Second Meeting of the Consortium for Curriculum Development on Climate Change Education for the Elderly

To accelerate the systematic construction of a standardized curriculum system for climate change education for the elderly, Professor Li Jiacheng, Executive Vice President of the Shanghai Municipal Institute for Lifelong Education (SMILE), hosted the “Second Meeting of the Consortium for Curriculum Development on Climate Change Education for the Elderly 2025” online on the evening of May 28, 2025. The meeting was jointly organized by the Shanghai Elderly Education Curriculum Research and Evaluation Guidance Center and the Shanghai Municipal Institute for Lifelong Education (SMILE). On the basis of previous practical achievements and the integration of cross-institutional resources, the meeting aimed at developing a standardized curriculum system and textbooks for elderly climate change education that are structurally rigorous, scientifically sound, together with Chinese characteristics and international perspective. The goal is to empower the elderly to become active participants and wisdom disseminators against climate change through professional and systematic educational interventions, thereby contributing their unique “silver-haired” wisdom and educational strength.

Participants in the conference included members of the consortium: Li Qiuju, Principal of Nanhui New Town Elderly School, Pudong New Area, Shanghai; Wang Xu, Director of the Teaching Department of Shanghai Jing'an District College, Shanghai; Dai Juanjuan, Principal of Wujing Town Community (Elderly) School, Minhang District, Shanghai; Dong Wenqian, Principal of Chonggu Town Community (Elderly) School and Huaxin Town Community (Elderly) School, Qingpu District, Shanghai; Yang Ying, teacher at Yangpu Open University; Wang Ying, teacher at the China-UK Low-Carbon College of Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU); Huang Yuwen and Cao Jingyu, teachers at the Wujing Town Community (Elderly) School in Minhang District; and invited experts Cai Jin, Deputy Director of the Shanghai Elderly Education Textbook Research and Development Center; Jin Xinyu, Director of the Shanghai Senior Education Teaching Research and Guidance Center; Liu Min, Professor at the School of Ecological and Environmental Sciences of East China Normal University (ECNU); and Xu Yun, Secretary of the Party Committee of the Art Education Department, Faculty of Education, East China Normal University (ECNU).

The consortium was established in 2024 upon the release of the Guidelines for Climate Change Education (Elderly Education Edition) (hereinafter referred to as the “Guidelines”). Over the past year, through the collaborative efforts of consortium members, significant progress has been made: member units have accumulated rich localized practical experience, preliminarily formed a school-based curriculum framework, and effectively demonstrated the unique value of elderly education in enhancing societal climate resilience and promoting intergenerational knowledge transfer.

Discussion Session

During the discussion session, participants shared diverse practical explorations and in-depth reflections.

Principal Li Qiuju introduced experiences in advancing project-based teaching by leveraging regional resources. She suggested that the consortium should focus on dimensions such as the needs of the elderly, regional characteristics, Guidelines-based standards, and international exchanges and integrate resources from various institutions to form a unified framework.

Director Wang Xu systematically outlined a teaching objective framework encompassing four dimensions: cognitive enhancement, emotional cultivation, practical participation, and social connection. He emphasized that curriculum design should adhere to the principles of “life-based entry points”, “intergenerational interaction promotion”, “positive behavioral incentives”, and “age-appropriate instructional design.”

Principal Dai Juanjuan shared experiences in conducting various types of family-based learning activities, and pointed out that efforts should be made to promote the transformation of diverse activities into systematic curricula, forming an educational focus that evolves “from isolated points to an interconnected network”.

Principal Dong Wenqian introduced diverse organizational models for climate change education, shared experiences from the school’s current explorations and practices in “Climate Change Education+,” and called for strengthened support for curriculum development in resource-limited areas.

Teacher Yang Ying, from an interdisciplinary perspective of architecture and art, proposed an innovative approach, suggesting the use of historical buildings as contextual carriers for climate change education. She emphasized that developing courses on elderly health adaptation in extreme weather conditions is the key to responding to their core concerns.

Teacher Wang Ying shared differentiated educational strategies for different groups, noting that elderly courses should focus on emotional goals and practical skill development. She also candidly pointed out that effectiveness evaluation is a common challenge in current practices.

Professor Liu Min called for an in-depth exploration and integration of traditional Chinese ecological wisdom, fully leveraging the experiential advantages of the elderly, and suggested that course resource development should strike a balance between theoretical textbooks and practical manuals.

Secretary Xu Yun elaborated on the importance of art as an educational medium, with her team actively exploring innovative pathways for integrating art and climate change education.

President Cai Jin fully endorsed the consortium’s work based on successful case studies and stated that the Textbook Development Center will provide robust support for the publication of climate change education textbooks for the elderly.

Director Jin Xinyu expressed his commitment to actively promoting the implementation of relevant courses and invited the consortium to conduct research on climate change education with Baoshan Elderly University as the base.

Conference Summary

At the end of the seminar, Professor Li Jiacheng summarized the consensus reached at the seminar and proposed recommendations for core tasks in the next phase: the top priority is to revise and upgrade the Guidelines to optimize educational objectives and expand the content module system based on the 2024 edition, while emphasizing the core principle of “putting elderly learners at the center”; simultaneously, comprehensively organize and integrate existing high-quality materials to form a systematic course module, optimize diverse course implementation pathways, jointly develop a shared digital teaching resource repository, and concurrently advance the compilation of age-friendly reading materials.

Finally, Professor Li Jiacheng reiterated the profound significance of the project: “By building a professional and systematic curriculum system, we are committed to enable the elderly to truly become active participants and wise communicators in addressing climate change!” The Consortium for Curriculum Development on Climate Change Education for the Elderly will leverage the strong support of university think tanks and educational research institutions to to achieve continuous promotion of standardized course models that are replicable and propagable, contributing educational wisdom and systematic solutions with Chinese characteristics to address climate change challenges in the global aging society.

Written by: Yang Yining  

Reviewed by: Zou Wen, Li Jiacheng