Introducing Education for Sustainable Development to In-Service Science Teachers in Myanmar

This study aimed to develop a teacher training program on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) based on lesson study. Participants were 20 middle school science teachers of the Sagaing University of Education in Myanmar. Through a 3-day workshop, we introduced the themes of ESD and how the concept can be integrated into science lessons to the in-service teachers. The teachers were interested in ESD and in gaining insight of ESD and were willing to participate in trial ESD-related science lessons. Subsequently, a lesson study was conducted with 4 teacher educators and 16 middle school science teachers from 4 basic education schools in the Sagaing Township. Results of the initiated lesson study indicate an improvement of the science teaching-learning process in terms of the teachers’ content knowledge, teaching methodology, and student achievement. As a result of participating in these lesson study cycles, the teachers became more aware of the ESD concepts in science lessons and began to reflect on the students’ participation around science activities. Although lesson study improves the teachers’ professional development through teacher collaboration and student achievement, the teachers are still unfamiliar with the ESD themes, and they need to understand the ESD concepts more precisely. Therefore, the integration of the ESD concepts into science lessons is a challenging task for the teachers and needs many requirements to be fulfilled.