The theme of human behavior holds many possibilities for teachers to develop interdisciplinary
learning opportunities. Many themes in the curricula of subject areas deal with human behavior
explicitly or implicitly. Many objectives of education in general, and of education for sustainable
development in particular, aim to promote in students the ability to act responsibly, to take the
perspectives of others, and to develop social-emotional competencies. At the same time, many
social problems, from xenophobia to mental health, to problems of sustainable resource use, have
in common that they are causes and consequences of human behavior. Furthermore, we humans
across cultures generally have a great interest in human behavior - intuitively and almost every
second we perceive human behavior in everyday life, and we are constantly thinking about its
causes and consequences.
In this module, we therefore explore how we can convey the diverse concepts, research methods,
and insights of the interdisciplinary behavioral sciences (including behavioral ecology and biology,
behavioral economics, evolutionary anthropology, psychology, sociology) within individual
subject areas, as well as for interdisciplinary teaching.
The module is divided into two phases. In the first phase, we introduce a diversity of cross-cutting
concepts and methods and we will explore various teaching materials on these topics. In the second
phase of the module participants choose a concrete topic and work individually or in small groups
to develop a lesson on which they get feedback from the other participants.
This module is offered in collaboration with the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary
Anthropology, the Leipzig Zoo School and the project EvoLeipzig.
The conversation language during seminars is English, however, most materials are available in
English and German.
- Trainer DS: Susan Hanisch