Honing action competence in sustainable development: what happens in classrooms matters

Abstract

In effectiveness literature, voices are rising to embrace learning contents beyond mathematics, science, and language. Meanwhile, international policy documents such as the United Nations 2019 Climate Action Summit Report point at the importance of action for sustainable development for establishing acceptable life conditions for current and future generations. Therefore, a candidate learning outcome for broadening effectiveness research's scope is action competence in sustainable development (ACiSD), which consists of the relevant knowledge, willingness, capacity expectations, and outcome expectancy regarding actions for sustainable development. In order to initiate adding ACiSD as a learning outcome to effectiveness research, the current study contributed to establishing that formal education plays a part in changes in students' ACiSD. Firstly, we studied how much variance in ACiSD can be attributed to what happens in classrooms. Secondly, we looked into how class groups' and early adolescent students' ACiSD changed after one school year. Following recommendations for rigour in effectiveness research, we performed multilevel analyses on survey data (question one: n = 1398; question two: n = 633). Our evidence showed that 11% of variance in ACiSD was attributable to what happens in classrooms with explained variance in the subconstructs ranging between 7.2 and 14.2%. Furthermore, individual students as well as class groups showed higher ACiSD scores when comparing measurements at beginning and end of one school year. We conclude that the classroom level matters to changes in ACiSD within early adolescents. Further research can now look into how and to which extent teachers' educational approaches affect these changes.

Promoting sustainable learning among accounting students: evidence from field experimental design

“…(2021) in that little differences exist in the behaviors of Portuguese students toward suitability in education with respect to age. Similarly, Tuncer (2008) and Sass et al . (2023) found that older individuals appear to be more likely to engage with nature, avoid environmental harm and conserve raw materials and natural resources.…”

“…This finding is aligned with the previous study Aleixo et al (2021) in that little differences exist in the behaviors of Portuguese students toward suitability in education with respect to age. Similarly, Tuncer (2008) and Sass et al (2023) found that older individuals appear to be more likely to engage with nature, avoid environmental harm and conserve raw materials and natural resources. These findings also aligned with our academic classification variable, where our study found that the attitude of senior students toward sustainability in accounting education was statistically different from junior and freshman students.…”

“…This, in turn, will reflect positively on the effectiveness of these schools in playing an essential role as sustainability-promoting agents. Prior studies used different variables to examine the attitude Accounting students' sustainable learning of students toward ESD (e.g., Kagawa, 2007;Tang, 2018;Larran et al, 2018;Okubo et al, 2021;Am ezaga et al, 2021;Aleixo et al, 2021;Sass et al, 2023). Comparing the results of three different student groups, it was found that students studying sustainability in their minor degree program (second subject beside primary studies) showed a significantly higher acceptance rate than their peers.…”

Implementing action competence teaching model as a framework for achieving sustainable development goals: insights from students

“…Integrating action competence into existing courses or developing dedicated courses on sustainability can be challenging within these constraints (Muchira et al , 2023). Besides, achieving action competence in sustainability requires an interdisciplinary approach (Sass et al , 2023), as sustainability challenges are complex and interconnected. However, higher education institutions are often organized into disciplinary silos, making it challenging to foster interdisciplinary collaboration and address sustainability issues holistically (Isac et al , 2022).…”

Strengthening Professional and Spiritual Education through 21st Century Skill Empowerment in a Pandemic and Post-Pandemic Era

“…Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) or Education for Sustainability (EfS) is a vehicle needed by community members to act in the form of contributing to a sustainable lifestyle and to overcome today's global challenges, including climate change, environmental degradation, consumerism, and so forth (Bascopé et al 2019;Glavič 2020;Paulauskaite-Taraseviciene et al 2022). One way to understand learning in the context of ESD is through the development of action competence (Chen and Liu 2020;Sass et al 2020Sass et al , 2022. Action competence is the competence to act with reference to the environment or the concept of *Corresponding Author: hadi.suwono.fmipa@um.ac.id sustainability (Hedefalk et al 2014;Ideland 2016;Jensen and Schnack 2006;Kalla et al 2022).…”