Citizens’ education on the topics of spatial development and spatial resources is vital to implement sustainability issues. Such a consideration guided the project R.A.V.E. Space: Raising Awareness of Values of Space trough the process of Education, developed from 2005 to 2007 within Interreg IIIB CADSES Programme. The aim was to work out innovative methodologies to integrate principles and practices of sustainability into European primary and secondary schools curricula.
The project focused on the need to develop students’ attitude to recognize values of space (spatial elements and environmental features, their complex relations with social habits, local cultures and economies, people’s memories, perceptions and demands), to make them understand how individual acts and behaviours can positively change everyday living spaces, to give pupils the knowledge and means to actively participate when involved in shared planning processes. R.A.V.E. Space main results are: a Spatial Education Strategy; a Tool Kit for teaching the values of space, based on the results of international training seminars for teachers organized during the research. The contents of the Tool Kit are organized into the steps of a Workshop, an innovative teaching tool itself that can be adjusted to different contexts, national curricula, school grades and subjects. Some “educational routes” offer interchangeable approaches, whereas the starting point is the direct experience and knowledge of a space nearby the school that pupils will further develop during outdoor and classroom activities. The learning process is described through a Manual for Teachers (key concepts and explanation of the whole methodology), Resource Sheets for Students and Resource Sheets for Teachers (guide lines and materials for a step by step development of teaching units and tasks).
