GATE // Teachers Quiz
área II: Embracing complexity in sustainability
Feedback and Tips
Basic Level
Description
You are starting to recognise sustainability as a complex field that involves uncertainty, multiple perspectives, and interconnected systems. You may introduce these ideas occasionally in your teaching, but you might still feel limited in confidence when addressing complexity or guiding students through open-ended sustainability questions. At this stage, you may rely on existing materials or structured activities to explore sustainability topics. Your teaching may focus more on introducing concepts than on sustained systems analysis or critical inquiry. Developing shared reflection with colleagues and gradually integrating systems thinking and critical discussion into your teaching can support your progress in this Area.
Advanced Level
Description
You demonstrate clear and sustained confidence in addressing complexity and uncertainty in sustainability education. You actively support students in exploring different perspectives, understanding system interactions, and reflecting on the causes and consequences of sustainability challenges. You increasingly connect sustainability topics across subjects and collaborate with colleagues to enrich learning experiences. At this level, you are intentionally designing and refining pedagogical approaches that encourage critical thinking, dialogue, and adaptability, helping students feel more comfortable working with complex, real-world sustainability issues.
Expert Level
Description
You show strong confidence in teaching sustainability as a complex and interconnected field. You consistently support students in systems thinking, critical reflection, and dealing with uncertainty, while linking this Area with the other GreenComp Areas. You collaborate closely with colleagues and school leadership to integrate complexity into curricula, projects, and whole-school initiatives. Your practice contributes to a shared learning culture where sustainability challenges are explored collectively, and diverse perspectives are valued. You are well positioned to support others and contribute to strategic, long-term, whole-school development in sustainability education.
Tips to raise your level
level basic TIPS
To strengthen this Area, you might consider:
Introducing sustainability topics that highlight links between environmental, social, and economic factors.
For example, at Ruusuvuori School (Finland), teachers use food-related activities to explore connections between climate impact, health, and daily choices through simple classroom discussions and canteen-based activities.
Try this:
- Ask students to trace the life cycle of a common product, such as a T-shirt, discussing its environmental footprint, labour conditions, and market price.
- Establish no plastic snack day, discuss with class the impact in solid waste accumulation.
Using guided discussions to help students explore different perspectives and uncertainty.
At Sainte-Bernadette Establishment (Belgium), teachers support students in discussing waste reduction and energy use by comparing different viewpoints and reflecting on trade-offs.
Try this: Facilitate a classroom debate where groups represent different stakeholders (e.g., consumers, farmers, policy-makers) in discussing single-use plastics regulation.
Collaborating with colleagues to exchange ideas and resources related to systems thinking.
In schools supported by the MOS Network (Belgium), teachers regularly use shared tools such as eco-audits and sustainability maps to reflect together on how different school practices are interconnected.
Try this: Co-design a school “systemic map” with colleagues showing how energy, food, and waste streams interact within the school campus.
Encouraging students to reflect on real-life examples from the school or local community.
For instance, teachers at the Junior High School of Gera (Greece) guide students in reflecting on water use in the school before connecting it to wider environmental systems.
Try this: Have students interview canteen staff about food waste and propose practical changes based on their findings.
Gradually connecting sustainability topics across subjects and school activities.
At the British School of Brussels, even early-stage sustainability work is supported by collaboration between subject teachers, helping students see links across disciplines.
Try this: Organize a mini sustainability week where each subject integrates a related theme — for example, calculating carbon footprints in math and exploring sustainability ethics in language lessons.
Advanced basic TIPS
To strengthen this Area, you might consider:
Design learning activities that encourage critical thinking, dialogue, and reflection on uncertainty.
For example, at LAB2GO – Istituto Agrario Giuseppe Garibaldi (Italy), teachers guide students through inquiry-based projects where data collection and reflection help them deal with uncertainty in real environmental research.
Try this: Guide students in designing small experiments with ready made kits on air quality or water testing, then discuss how data reliability and measurement uncertainty affect interpretation.
Work with colleagues across subjects to develop interdisciplinary sustainability projects.
At Wrocław International School (Poland), teachers collaborate across science, geography, and social studies to address sustainability challenges from multiple perspectives.
Try this: Co-create a “Sustainable City – Dreamy Town” project where through science, geography, and design, the students collaborate to produce a model integrating renewable energy and social inclusion. Include micromobility and car sharing – carpooling schemes
Support students in analysing causes, consequences, and trade-offs in sustainability challenges.
At Ruusuvuori School (Finland), teachers help students analyse how food choices affect climate, health, and wellbeing, encouraging discussion about compromises and alternatives.
Try this: Lead a workshop where students compare the impacts of different diets (local vs. imported foods) and create posters showing the trade-offs involved. Add the perspective of the importance of use of local and seasonal produce.
Use school or community projects to make complexity visible and meaningful.
Teachers at Escola Secundária de Estarreja (Portugal) connect classroom learning with community-based projects, helping students understand how school actions link to broader systems.
Try this: Partner with a local NGO to monitor biodiversity near the school and reflect on how human activity shapes local ecosystems.
Strengthen links between this Area and the other GreenComp Areas in your teaching practice.
In MOS Network schools (Belgium), teachers explicitly connect systems thinking with values, collective action, and responsibility through whole-school reflection activities.
Try this: Integrate a reflection journal where students document how their small scale personal or local environmental actions connect with values such as empathy and collective responsibility.
Expert basic TIPS
To strengthen this Area, you might consider:
Lead or support whole-school initiatives that promote systems thinking and collaborative problem-solving.
For example, at the British School of Brussels, teachers play a central role in coordinating interdisciplinary climate-change units that involve multiple subjects and school actors.
Try this: Coordinate a cross-departmental sustainability challenge where each class contributes solutions toward an annual climate or waste-reduction goal.
Mentor colleagues by sharing approaches and tools for working with complexity and uncertainty.
In Finland, experienced teachers involved in projects such as VILKE or Keke-raati support peers by sharing methods for systems thinking and student-led inquiry.
Try this: Host a professional learning session where you demonstrate techniques for mapping complex sustainability systems with real classroom examples, on a local or personal perspective.
Encourage reflective practices that help students and staff engage constructively with uncertainty.
At Sainte-Bernadette Establishment (Belgium), teachers use regular audits and reflection moments to review sustainability actions and adapt them over time.
Try this: Set up a “sustainability reflection wall” where students and teachers post observations, challenges, and evolving ideas throughout a project.
Work with school leadership to embed interdisciplinarity and systems thinking into curricula and planning.
At IES EL PALMERAL (Spain), teachers collaborate closely with management to align vocational training, innovation projects, and sustainability goals.
Try this: Develop a joint planning session with department heads to align sustainability learning outcomes across subjects for the next academic year.
Foster partnerships that allow students to explore real-world sustainability challenges beyond the classroom.
For instance, LAB2GO (Italy) demonstrates how collaboration with universities and external experts enables students to engage with complex, real-life environmental systems.
Try this: Arrange mentorships with local environmental organizations where students contribute to ongoing citizen-science or restoration projects.