Evaluating STEM-Based Sustainability Understanding: A Cognitive Mapping Approach

Abstract

Management education holds promise for addressing deficiencies in interuniversity science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), as well as sustainability curricula. Accordingly, we designed, developed, implemented, and longitudinally evaluated interdisciplinary STEM-based curricula in the United States. Students in five sections of business management courses and two sections of STEM courses received a STEM-based sustainability intervention (i.e., an interdisciplinary STEM and sustainability module). To assess student outcomes following the intervention and examine the feasibility of cognitive mapping as a student learning assessment tool, we implemented a pre- and post-course modified cognitive mapping assessment in treatment and comparison courses. To interpret the results, we ran descriptives, correlations, paired sample t tests, and principal component analysis. The t tests suggest that when all coding categories are considered, those participating in curricular interventions listed significantly more sustainability terms. The principal component analysis results demonstrate that treatment courses improved variability explained by 7.23% between pre- and post-tests but declined by 8.22% for comparison courses. Overall, linkages became stronger between parent code categories for treatment courses and weaker for comparison courses. These findings add to existing research related to cognitive mapping and demonstrate the ability of the method to capture changes in student outcomes after exposure to STEM-based sustainability curriculum.

Perusing the Past to Propel the Future: A Systematic Review of STEM Learning Activity Based on Activity Theory

“…Therefore, teachers need to be trained and motivated for the use of advanced technologies to improve students' skills for the 21st-century necessary for sustainable development. Sustainability-related problems such as climate change require global skills not limited to one discipline [23,24]. STEM learning activities that are designed for learners to generate innovative solutions enable the integration of STEM disciplines and multidisciplinary learning.…”

“…The findings could reinforce educators in developing more learning strategies to engage students to increase sustainable learning perceptions. Moreover, STEM processes could be adopted in other learning subjects such as science in sports [22], language learning [23], and business management [24], to mention a few. Consequently, learners will become global problem solvers and agents of change as they are trained through learning methods such as inquiry-based learning and frameworks such as Education for Sustainability Development (ESD).…”

Embedding Sustainability in Learning and Teaching: Lessons Learned and Moving Forward—Approaches in STEM Higher Education Programmes

“…In addition, Petrun Sayers et al [40] prioritised cognitive maps as a STEM-based sustainability education evaluation tool. Importantly, cognitive mapping plays an interesting role in the field of sustainability because the tool can effectively capture the field's interdisciplinary nature.…”

“…Cognitive mapping can assist instructors in tracking student progress with sustainability concepts and test the effectiveness of curricular interventions. The method suggests how students conceptualise and organise knowledge in an open-end format, offering an alternative to multiple-choice or sheer memorisation techniques, and moving towards a method that allows students to integrate diverse higher-order constructs to develop metaphorical thinking [40].…”