Higher education for sustainability by means of transdisciplinary case studies: an innovative approach for solving complex, real-world problems

Steiner, Gerald; Posch, Alfred

doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2005.11.054

Cited by 266 publications

(199 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…Many efforts have been made in this process: increasing the number of engaged HEIs in incorporating and institutionalising sustainable development (SD); adopting new communication patterns in science and education (Adomssent, 2013;Barth et al, 2014); opening up a reframing process of curriculum (Lozano, 2006), learning goals, interactive strategies (Segalàs et al, 2010;Dloula & Burandt, 2014), competences for sustainability (Cortés et al, 2010;Lambrechts et al, 2012;Wiek et al, 2011); and creating new societal dialogue opportunities (Kates et al, 2001;Steiner and Posch, 2006;Lehmann et al, 2009;Correia et al, 2010;Ferrer-Balas et al, 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transdisciplinarity in higher education for sustainability: How discourses are approached in engineering education

Papell¹,

Coral²,

Rosas-Casals³

2018

Journal of Cleaner Production

168

103

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Sustainability issues, as unwanted results of not fully respecting natural cycles, are widely recognized as wicked problems, which should not be thought of as problems to be solved, but rather as "conditions" to be managed, as if they were a chronic disease (Seager et al., 2011). There exists a general agreement on the need to reform scientific expertise by developing new ways of knowledge production and decision-making able to cope with the challenges sustainability poses. In this sense, transdisciplinary aspects of sustainability are acknowledged as a transformational stream of sustainability science.Transdisciplinarity is considered a competence for sustainability in technological curriculums. Nevertheless, engineering education professionals tread on unfamiliar ground when entering transdisciplinarity approach, as it includes social sciences and humanities perspectives. Advancing sustainable engineering science requires creating new long-term, participatory, solution-oriented programs as platforms to recognize and engage with the macro-ethical, adaptive and cross-disciplinary challenges embedded in professional issues.Meanwhile, individual university professors and researchers take a step forward to try out innovative experiences in their classrooms to deal with complexity and reach holism in fostering knowledge in different ways. This paper analyses first what is being done and how is it being focused, and second, What are the strategies for and purposes of implementing transdisciplinary experiences in engineering higher education.Assuming that distinct patterns of definition of transdisciplinary exists, the authors collated transdisciplinary initiatives in engineering education for sustainability from Thompson Klein (2014) discourses on transdisciplinarity: transcendence, problem solving and transgression. They also explored how practical constraints imposed by a classroom context, highlighted the limits of transdisciplinarity, and offered suggestions on improvements, which could be implemented. Balsiger (2014) proposes four varieties of transdisciplinarity (soft, hard, inclusive and reflexive) to identify ways for moving from one type to another as circumstances change, in terms of stakeholder's collaboration and knowledge integration possibilities.The methodology consisted in literature review of articles published in relevant journals in the field of sustainability, which focussed on transdisciplinarity approaches in engineering education. We have analysed how the different initiatives fit in Klein's discourses on ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT transdisciplinarity. Moreover, an affinity analysis has been performed to cluster transdisciplinarity initiatives in engineering education for sustainability in homogeneous groups. Finally, in the varieties of transdisciplinarity framework, the experiences identified when reviewing the literature have been spread over the range among Balsiger's taxonomy.The investigation indicates that most transdisciplinary initiatives in technological education for sustainability ...

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transdisciplinarity in higher education for sustainability: How discourses are approached in engineering education

Papell¹,

Coral²,

Rosas-Casals³

2018

Journal of Cleaner Production

168

103

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Thus, explaining to students how sustainability works is also a complex task [52]. Note: ag, coefficient of general discrimination; a1, coefficient of environmental discrimination; a2, coefficient of social discrimination; a3, coefficient of economic discrimination; b1, coefficient of environmental difficulty; b2, coefficient of social difficulty; b3 coefficient of economic difficulty.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…That is, in addition to the capabilities of analysis and the planning essential for resolving a problem, dealing with the complexity of sustainability requires creativity and social and communication skills specific to accomplishing the change [52,53].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Future Professionals: A Study of Sustainable Behavior

et al. 2017

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Sustainability in an organizational environment involves a form of management that allows attaining a balance between the economic, environmental and social dimensions, and can contribute to the sustainable behavior of employees and administrators. Nevertheless, studies that evaluate sustainable behavior of future professionals using a multidimensional approach to create a scale to measure sustainable behavior of students are relatively rare and there is a need for research in this field. Therefore, the objective of this article is to analyze the sustainable behavior of potential professionals, using the multidimensional approach of item response theory (IRT). A set of 13 items evaluated by specialists and tested by graduate students was applied to 492 undergraduate students from a community university in Southern Brazil in the schools of administration, human resources, accounting, law, civil engineering and biology. The results indicate that the students have higher sustainable behavior in the social dimension and lower in the economic dimension, highlighted by participation in voluntary activities. This result can provide important information to companies, given that in their processes for recruiting and selecting new employees, many have included issues related to sustainable practices, not only from an economic perspective, but particularly from environmental and social perspectives.

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“…Problem-based learning (PBL) is a methodology that requires developing learning attitudes to construct knowledge through the ability to solve a given situation that is based on real problems (Steiner & Posch, 2006). This e-book study raises an issue that is closely related to the teaching profession.…”

Section: Theoretical Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

An interdisciplinary study in initial teacher training

Rada

Aldecoa

Cervera

et al. 2014

J. New Approaches Educ. Res.

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This experiment of innovative university education shows the interdisciplinary work carried out in the studies of the Bachelor of Science in Education at the University of Andorra. The study was developed within two subjects: Communication Technology (TAC) and Cultural Heritage Education in Andorra. The main objective of this experiment is to foster the use of technological resources and digital materials, with the aim of drawing cultural heritage closer to the classroom. Based on a previous study of documentation and an analysis of online educational materials, the students have to design an e-book, which is understood to be digital material in the curricular field of cultural heritage. This digital material is a didactic proposal that focuses on the construction of knowledge by primary school students. During the elaboration of the materials the instructors introduce follow-up activities. The results of the experiment show that, from an interdisciplinary approach, and a problem-solving, learning-centered methodology, specific and transferable abilities in initial teacher training can be studied and evaluated.

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Higher education for sustainability by means of transdisciplinary case studies: an innovative approach for solving complex, real-world problems

Cited by 266 publications

References 9 publications

Transdisciplinarity in higher education for sustainability: How discourses are approached in engineering education

Transdisciplinarity in higher education for sustainability: How discourses are approached in engineering education

Future Professionals: A Study of Sustainable Behavior

An interdisciplinary study in initial teacher training

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