How Can Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) Be Effectively Implemented in Teaching and Learning? An Analysis of Educational Science Recommendations of Methods and Procedures to Promote ESD Goals

Abstract

Education for sustainable development (ESD) has been a task assigned to schools and universities since the mid-1990s. This global movement spawned ESD research in numerous fields, including, among others, didactics and educational sciences, as well as sustainability sciences. In this article, we analyze the state of research on reliable recommendations of means (more precisely, teaching and learning methods and procedures) to promote the ESD goals. Within the framework of systematic literature analysis, we compared and evaluated 17 scientific publications from the field of ESD. Using qualitative content analysis, we scanned the 17 articles for recommendations of means of ESD and the cited evidence for their effectiveness. The findings show two groups of recommended means, differing particularly in the degree of learner autonomy and the quality of evidence for their effectiveness. We discuss possible tasks that can be derived from these findings for didactic research on ESD, and we make a suggestion for further teaching action.

Students’ perceptions of the natural world and their attitudes toward ecological issues: What is the relationship between them?

“…As a result, students do not acquire functional knowledge in school, i.e., knowledge that helps them understand the problems of daily life (Littledyke, 2004; Perkins & Salomon, 1992). In addition, evaluating an EE program is inherently difficult and often overlooked (Broom, 2017; Riess et al, 2022). Finally, the utility of food webs as a means of revealing students’ worldviews is recognized.…”

“…This finding might suggest that knowledge of basic ecological concepts prepares students to analyze information in the context of ecosystem management decisions, even if they are initially unfamiliar with the details of a particular environmental problem (Humston & Ortiz-Barney, 2007). Similarly, it could be argued that a positive transfer of learning occurs for students who adopt the scientific view of the ecosystem (Perkins & Salomon, 1992; Riess et al, 2022). According to various studies (Garrecht et al, 2018), by participating in environmental projects that address complex current environmental problems, students improve their ability to apply critical thinking to find environmentally sound solutions.…”

“…One of the goals of education policy is to provide students with an understanding of ecosystem functions and pressures from human activities (Riess et al, 2022; UNESCO, 2019). However, it appears that students are unaware of the connections between human activities and the environment and often use nonscientific concepts to analyze environmental issues (Bayati, 2014; Gotwals & Songer, 2010).…”

‘Simply Make a Change’—Individual Commitment as a Stepping Stone for Sustainable Behaviors

“…However, when people were subsequently encouraged to make a written commitment to climate-friendly diets, the effectiveness of the intervention increased by 90 percent [31]. Today, self-commitments are often used in the business sphere (e.g., [25,32,33], but there are also examples from schools and universities [34,35]). It should be noted that the obligatory fulfillment of pledges in the educational system could be understood as a kind of manipulation [18].…”

Spirituality-based action competence for sustainability among prospective biology teacher in Indonesia

“…The complexity of the SDGs and the importance of understanding the interconnectivity between these dimensions makes the SDGs a key issue. The researchers highlight the importance of a special approach to learning called Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) (Egana del Sol, 2019; Kioupi & Voulvoulis, 2019;Riess et al, 2022;Sasaki et al, 2023), which allows educators to teach the importance of SDGs in education (D. Olsson et al, 2016). Various studies show that the issues of sustainability and education are closely interdependent (Al-Kuwari et al, 2022).…”