How to Bring About Change – A Literature Review About Education and Learning Activities for Sustainable Development

Abstract

Sustainable development and transformational change have become more critical than ever in the era of climate change. The aim of this literature review was to increase knowledge on education and learning activities (ELAs), along with the learning outcomes they address, in the context of higher education for sustainable development (SD) with UNESCO’s eight core competencies for SD as a starting point. The search was conducted in two educational databases, Education Research Complete and the Education Resource Information Center. 153 articles were identified, of which 16 remained after reviewing for inclusion and exclusion criteria. Education and learning activities in ESD were grounded in discussions, reflections and interdisciplinarity by using participatory teaching methods, such as problem-based or experiential learning. Commonly enhanced learning outcomes were knowledge, attitude and collaboration competencies, as well as critical and system thinking. Self-awareness and behavior change, however, were less frequently achieved and the studies addressing behavior frequently recognized inertia to behavior change, despite transferred attitudes and increased knowledge. Although UNESCO outlined behavioral learning objectives as particularly important for ESD, the present review revealed that these had hardly been reached by the used ELA. The paper discusses the complexity of behavior change and proposes an ethics-led and whole-institution approach to tackle some challenges for behavioral action and social activity. There is a need for new educational and learning activities, which have greater transformational potential, by acknowledging the complexity of behavior change.

Preservice Teachers Learn: How Coal Keeps the Lights on

“…If these results are typical, it has severe implications for the energy literacy that citizens lack, which they need to make informed decisions on energy security and sustainability, and environmental protection. Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), with the aim of helping people find solutions for sustainability problems, begins with understanding basic scientific facts (Algurén, 2021;UNESCO, 2014).…”

Use of “demonstration farm” videos to affect attitude change toward animal welfare on beef, egg, and fish farms in China

“…For participants who only watched the videos without critical assessment of the farm characteristics, there was an absence of any attitudinal changes. Active learning tasks are known to engage deeper levels of learning; therefore, this could be indicative of that deeper learning not being achieved (e.g., Algurén, 2021). This has implications for remote delivery of educational initiatives as it appears the combination of materials enhanced understanding and influenced intentions/attitudes, while videos on their own lacked impact.…”

Interprofessional Identity Development: Awareness as the Beginning of Change

“…For this reason, we attempted to minimize bias through our re exive approach by means of regular discussions, memoing and peer reviewing. In addition, each theory is known to have it aws such as the transtheoretical model of behavior change that was originally developed to facilitate health behavioral change, but which we adopted to the context of higher education as transformational changes in behavior is inherent to the process of learning [45,115,116]. We also reiterate that interpretations are historically and culturally bound and subject to further advancements in the eld, for which we invite other researchers to add to our understanding of IPI development and to determine the transferability of our ndings [68, 69].…”