluate themselves as “having grown” after attending it. However, these evaluations are not reported from an objective perspective. In the course evaluation based on the questionnaire asking whether one has grown or not, it is easy to predict that a high awareness will result. For, students who are very conscious participate in a learning program to raise their awareness in a certain direction, and are asked about the change in their awareness.
What is important is to evaluate the behavioral changes of the participants after attending the program from an objective point of view and the latent changes in their consciousness which participants have not perceived as a result of the program. Therefore, in this project, we aim to build a multiple evaluation system using the following three points: 1) Subjective evaluation by participants (questionnaire at the beginning and end of the program), 2) Evaluation by others in group discussions, 3) Psychological tests, such as personality assessment, Baum test, Picture-Frustration Study, etc. In addition, the implementation of this project will achieve the fourth goal out of the seventeen goals of the SDGs, “quality education for all,” as well as the eighth goal, “decent work and economic growth,” and goal, “sustainable cities and communities.”
Expected effects
This project expects to create connections among people who are willing to take on the challenge of solving the SDGs issues and other social problems, and to form a community where people can exchange their thoughts and share their activities, transcending generations and social positions. In addition, the establishment of the evaluation system described above and the sharing of these findings will make it possible to expand the outcomes horizontally, serving as a role model for high school-university collaborative projects. Moreover, in order to build a sustainable social system, clarifying the psychological tendency and growth potential of younger generations who are willing to take on leadership roles will provide useful insights for considering the future systems that connect people, society, and nature.
2021/07/02