Assessing (Social-Ecological) Systems Thinking by Evaluating Cognitive Maps

Gray, Steven; Sterling, Eleanor J.; Aminpour, Payam; Goralnik, Lissy; Singer, Alison; Wei, Cynthia A.; Akabas, S. R.; Jordan, Rebecca; Giabbanelli, Philippe J.; Hodbod, Jennifer; Betley, Erin; Norris, Patricia E.

doi:10.3390/su11205753

Cited by 31 publications

(43 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…The general level of the undergraduate students' environmental awareness is 57.6%, and for the graduate students, it is 63.6%, which is an indicator of a sufficient level of development. This development level of the civil engineering students' environmental awareness in DonNACEA (Ukraine) is similar to the results emanating from studies conducted by Edström et al (2020), Miñano Rubio et al (2019, Chau (2007), Mudrak (2017), Poleshchuk et al (2015), Pubule et al (2019), Lambrechts et al (2019), Maslennikova and Gibadulina (2019), Gray et al (2019).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 85%

Environmental Awareness of Civil Engineers in the Context of Sustainable Development of Society

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Кравець

Lysak

et al. 2021

PEC

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In the context of the man-made burden on the natural environment, the issues of developing civil engineering students’ environmental awareness are important and particularly relevant to low environmental security countries, which include Ukraine. The authors emphasize the need for broad implementation of the Concept of Sustainable Development in professional training of civil engineering students, determine the level of their environmental awareness, compare the levels of formation of environmental awareness components, and pursue to identify effective ways to environmentalize engineering training. The study involved the students of Donbas National Academy of Civil Engineering and Architecture. The authors selected the semi-structured questionnaire method combining rating, Likert and importance scales, alternative and unstructured questions, as well as elements of the Azapagic and the Naturafil techniques. The results did not prove the formation level of the civil engineering students’ environmental awareness to be unsatisfactory. It was also found that the civil engineering students have steady environmental beliefs and are willing to comply with environmental norms in their activities. This fact brought the authors to the conclusion that the current practice of higher technical education in Ukraine takes account of sustainable development. The level of the civil engineering students’ environmental knowledge was also determined as sufficient, while their environmental activity and environmental management skills were seen as low. According to the authors, the use of integrated and practice-oriented approaches to teaching professional subjects and the introduction of environmental topics into general education subjects will contribute to strengthened environmentalization of professional training of civil engineers. Keywords: civil engineer, environmental awareness, higher school, sustainable development, technical education

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 85%

Environmental Awareness of Civil Engineers in the Context of Sustainable Development of Society

Хижняк

Кравець

Lysak

et al. 2021

PEC

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“…Often, this means that a single-view solution to address a challenge is no longer adequate; rather it requires a system-of-systems approach, and this usually applies to inherently-complex urban projects for which planning should consider solutions using mapping analysis (Bedinger, Beevers, Walker, Visser-Quinn, & McClymont, 2020). This approach can support future design and foresee sustainable solutions, a practise which will educate future generations and advance sustainability science (Gray et al, 2019;Onat, Kucukvar, Halog, & Cloutier, 2017). It is necessary to support the right conditions for mutual understanding between all those involved in commercial and sustainability projects (Ahlström, Williams, & Vildåsen, 2020).…”

Section: Ssm At the City And Sub-city Scalementioning

confidence: 99%

A Soft Systems Methodology for Business Creation: The Lost World at Tyseley, Birmingham

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Rogers

et al. 2021

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Much has been written about the benefits of green infrastructure, but securing the resources necessary for its development and long-term maintenance is often difficult. This article’s premise is that, in general, people and organisations will take action to provide those resources when they can see value accruing to them; therefore narratives of value generation and capture (our definition of business models) are required to motivate and support that action. This article explores the application of soft systems methodology to the wicked problem of business model development in the context of a social enterprise, using a case study based on a piece of green infrastructure in the city of Birmingham, UK, called The Lost World. The research involved a workshop with several of The Lost World’s key stakeholders and aimed at identifying: The Lost World’s scope as a business; its potential value streams; and how they might be realised in a social enterprise. Analysis of the findings shows that while stakeholders can identify opportunities for their organisations, bringing those opportunities to fruition is difficult. The research demonstrates a compelling need for social entrepreneurs to act as catalysts and long-term enablers of the formulation and maintenance of businesses and business models—vital missing actors in the ambition to transform cityscapes.

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“…Mind maps allow evaluating progressions in metacognition or the structuring of meanings in relation to certain concepts, while also enabling to establish the degree of association of this knowledge with other concepts internalized previously. Several authors who worked around cognitive maps (Legrand, 2000;Pudelko and Basque, 2005;Berthou and Marchand, 2010;Gray et al, 2019) converge in stating that mind maps can vary in their general structure, the way they represent knowledge and how they represent relationships. Ontoria et al (2003) discovered how university students improved several aspects through the use of mental maps, such as their disposition towards learning, the development of autonomy of thought, and self-perception.…”

Section: Knowledge Assessment Through the Use Of Mind Mapsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Ontoria et al (2003) discovered how university students improved several aspects through the use of mental maps, such as their disposition towards learning, the development of autonomy of thought, and self-perception. Mind maps can be considered as external representations of individual "mental models" held over a complex real-world system (Gray et al, 2019).…”

Section: Knowledge Assessment Through the Use Of Mind Mapsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mapping the Concept of Sustainable Consumption: An Analysis From the Adoption and Promotion of Pro-Environmental and Social Behaviors in University Students

2021

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The concept of sustainable consumption has been described in the literature from different perspectives, but few have focused on defining the consumer perspective and strategies to appropriate this knowledge and behaviors in the classroom, which becomes a major challenge in times of Covid 19 and confinement. This article proposes an approach to the concept by university students from the implementation of a pedagogical strategy, which involved the implementation of a virtual learning community and the evaluation of the understanding of this concept through the use of mind maps (pre and post). Through the mind maps, data were collected to evaluate the understanding of the concept, the analysis of semantic richness and systemic complexity. The results show the associations established by the students, proposing a categorization system arising from the data and the previous literature review. The study concludes that the students broadened their vision of sustainable consumption in terms of the actors involved, consumption decisions and the social and environmental dimensions of sustainability.

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Assessing (Social-Ecological) Systems Thinking by Evaluating Cognitive Maps

Cited by 31 publications

References 26 publications

Environmental Awareness of Civil Engineers in the Context of Sustainable Development of Society

Environmental Awareness of Civil Engineers in the Context of Sustainable Development of Society

A Soft Systems Methodology for Business Creation: The Lost World at Tyseley, Birmingham

Mapping the Concept of Sustainable Consumption: An Analysis From the Adoption and Promotion of Pro-Environmental and Social Behaviors in University Students

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