Higher Education for Professional and Civic Values: A Critical Review and Analysis

Abstract

Education for sustainable development (ESD) is generally thought to involve some degree of education for particular professional and civic values, attitudes and behaviours (leading to, as examples, being environmentally, socially and culturally responsible); although it is notable that the application of ESD in higher education is contested. This conceptual article analyses literature that describes how higher education addresses professional and civic values, mindfully or unintentionally, in an attempt to provide clarity to the arguments involved in this contestation. The article uses three disciplinary lenses (education, psychology and professional education) in the context of four educational paradigms (experiential learning; role modelling; assessment/evaluation; critical thinking) to explore the theoretical and practical bases of values-education. Our conceptual analysis confirms that values are: of great interest to higher education; a significant focus within experiential learning and in the context of role modelling; but challenging to define and even more so to assess or to evaluate the attainment of. Our three disciplinary lenses also lead us to conclude that encouraging students to develop a disposition to explore their world critically is a form of values-education; and that this may be the only truly legitimate form of values-education open to higher education.

Critical Thinking Using Project-Based Learning: The Case of The Agroecological Market at the “Universitat Politècnica de València”

“…A first category is focused on the reflective exercise towards the interior of each person, this, as the authors of [49] denominate it, is critical self-reflection, and is directed to the person who requires [49], according to the authors of [13] dispositions to involve themselves decisively in tasks of complex thought, to be able to control their first impulses, judgments, and representations until developing more rigorous processes of analysis, and to question their own beliefs [13].…”

“…A second category of analysis of CT is focused on social emancipation. With a clear focus towards "the external", this category requires the commitment of the person to the world in what the authors of [49] have called the critical action. Under this lens, CT requires one to question the common assumptions, habitually not questioned, that sustain the "status quo" of the group; to propose alternative, novel strategies; and to stimulate debates and dialogues with those who maintain other points of view and priorities [13].…”

Dealing with the Intangible: Using the Analytical Lens of Hidden Curricula for a Transformative Paradigm of Sustainable Higher Education

“…But reflexivity and critical thinking need to be taught. ‘As educators, our challenge is to understand not only the processes by which critically thinking learners use their skills to decide on the values important to them but also the processes by which learners learn their disposition to learn critically’ (Shephard et al, 2018, p. 11). We consequently propose to put a stronger emphasis on fostering reflexivity throughout curricula and course designs.…”

Evaluation of Scientific Research in Universities Based on the Idea of Education for Sustainable Development

“…Some universities have designed sustainability curricula [27] or incorporated sustainable development goals into the curriculum [28]. Students who join the class pay close attention to knowledge related to sustainable development [29] and develop environmentally, so-cially, and culturally responsible attitudes [30]. In this way, graduates who may be potential leaders in the future may become concerned about the sustainable development of society.…”