Improving sustainability teaching by grouping and interrelating pedagogical approaches and sustainability competences: Evidence from 15 Worldwide Higher Education Institutions

Lozano, Rodrigo; Barreiro‐Gen, María; D'amato, Dalia; Gago-Cortés, Carmen; Favi, Claudio; Martins, Ricardo; Mónus, Ferenc; Caeiro, Sandra; Benayas, Javier; Caldera, Savindi; Bostancı, Şevket Can; Đjekić, Ilija; Abadía, José Mariano Moneva; Sáenz, Orlando; Awuzie, Bankole; Gładysz, Bartłomiej

doi:10.1002/sd.2396

Cited by 12 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…For its part, ref. [20] is one of the most recent studies about key competences for sustainability, and it cites almost all the frameworks proposed in this study: [4,5,7].…”

Section: Framework Of Competences For Sustainability and Studies From...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Anticipating Future Needs in Key Competences for Sustainability in Two Distance Learning Universities of Spain and Portugal

2023

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The current eco-social crisis includes global challenges such as climate change, environmental degradation and demographic shifts that call for a global response. The European Environment Agency claims that over the next decade, very different answers will be needed to the world’s challenges than the ones provided over the past 40 years to confront the foreseeable global changes. Higher Education Institutions have their own responsibility in training future professionals in cross-cutting key competences for sustainability, which are defined through different frameworks. Considering that current students will need to overcome global challenges, this research aims to identify the ways in which Higher Education Institutions are anticipating the introduction of key competences for sustainability into the curricula of their programs. Specifically, it aims to detect the perception of the heads of three departments and three faculties of two universities in Spain and Portugal about the presence of key competences for sustainability in the selected degrees. For this study, a qualitative research approach was employed. The methodology used involved the application of interviews to departments and faculties heads. The results showed there is a growing interest in sustainability at Higher Education Institutions, but key competences for sustainability were not yet sufficiently valued as competences needed for the students in the future, in particular those linked with the professional world. Further similar research could be conducted at other levels (master’s degree, doctorate).

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“…For its part, ref. [20] is one of the most recent studies about key competences for sustainability, and it cites almost all the frameworks proposed in this study: [4,5,7].…”

Section: Framework Of Competences For Sustainability and Studies From...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Anticipating Future Needs in Key Competences for Sustainability in Two Distance Learning Universities of Spain and Portugal

2023

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“…One should take relevant organisational action to include such interdisciplinary PBL education focused on SDGs in curricula either through Individual Study Programmes for students participating in the project as was the case here or as a standard component of the curriculum for all students. As Lozano et al (2023) pointed out, the inclusion of sustainable development in the curriculum is among the primary efforts towards a holistic university approach to sustainable development and its incorporation into the academic culture.…”

Section: Theoretical and Practical Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interdisciplinary collaboration in higher education towards sustainable development

Podgórska,

Zdonek

2023

Sustainable Development

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The literature and practitioners both emphasise the need to involve universities in the promotion and implementation of SDGs. On the other hand, the lack of practical solutions to include SDGs in university activity is constantly emphasised. The objective of the article is to investigate how project‐based learning innovations used in student education affect the achievement of sustainable development goals. We analyse whether innovative project based–learning projects at a leading technology university in Poland pursued from 2018 to 2021 contribute to achieving sustainable development goals, and we study the matter of interdisciplinarity of the project teams. To this end, we employ a qualitative content analysis of reports for 108 projects that involved 324 researchers, 607 students, and 233 experts from the university's business environment. The categorical data yielded by the analysis are analysed with quantitative methods: frequency analysis, correspondence analysis, and data visualisation. The analyses demonstrated that the most commonly pursued sustainable development goals were: SDG 9: Industry Innovation and Infrastructure, SDG 3: Good Health and Well‐Being, and SDG 12: Responsible Production and Construction. Biomedical Engineering experts pursued projects dedicated to SDG 3: Good Health and Well‐Being, while Automation and Robotics specialists focused on SDGs 9: Industry Innovation and Infrastructure and SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities. The primary sustainable development goal for Environmental Engineering teams was SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production followed by SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation and 7: Affordable and Clean Energy. The most common interdisciplinarity in the teams was of the second type: interdisciplinarity bringing together experts from two research areas. The article presents the results of research on the process of promoting sustainable development through project‐based learning implemented under an interdisciplinary collaboration of teams of university staff, students, and experts from businesses associated with the university. The results contribute to the academic debate on the ability of universities to teach, implement, and promote sustainable development and its goals.

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“…As the engineering profession is moving towards more environmentally friendly practices, sustainability has become an integral part of the process of engineering design, construction, and operation [1,2]. To actively promote sustainability as a core value in tertiary education, sustainability courses have been integrated as mandatory parts of engineering programs in many universities.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Multi-Project Evaluation of Engineering Students’ Performance for Online PBL: Taking the Sustainable Decision Analysis Course as an Example

Zhang,

Yang,

2024

Sustainability

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In order to meet the growing demand for engineering professionals who can incorporate sustainable solutions into their work, sustainability courses have been launched in online problem-based learning (PBL) environments through various real-life projects. Nonetheless, the conventional one-off grading approach may fail to capture the intricate variations in students’ performance across different projects. To address this problem, a multi-project evaluation framework utilizing the probability exceedance method (PEM) is proposed, which can fuse linguistic evaluation data presented in probability distributions without the need to obtain weights of criteria. In the case study, a comprehensive evaluation of the performance of students majoring in engineering management is conducted within a study group over an online PBL course on sustainable decision analysis. The sensitivity analysis demonstrates that consistent scores can be achieved after assigning different values of fuzzy measures to each criterion. This study enables teachers to holistically evaluate students without being bound by rigid numerical standards or strict weighting schemes, thus allowing them to focus on other educational tasks while ensuring effective and reliable results. Moreover, it contributes to educational innovation by introducing a modern and comprehensive approach for engineering student assessment in online PBL, aligning with the evolving needs of educational sustainability in higher education.

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Improving sustainability teaching by grouping and interrelating pedagogical approaches and sustainability competences: Evidence from 15 Worldwide Higher Education Institutions

Cited by 12 publications

References 22 publications

Anticipating Future Needs in Key Competences for Sustainability in Two Distance Learning Universities of Spain and Portugal

Anticipating Future Needs in Key Competences for Sustainability in Two Distance Learning Universities of Spain and Portugal

Interdisciplinary collaboration in higher education towards sustainable development

A Multi-Project Evaluation of Engineering Students’ Performance for Online PBL: Taking the Sustainable Decision Analysis Course as an Example

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