23/06/2026

What 356 Teachers Taught Us About Training for Sustainability Education

Learn the four lessons for scaling teacher training in sustainability education!

Earth science
Ecology
Education
Environmental sciences
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In early 2026, the BUSTIC EDU project delivered teacher training workshops across five countries (Serbia, Spain, Türkiye, Malta, and Italy), preparing 356 educators to pilot the BUSTIC EDU Sustainability Education Programme in six pilots spanning school levels from early childhood to upper secondary.

The training formats varied to suit each national context while sharing a common structure, pairing in-person sessions with larger-scale online or hybrid components. Across all pilots, participants were introduced to the GreenComp framework alongside the programme's activities, methodologies, and assessment tools.

The experience pointed to four lessons for scaling teacher training in sustainability education:

  1. Link the programme to national and local frameworks

In Italy, teachers connected programme activities to existing curricular frameworks, such as the national civic education guidelines. This helped them see BUSTIC EDU as a tool within their planning rather than an add-on.

  1. Meet teachers where they are

Training design must account for varying levels of prior experience in environmental sustainability. Italy's decentralised delivery let trainers adjust depth and pace to school-level experience, while Malta selected participants already active in sustainability work, allowing trainers to deliver more advanced content from the outset.

  1. Adapt the materials to local needs

Programme content, activities, and assessment tools were localised in every country, from translation to alignment with national assessment methods.

  1. Let teachers do, not just listen

Across all six pilots, sessions paired presentations with group work and digital tools such as Mentimeter, Padlet, and Moodle spaces. In every country, this hands-on group work also helped teachers identify which activities best fit their own classes' planning and let them learn from one another along the way.

The result: near-perfect evaluation scores, strong engagement, and pilots now underway in more than 80 schools.

Learn more in the Programme, and don’t forget to check the Teachers' guidelines, the Heads of School Guidelines, and the Protocol of Implementation!