SCIENCES, SCIENCE EDUCATION AND TEACHER EDUCATION FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

In the context of the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development along with others emerging from this initiative, or related to it, in particular concerning good practices, a brief revision of important documents concerning priorities for sciences and scientific education is undertaken. Acknowledging the importance of teachers, including those of sciences, in particular those of Physics and Chemistry, to reorient the curricula they are responsible to teach towards education for sustainable development, teacher education and professional development programmes are referred to. In a perspective of education for sustainability and referring to pertinent information sources, prominent aspects are briefly presented. One of the programmes took place in a university chemistry department, aimed at Physics and Chemistry teachers of Basic and Secondary Education and was named "STS Themes in Chemistry teaching - Approaches involving laboratorial work". The other one, named "Education for Sustainable Development - Climatic Changes and Climantica Edublogs", aimed at Sciences teachers of Basic and Secondary Education is still going on in a school association centre (Basic and Secondary Education), is institutionally supported by UNESCO ( Portugal) and, as trainers, it involves university professors of different scientific areas, as well as Basic and Secondary teachers with previous experience in Climantica Edublogs.