Human behavior and sustainable development [INSTRUCTOR-LED]

The theme of human behavior holds many possibilities for teachers to develop interdisciplinary learning opportunities. Many themes in the curricula of subject areas deal with human behavior explicitly or implicitly. Many objectives of education in general, and of education for sustainable development in particular, aim to promote in students the ability to act responsibly, to take the perspectives of others, and to develop social-emotional competencies. At the same time, many social problems, from xenophobia to mental health, to problems of sustainable resource use, have in common that they are causes and consequences of human behavior. Furthermore, we humans, across cultures, generally have a great interest in human behavior - intuitively and almost every second we perceive human behavior in everyday life. 

In this module, we therefore explore how we can convey the diverse concepts, research methods, and insights of the interdisciplinary behavioral sciences (including behavioral ecology and biology, behavioral economics, evolutionary anthropology, psychology, sociology) within individual subject areas, as well as for interdisciplinary teaching. 

We apply concepts and methods of the module towards improving schools for the future in a project work component.

This module was developed by the organization Global ESD and is offered through the support of the department of Comparative Cultural Psychology of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology as part of our education development initiative.