Transforming Consumer Behavior: Introducing Self-Inquiry-Based and Self-Experience-Based Learning for Building Personal Competencies for Sustainable Consumption

Abstract

Despite growing educational efforts in various areas of society and albeit expanding knowledge on the background and consequences of consumption, little has changed about individual consumer behavior and its detrimental impact. Against this backdrop, some scholars called for a stronger focus on personal competencies, especially affective–motivational ones to foster more sustainable consumption. Such competencies, however, are rarely addressed within the context of education for sustainable consumption. Responding to this gap, we suggest two new learning formats that allow students to systematically acquire affective–motivational competencies: self-inquiry-based learning (SIBL) and self-experience-based learning (SEBL). We developed these approaches at Leuphana University Lüneburg, Germany, since 2016, and applied them within the framework of two seminars called Personal Approaches to Sustainable Consumption. Conducting scholarship of teaching and learning, we investigated the potential of SIBL and SEBL for cultivating personal competencies for sustainable development in general and sustainable consumption in particular. Our results indicate that SIBL and SEBL are promising approaches for this purpose.

What Teachers Think and Know about Education for Sustainable Development and How They Implement it in Class

“…Our interpretations of the data are subject to limitations given that the findings are based on teachers' responses to a self-report survey. From an action-orientated and theoretical point of view, we recommend that methods should be developed to investigate how the different dimensions of sustainability knowledge, attitudes, and other factors in schools (e.g., perception of ESD effectiveness from both the teachers' and students' perspectives) influence their actual sustainability-related behavior (see e.g., [24][25][26][27][28][29][30]) or to conduct field studies to investigate actual ESD teaching practices in schools in more detail.…”

Teaching Down to Earth—Service-Learning Methodology for Science Education and Sustainability at the University Level: A Practical Approach

“…Service-Learning (SL) is one of the so-called active education methods [51,52]. Others include Problem-Based Learning (PBL) [13,53,54], Inquiry-Based Learning (IBL) [55], Gamification [56], Flipped Classroom [57], or Game-Based Learning (GBL) [58]. These methods are based on the idea that students will learn better if they directly apply their knowledge to improve real-life situations.…”

Implementing Pedagogical Approaches for ESD in Initial Teacher Training at Spanish Universities

“…However, human behavior has hardly changed in recent years. It is therefore necessary to insist on sustainable consumption at all levels through education [24]. Education for sustainable consumption is poorly developed in higher education.…”