Anyone planning a series of lessons at school – for example, on the topic of the heat transition and saving energy in everyday school life – needs teaching resources: pictures, books, videos and digital learning modules. These are not always freely available; (prospective) teachers, for example, need specific licences, which often come at a cost.

This is where so-called Open Educational Resources (OER) come in as an alternative. They are freely available at no cost and can be further developed and adapted by teachers. And freely accessible material also plays a significant role in teacher training. For example, it uses case studies and reflection videos to prepare teachers for complex teaching and school situations, or supports professional development through self-study courses.

Thinking ahead together on OER and ESD

In the OERLe collaborative project, the researchers focused on working with partners from the pre-service training sector, thereby integrating the two phases of teacher training: together, they further developed existing educational materials specifically for the field of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and created new ones.

After two years, the project leaders are now taking stock. At the two-day closing conference in Wuppertal, they will present and discuss their findings, as well as numerous contributions from other exciting projects and initiatives centred on the themes of Open Educational Resources, Open Educational Practices (OEP) and Education for Sustainable Development.

“The focus is on further networking among relevant stakeholders and on integrating OER and ESD as two fields that, in different ways, stand for openness, participation, cooperation, innovation and social responsibility,” emphasises the Wuppertal project team led by Prof. Dr Miriam Kuckuck, Dr Michael Morawski and Michael Lachetta from the Working Group on Didactics of General Studies.

Bringing academia and practice into dialogue

The conference is aimed equally at academics and practitioners from schools, higher education institutions, further education, public administration, educational organisations and other relevant contexts. “Conference participants can look forward to a varied programme that brings together a wide range of perspectives, deliberately looks beyond the horizon and offers plenty of scope for discussion,” say the organisers.

Registrations for the conference are open until 1 November. The venue is the guest house on the Freudenberg Campus, Rainer-Gruenter-Straße 3. Full details are available on the conference website.

The project “Participatory Design of OER and OEP in the Second Phase of Teacher Training – Using Education for Sustainable Development as an Example” (OERLe) is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education, Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth as part of the OER strategy.