The goal was to redesign the course to create a problem-based learning approach that incorporated Sustainable Development Goals learner and increased engagement among Arabic students, non-majors throughout an intermediate Arabic course.
The course included meaningful experiential learning where students examined their own impact on the planet, made meaningful improvements to their lifestyles to lower their carbon footprint, and grow as thoughtful global citizens (behavioral learning). It also stimulated students to reflect on the differences between Western and Arab countries’ engagement with sustainability goals through current real-world scenarios.
The majority of students liked many aspects of incorporating the SDGs, especially when those were organized around fun activities such as AI-generated comic strips. They also liked 3 out of the 4 parts of the SDG-focused projects. For some reason one part turned out to be the least popular. Some students expressed the feeling that they started thinking about sustainability issues they've never thought before, but others mentioned that their interest in sustainability remained low despite the course's focus.
Particpating in the TTL Initiative gave me the opportunity to explore many new ways of teaching that I would have not thought of applying at this moment. For example, working with AI is becoming very important but if it wasn't for this course, I would not have had the time and help to delve into researching which AI tools work well for language learners.