Explore our education strategy which has a new core aim, 4 new programme principles and 4 cross-cutting themes for the children and young people to explore. Please also find our teaching principles, and safeguarding policy here.
Our core aim is to support children and young people to become effective advocates for wildlife conservation and biodiversity.
We need to build capacity in the children and young people that engage with our education programme. They need to practice the skills of advocacy in low stakes, private settings to build confidence and knowledge. They need to acquire the necessary vocabulary and develop an understanding of biodiversity, the complexities of conserving habitats, endangered animals, and the local communities around them. All those that engage with our programme will benefit, helping them thrive in the global workplace, to find their place in society and contribute to a greener future.
As the programme gets larger and more complex, it is important to clearly state the principles that will guide the development of the content. When questions arise, these fundamental programme principles will drive decision making. These principals are:
The learning content will be wide ranging and often contain complex ideas. To help, all programme delivery will focus on a small range of common cross-cutting themes that can be revisited again and again. The cross-cutting themes will be the delivery model for the conservation and biodiversity messages. They could be used as a lens to explore content and unify disparate content across all the DSWF education programme.
Based on feedback from our partners, our DSWF cross cutting themes are:
These cross-cutting themes will be reviewed annually, and each theme will only be incorporated into the core deliverables where they naturally arise.
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Our programme is not based on one specific pedagogy but instead takes inspiration from a variety of sources. Below you can find a selection of theory and practical support that we have found particularly useful in the past year.
1. Rosenshine’s principles of learning
Although we wouldn’t want every session to follow a defined rigid structure, there is merit in these principles, and we will often use them when designing content. They are based on quality research and are easy to follow.
2. Project based learning
It is extremely easy to get project-based learning very wrong and this is the best guidance on PBL we have come across in the last ten years. From the Innovation Unit and based on the work of High Tech High in California, it gives a useful structure for developing and implementing projects with chiudren and young people.
3. Oracy and dialogic teaching
We want children to be fluent advocates for wildlife and conservation but how do you support them in developing their oracy skills? We have found the book by the charity Voice21 and the work of Robin Alexander to be helpful in developing these skills.
4. Cognitive load theory
There is always a risk of treating children like experts when teaching about biodiversity when they have not grasped the core concepts yet. Sweller’s work on cognitive load theory is a helpful reminder to ensure that each activity is demanding but possible for young people to achieve. This article from the Chartered College is a helpful summary.
5. Education for sustainable development
This publication from UNESCO gives a helpful summary of the trends and challenges in delivering ESD. It is aimed at educators and policy makers, with useful content for both.
6. Visual Literacy
Our go to for everything art related is the UK charity Access Art. Always helpful and with guides and lots of ideas about how to support children in producing wonderful artwork.
Policy Statement:
At DSWF we believe that our whole organisation has a responsibility to promote the welfare of young people, to keep them safe, and to conduct all practices in a way that protects them from harm.
DSWF recognises that some young people are additionally vulnerable because of the impact of discrimination, previous experiences, their level of dependency, communication needs or other issues.
The Foundation is working to build a culture of safeguarding, where all employees, volunteers, trustees, and contractors understand what to look out for, understand that ‘it could happen here’ and know what to do if an issue arises. Concerns should be reported immediately and in accordance with this policy. This policy is designed to safeguard all children under the age of 18, even if they do not live with their parents or guardians.
The following policy describes how DSWF will ensure the safeguarding of children and young people during its work.
Please read our policy in full here
