'Taking children seriously'

A new report on the EU and early childhood education for sustainable development

2011-01-12

(Press-News.org) Small children are capable of engaging in issues concerning sustainable development.Their interests and rights must be better safeguarded in rules and policy decisions that concern the education of the youngest groups of children within the EU.

This is emphasised in the report "Taking children seriously – How the EU can invest in early childhood education for a sustainable future", which was presented at a seminar in Brussels on Friday 17 December.

The body behind the report is the European Panel on Sustainable Development (EPSD), an independent research-based network between the University of Gothenburg, Chalmers and Lund University.

The report's authors include several researchers from Chalmers and the University of Gothenburg, as well as from other Universities in Sweden and Europe.

One of the report's authors is Professor Ingrid Pramling Samuelsson of the University of Gothenburg and, among other things, world president of the OMEP organisation. She is, in addition, speaking at the seminar in Brussels under the heading "Early childhood education and sustainable development".

Capable children

Small children are more capable of acting, thinking, reasoning and understanding than is generally believed. This is the contention of the report, which provides an overview of current scientific findings concerning children's interest in and capacity to understand issues surrounding the social, economic and ecological dimensions of sustainable development.

"We want to emphasise the issue of early childhood education for sustainable development and the importance of the EU attending to children's interests and rights within this area to a greater degree than is currently the case. It is also hoped that the research in the area is strengthened, as small children are an important element in sustainable development," says Bo Samuelsson, chairman of EPSD.

Recommendations to the EU

EPSD makes a number of recommendations to the EU in the report. These include recommending that education within both sustainable development and early childhood education should be an integrated and essential part of programmes for both education and in-service training of preschool teachers.

Another recommendation is that the EU should increase or modify existing framework programmes in order to stimulate innovation through integrating education for sustainable development and preschooling.

INFORMATION:

Facts about EPSD:

The European Panel on Sustainable Development (EPSD) is an independent research-based network between the University of Gothenburg, Chalmers and the University of Lund, with the goal of influencing EU policy in relation to a sustainable society based on scientific grounds.The Centre for Environment and Sustainability (GMV) has a coordinating function in the different EPSD projects, in which individual researchers from other European universities also participate.

Read more about EPSD>> http://www.chalmers.se/gmv/EN/projects/epsd

[Attachments] See images for this press release:

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Wildlife biologists use dogs' scat-sniffing talents for good

2011-01-12

Berkeley — It will come as no surprise to dog owners that their four-legged friends have a flair for sniffing out the excrement of other animals. Now, biologists at the University of California, Berkeley, have trained dogs to detect the scat of other critters for the greater good – to conduct more accurate surveys of wildlife. "Wildlife detection dogs have been mostly used in airports to detect contraband, including endangered species and wildlife products, but in recent years, interest has grown in using the dogs to help scientists track biological targets in natural ...

Nanodisk gene therapy

2011-01-12

One of the challenges of gene therapy - a set of methodologies aimed at treating several nucleic acid diseases (DNA or RNA) - is to assure that this material arrives directly to the nucleus of the cell without losing a substantial amount along the way and without producing any undesired side effects. With this aim, scientists experiment with the use of different types of vectors, molecules capable of transporting genetic material to the correct place. Presently, natural "deactivated" viruses are the most commonly used vectors in clinical trials, their side effects however ...

New markers for allergic disorders thanks to analysis of medical databases

2011-01-12

Researchers at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, have developed new methods for analysing medical databases that can be used to identify diagnostic markers more quickly and to personalise medication for allergic disorders. They could also reduce the need for animal trials in clinical studies. Published in the journal PLoS Computational Biology, the study builds on data analyses of freely available medical databases representing studies of countless numbers of patients in the PubMed database, and microarray data in another major database. The use of microarrays is ...

Winter sports threaten indigenous mountain birds

2011-01-12

In the winter months, the mountain ranges of central Europe attract thousands of tourists for skiing, snowboarding and other outdoor sports, but conservationists fear this annual invasion may threaten indigenous bird species, including the Capercaillie. The research, published in the journal IBIS, reveals how the growth of human recreation may be a key factor in the rapidly declining population of these iconic alpine birds. The Capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus), also known as the Wood Grouse, is the largest member of the grouse family and is renowned for its mating display. ...

Consumption Report 2010: Swedes' alcohol consumption is falling

2011-01-12

Swedes drink less and less alcohol while at the same time the Swedish Alcohol Retail Monopoly's sales are rising and statistics from Statistics Sweden show that alcohol consumption is on the increase. This has been the trend for a long period of time. Statistics from the Centre for Social Research on Alcohol and Drugs, SoRAD, show that alcohol consumption fell continuously in the period from 2004 to 2009, whereas the Swedish Alcohol Retail Monopoly's sales rose by 22% over the same period. The Swedish Alcohol Retail Monopoly's sales rose by 10% from 2008 to 2009, whereas ...

Scientists explain link between chlamydia and ectopic pregnancy

2011-01-12

Women who have had chlamydia are at greater risk of an ectopic pregnancy because of a lasting effect of the infection. A new study provides evidence for the first time of how chlamydia can increase the risk of an ectopic pregnancy – which occurs when an embryo implants outside the womb, in the Fallopian tube. Researchers at the University of Edinburgh found that women who had had the sexually transmitted infection were more likely to produce a particular protein in their Fallopian tubes. Increased production of this protein – known as PROKR2 – makes a pregnancy more ...

New molecular imaging technologies for detecting cellular processes

2011-01-12

The work carried out by these scientists has ranged from the initial design of an electronic architecture for gamma ray detectors to industry transfer of a complete scanner, after having adequately validated a prototype through experimental studies at the Gregorio Marañón Hospital. The results of this research, headed by professors Juan José Vaquero and Manuel Desco, from the Department of de Bioengineering and Aerospace Engineering at UC3M, have been recently published in the journals IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science (two articles) and Physics in Medicine and Biology ...

NASA's Fermi catches thunderstorms hurling antimatter into space

2011-01-12

WASHINGTON -- Scientists using NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope have detected beams of antimatter produced above thunderstorms on Earth, a phenomenon never seen before. Scientists think the antimatter particles were formed in a terrestrial gamma-ray flash (TGF), a brief burst produced inside thunderstorms and shown to be associated with lightning. It is estimated that about 500 TGFs occur daily worldwide, but most go undetected. "These signals are the first direct evidence that thunderstorms make antimatter particle beams," said Michael Briggs, a member of Fermi's ...

Benefit of brachytherapy in patients with early-stage prostate cancer is still unclear

2011-01-12

It remains an unresolved issue as to whether interstitial brachytherapy has advantages compared to other therapy options in men with localized prostate cancer, nor do newer studies provide proof in this respect. This is the result of a report published by the Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) on 11 January 2011. In this report IQWiG examined whether newer studies challenged the findings of research already completed in 2007. However, it was shown that no relevant new evidence could be obtained from the recent studies. The conclusions of the final ...

Targeting nicotine receptors to treat cognitive impairments in schizophrenia

2011-01-12

Smoking is a common problem for patients with schizophrenia. The increased tendency of patients diagnosed with this disorder is to not only smoke, but to do so more heavily than the general public. This raises the possibility that nicotine may be acting as a treatment for some symptoms of schizophrenia. Nicotine acts through two general classes of brain receptors, those with high and low affinity for nicotine. The low affinity class of nicotinic receptors contains the alpha-7 subunit, which is present in reduced numbers in people with schizophrenia. Two papers published ...

Nearly seven in 10 Medicaid patients not receiving treatment within six months of an opioid use disorder diagnosis, study finds

When trade routes shift, so do clouds: Florida State University researchers uncover ripple effects of new global shipping regulations

[Press-News.org] 'Taking children seriously'
A new report on the EU and early childhood education for sustainable development

'Taking children seriously'

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES: