Representatives of the Findorn eco village trained Estonian teachers in TU

The representatives of the Findorn ecovillage in Scotland, who visited Tallinn University in the beginning of December, held a supplementary seminar about the environment and sustainable development for teams from middle- and high schools and vocational schools. The Scottish group also taught the Estonians to use an ecological set called the EcoKit, that they have designed, when teaching about the environment and sustainable development.

„The Findorn community has decided to find ways of teaching children through collaboration with experts and schools, because it is the children, who will be cleaning up our mess in the future,“ commented project manager Sue Clutterbuck. „It is a way of survival for mankind - through sharing knowledge and cooperation.“

Sue Clutterbuck organised a Scottish dance lesson in the Mare building on Monday morning, which received a very warm welcome from Estonian.

Storyteller Margot Henderson, Karen Hughes, Chrisanthe Georgiou and Jacky Barrere also took part of the project from the Scottish side.

Clutterbuck mentioned two aspects from classes - active learning and gaining knowledge through shared experience. For example, she asked the representatives of Estonian schools to build a "dynamic model". The students had the task of creating a landscape that imitates the ecosystem in 20 minutes. For building the model, they were given a plastic sheet, old newspapers and tissues, and were asked to analyse the landscape later (what happens when it rains, for example).

„That is what we call active learning – or learning through experience,“ Clutterbuck said. „It is also shared learning, or sharing and exchanging thoughts with other participants, which is a crucial part in learning/teaching.“