Developing and Validating an Individual Sustainability Instrument with Engineering Students to Motivate Intentional Change

Abstract

This paper describes three studies that were conducted sequentially for purposes of validating the Individual Sustainability survey for use with undergraduate engineering students. During the first study, researchers administered the original 50-item Individual Sustainability survey to an undergraduate engineering class at a mid-sized University, using real and ideal self. Following exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, the survey instrument was reduced to 36 items, and reframed to compare real self to ideal professional engineer. The new version was administered to three cohorts of engineering students at the same institution, and factor structures were analyzed again. In order to provide more stable parameter estimates, a third study with 34 items was run with engineering students in similar courses at four different institutions. The methods and results of all three studies are described, to justify the survey's evolution. This is followed by a discussion of the final survey instrument and approaches for administering the survey to undergraduate engineering students, or adapting survey administration for other student populations. The instrument, in its current form, is an effective way to identify dissonance between one's real and ideal conceptualizations of self, and help individual students identify opportunities for personal change and professional growth toward sustainability values and behaviors.

Development and Validation of an Instrument for Measuring Student Sustainability Competencies

“…(2) subject-specific and basic cross-curricular sustainability knowledge; (3) affective-motivational beliefs towards sustainability; (4) self-reported sustainability behavioral intentions; and (5) subjectand age-specific "sustainability knowledge applied" composed of single choice-items with different response formats and (6) dilemma items. 61 variables were used to captured the relevant aspects in lower secondary classes (in Germany class 5-6, age 9-14) and 69 variables in the higher classes (in Germany class 7-8, age [11][12][13][14][15][16]. Please note that the age overlap is mainly due to different school forms and other school specificities.…”

“…The current state of the debate can be seen as follows: Although sustainable development and ESD are widely accepted as theoretical concepts or goal dimensions, they remain without a universally agreed upon definition [11,12].…”

“…Intentional subject-specific sustainability knowledge applied class 5-6 (age group [9][10][11][12][13][14] recycling, smart phone production/use, decline in insect numbers Single-choice items with different response formats (true/false -fast response items) class 7-8 (age group [11][12][13][14][15][16] sustainable products labels/consumption, organic agriculture, renewable energy…”

Actions for sustainable development through young students’ eyes

“…Actions are targeted at solving controversial problems (Hungerford & Volk, 1990), and SD issues qualify as such (Sass et al, 2020). Although there is no consensus on how to define SD, much of the relevant research refers to definitions in UN policy documents (Barrella, Spratto, Pappas, & Nagel, 2018). In 2015, the UN described SD issues as complex problems that combine interrelated aspects from different areas, the so-called 5Ps: people, planet, peace, prosperity, and partnership.…”

Using Kolb’s Learning Cycle to Improve Student Sustainability Knowledge

“…While the domain of sustainability is complex, somewhat subjective, and constantly evolving, most authors and global institutions agree on the importance of economic, environmental, and social issues. However, some support the importance of additional dimensions, including institutional [45], individual [46], and aesthetic [47]. Nevertheless, the module provides students with a basic foundation needed to learn about and apply principles from additional sustainability dimensions in the future.…”