Effects of Learning Process and Self-Efficacy in Real-World Education for Sustainable Development

Abstract

To solve the “wicked problems” of sustainability, education for sustainable development (EfSD) that raises the young generation to become change agents is necessary. For this purpose, fieldtrips that educate students in the real world about other stakeholders are effective, but since sustainable issues do not have clear solutions, cooperative learning (CL) in which students learn from each other is useful. The purpose of this study is to clarify the influence of the learning process on learning outcomes and their influence on learning objectives in real-world EfSD using CL. A hypothesis model consisting of seven hypotheses was set up, and a questionnaire survey of high school students who participated in the real-world EfSD was conducted. Results of the structural equation modeling of data from 2441 respondents supported all seven hypotheses. Implicit learning as a learning process promotes knowledge acquisition as a learning outcome, while explicit learning enhances self-efficacy. Although knowledge acquisition promotes citizenship development as the learning objective of EfSD, self-efficacy does not promote citizenship development. Self-efficacy affects knowledge acquisition more than implicit learning. This study contributes to EfSD research by clarifying the difference in the effects of the learning process.

The Role of B Companies in Tourism towards Recovery from the Crisis COVID-19 Inculcating Social Values and Responsible Entrepreneurship in Latin America

“…It is precisely this context that has placed new and small companies in a privileged position within the current panorama, as their generic capacity to create wealth, development and well-being has been proven [24,25]. However, more specifically, it is responsible and sustainable entrepreneurship, that is to say, which adopts a bottom-up approach to analyzing and implementing local solutions to environmental problems, that is called upon to be one of the great protagonists in the creation of a sustainable world [26][27][28]. Specifically, as Agenda 2030 points out, responsible entrepreneurship can play a fundamental role in improving efficiency in the use of resources by reducing risks and dangers to people's health by minimizing waste and safeguarding the environment and cultural qualities [29,30].…”

Promoting sustainability competency and self-efficacy in class teacher education

“…Another study by Ho (2021) showed that if high school students had not acquired useful knowledge about sustainability problems, they did not want to engage in problem-solving with a sense of citizenship, even if they had enhanced self-efficacy. Self-efficacy beliefs are connected to knowledge-acquisition more than a sense of citizenship, which self-efficacy beliefs do not enhance (Ho, 2021).…”

“…Another study by Ho (2021) showed that if high school students had not acquired useful knowledge about sustainability problems, they did not want to engage in problem-solving with a sense of citizenship, even if they had enhanced self-efficacy. Self-efficacy beliefs are connected to knowledge-acquisition more than a sense of citizenship, which self-efficacy beliefs do not enhance (Ho, 2021). Knowledge-acquisition relates to systems thinking and, more generally, to sustainability competency (Wiek et al, 2011(Wiek et al, , 2016, and the results recorded by Ho (2021) suggest that self-efficacy could positively impact sustainability competency through knowledge-acquisition.…”

“…Self-efficacy beliefs are connected to knowledge-acquisition more than a sense of citizenship, which self-efficacy beliefs do not enhance (Ho, 2021). Knowledge-acquisition relates to systems thinking and, more generally, to sustainability competency (Wiek et al, 2011(Wiek et al, , 2016, and the results recorded by Ho (2021) suggest that self-efficacy could positively impact sustainability competency through knowledge-acquisition. As a result, systems thinking and systemic understanding require the right knowledge about sustainability crises and how life-preserving mechanisms work.…”

“…In previous literature, selfefficacy has been included in action-oriented competency (Olsson et al, 2020) or considered to be a part of the teachers' teaching profession with teachers' competency and attitudes toward the teaching profession (Yeşilyurt, 2014). Nonetheless, the connection between class student teachers' self-efficacy and sustainability competency is not only evident (e.g., Schutte and Bhullar, 2017;Ho, 2021) but also unclear (e.g., Malandrakis et al, 2018), and has not been studied in the Finnish context before. This study presents a novel way of combining Finnish class student teachers' perceptions of their sustainability competency and collecting information about the students' sense of self-efficacy in education for sustainable development.…”