One can summarise LOLA key principles around:

• PUPIL’S PARTICIPATION in a mutual learning process…

• ACTIVE LEARNING: LOLA process intends to be an inquiry-based learning process. It is not pure discovery learning…

• SCHOOL-COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT: pupils will learn about sustainabilityand share diffused knowledge on sustainability in the school-community and beyond…

• FLEXIBLE TEACHING METHODS to suit different contexts in terms of age, location and time available…

• DIVERSITY OF SUSTAINABLE WAYS OF LIVING: Lola is progressively building an international repository of sustainable ways of living…

PUPIL’S PARTICIPATION
LOLA proposes a learning journey both for pupils and their teachers. The knowledge embedded in the creative way some specific groups of people decide to change the organisation of their everyday life has not been formalised yet: what sustainable ways of living may be are still object of research and discussion in the scientific community. LOLA is therefore proposing to take part to a mutual learning process in this key investigation to invent a new and more sustainable future…
ACTIVE LEARNING
LOLA process intends to be an inquiry-based learning process. It is not pure discovery learning since the object of investigation, purpose and expected results are clearly framed. But LOLA put the responsibility of learning on the learners: the exploration of direct surroundings of pupils, the facing of contradictory explanations in the interviews should trigger their curiosity and willingness to access more conceptual knowledge and better understand the issues of sustainability…
SCHOOL-COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT
LOLA promotes the idea that the school may gain efficiency in opening more to the outside world. Starting from concrete observations is likely to increase pupils’ motivation to learn about sustainability on one hand and, on the other hand, the same pupils will discover diffused knowledge on sustainability in the very community where they are living, renovation of traditional practices and new forms of sustainable living, reduction of impact achieved, experimentations in progress, projects…
PARENT’S ROLE
The greening of the society is a collective learning process and LOLA reflects this situation: everyone should be involved in looking for likely alternatives! Parents and relatives of the pupils have a particularly important role to play. First they are invited to take part at various stages of the process: going with when the pupils visit the initiatives, participating to the discussion of the results etc. Second their ways of living will be challenged by the initiatives observed by their children: they will have to question their own habits, discuss alternatives and start adopting new ones…
FLEXIBLE TEACHING METHODS
LOLA starts from a rich learning experience: meeting people that find ways to improve their quality of life while making it more sustainable and develop a toolkit of support to facilitate this experience within a class activity context. But rather than indicating a unique and fixed way of achieving it, LOLA proposes a multiplicity of routes. It promotes a creative approach where teaching methods may evolve, new material may be added and different paths will be explored…
DIVERSITY OF SUSTAINABLE WAYS OF LIVING
Sustainability is deeply rooted in a local context: what is a promising solution in one place may not be adapted to another situation. Beyond variety of solutions each class may encounter in its investigations, LOLA proposes to share results through its web platform, to compare sustainable solutions observed between classes in different locations and to progressively build an international repository of sustainable ways of living…