Content
This Summer School unfolds the United Nations’ sustainable development goals through student participation in a cross-cultural and cross-educational context. The goals derive from the United Nations’ international agreements on processing towards explicit sustainability in 2030.
They are unique in that they call for action from all countries; poor, rich and middle-income alike to promote prosperity, all the while protecting the planet. The course will focus on global topics related to the sustainable development goals.
As an important part of the summer school, you will get real-life challenges from co-creative partners outside VIA University College. The co-creative partners can be NGOs, private companies, socio-economic companies/organisations or public authorities. Students are free to choose among several challenges all related to the UN’s 17 SDGs. You will work in close cooperation with the partners to find relevant and useful solutions to the challenges. The solutions will contribute to the partners’ daily activities. The course focuses mainly on goals related to issues such as social equality and social inclusion, nutrition, health and culture combined with environmental issues.
Method
A great part of the teaching is based on the pedagogical concept: Problem-oriented project work. The teaching will deal with real-life challenges and solutions related to UN’s 17 SDG and a large part of the teaching and the learning processes will take place outside the classroom. You will use fieldwork as an important method of bringing data into the classroom. During the course, you will visit companies who work with the UN’s 17 SDG’s in their daily operations.
The methods of working are based on presentations, discussions and dialogue. It is therefore necessary that students taking part in this course are ready to use their competences in spoken English from day one.
Full attendance and active involvement in the teaching, field visits, presentations and moreover are expected as a prerequisite for taking the examination and passing the course.
Learning outcomes
Knowledge
- The UN’s 17 SDGs in local, national and global contexts
- Topics and challenges related to the UN’s 17 SDGs
- How professional explorative processes can be initiated with others in relation to the global topics
- How the student’s own professional practice, as well as the profession’s duties and areas of responsibility, can create added value in a cross cultural and interdisciplinary contexts
Skills
- Create and make use of network
- Reflect and work explorative to solve challenges related to UN’s 17 SDGs
- Use innovative methods and principles in problem-solving
- Use fieldwork and research methods
Competencies
- Develop innovative ideas for small improvements and solutions for the real-life challenges
- Combine theoretical and practice-based knowledge with innovative study and work forms
- Facilitate and communicate a cross cultural project for internal and external partners
- Provide co-creational yields through community involvement in different contexts
Exam
A group-based written assignment followed by an oral examination in groups. During the oral examination, students will partly be examined individually, and all students will be graded individually.
The summer school is based on the learning objectives in the curriculum of VIA Physiotherapy, p. 33-34 (Danish)