What do engineering students learn in sustainability courses? The effect of the pedagogical approach

Coral, Jordi Segalàs; Ferrer‐Balas, Didac; Mulder, Karel

doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2009.09.012

Cited by 252 publications

(264 citation statements)

References 17 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

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“…To be more effective, these practices should be linked to appropriate theoretical and empirical inputs, and the educational goals should be explicit (Bowden and Smythe 2008;Colby and Sullivan 2008;Davis 2006;Rathje et al 2008;Segalas 2009;Segalas et al 2010;Zandvoort 2008;Zandvoort et al 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Strategies for Teaching Professional Ethics to IT Engineering Degree Students and Evaluating the Result

et al. 2016

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This paper presents an experience in developing professional ethics by an approach that integrates knowledge, teaching methodologies and assessment coherently. It has been implemented for students in both the Software Engineering and Computer Engineering degree programs of the Technical University of Madrid, in which professional ethics is studied as a part of a required course. Our contribution of this paper is a model for formative assessment that clarifies the learning goals, enhances the results, simplifies the scoring and can be replicated in other contexts. A quasi-experimental study that involves many of the students of the required course has been developed. To test the effectiveness of the teaching process, the analysis of ethical dilemmas and the use of deontological codes have been integrated, and a scoring rubric has been designed. Currently, this model is also being used to develop skills related to social responsibility and sustainability for undergraduate and postgraduate students of diverse academic context.

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“…These aesthetic experiences are restorative in a wider sense as they facilitate an arsenal of highly sophisticated processes, such as learning, mastery and creativity, which are useful to individuals and organizations, in the context of the challenge of sustainability (Richards 1999). Similarly, Segalas et al (2010) argue, multimethodological experiential active learning education increases cognitive learning of sustainability. Rather than negating the importance of the cognitive, Shrivastava and Ivanaj (2012) argues aesthetic inquiry allows us to study and to develop some ignored aspects of organizational sustainability, such as sensory and emotional experiences.…”

Section: Embodying Wu Wei In the Restorative Universitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Embodying Tao in the ‘Restorative University’

Jones

2014

Sustain Sci

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This paper proposes a new generative metaphor, the 'Restorative University' which embodies an associated Taoist human-nature narrative. It aims to counter what is contextualised here as the bio-cultural disconnection of universities despite their espoused commitment to sustainability. This conceptual research draws on multiple disciplines such as environmental psychology alongside Taoist philosophy to open up a reflexive dialogue between multiple organizational actors. Moreover, in order to understand the potential transdisciplinary implications of a particular Tian Tao inspired narrative, the metaphor of the 'Restorative University' is critically reflected upon, using illustrative examples of the University in a Garden, in Malaysia and the Schumacher College, in the UK. For universities committed to sustainability, the paper highlights the significance of collective emotional and aesthetic sensibility and agency (embodying Wu Wei), alongside a grounded, local, bio-cultural sensibility (embodying P'u) within the potential enactment of the Restorative University.

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What do engineering students learn in sustainability courses? The effect of the pedagogical approach

Cited by 252 publications

References 17 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

Strategies for Teaching Professional Ethics to IT Engineering Degree Students and Evaluating the Result

Embodying Tao in the ‘Restorative University’

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