Variation in sustainability competency development according to age, gender, and disciplinary affiliation

Abstract

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to present the results of a classroom assessment aimed at determining the extent to which five key sustainability competencies develop in students during an introductory transdisciplinary sustainability course. University sustainability programs intend to provide integrated education that fosters the key competencies students need to solve real-world sustainability problems. Translating sustainability competencies into effective pedagogical practice in integrated academic programs is not straightforward. This work builds on a previous study by both expanding the competencies evaluated and considering additional demographic characteristics. Design/methodology/approach -The paper summarizes previously identified key sustainability competencies and describes teaching methodologies used to foster these competencies in students. Development of competencies in students during a semester-long course is assessed using a pre-/ post-test based on two case studies. The implications of the findings for teaching practice and overall program structure are discussed. Findings -Based on the assessment methods used here, four of the five sustainability competencies evaluated in this study developed differently in students according to gender, disciplinary affiliation and age. Females improved interpersonal competence more than males. Systems thinking competence improved for students associated with the three disciplinary affiliations considered in this study: sustainability major, sustainability minor and business major. Anticipatory competence improved for sustainability and business majors only, but not for students minoring in sustainability and majoring in other disciplines. Finally, normative competence improved for younger students only. Research limitations/implications -Insights for teaching practice and overall program structure are based on assessment of one introductory transdisciplinary sustainability course. Much additional work is needed to draw strong conclusions about general teaching practices and program structure for sustainability education. This study provides a flexible and field-tested rubric for further evaluative work in other sustainability courses or degree programs. Practical implications -Universities incorporate sustainability into their undergraduate curricula in many ways, ranging from certificates to entire degree programs focused on sustainability. The results of this study suggest that educators pay attention to gender diversity, classroom teaching practices, disciplinary perspectives and student attitudes and developmental stages as they figure outThe authors would like to thank the undergraduate students from the School of Sustainability for allowing the use of their coursework as data for this assessment study. The authors also would like to acknowledge the SOS 110 Graduate Teaching Assistants, who were an integral part of ensuring an efficient and organized data collection process.The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Em...

Working with “Others”: Developing Sustainability Skills in the First Year Engineering Classroom

“…Finally, a deeper concern exists regarding our preliminary work: our measuring of transdisciplinary skills may warrant strengthening. Assessment techniques described in the transdisciplinary literature (for example see [31,25] generally rely on the detailed and timeconsuming assessment of written work using a carefully constructed marking rubric. To avoid long assessment times, we chose here to focus on systems thinking as measured by Cmap scores.…”

“…More traits than those in Table 1 are mentioned in the literature [8,31,32]. In particular, Remington-Ducette and Musgrave [25] describe interpersonal competence as a component of transdisciplinarity, and, as part of this competence, include the characteristic of empathy. Walther et al [29] report a model of empathy in engineering practice that includes traits of self and other awareness, affective sharing, perspective-taking, and emotional regulation.…”

Achieving and Monitoring Education for Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship: A Systematic Review of the Literature

“…Outcomes: Most of the program evaluations included in the articles demonstrated or claimed positive effects on student/teacher learning related to ESD. Among these, five studies focused on teaching and learning assessment of ESD demonstrated a statistically significant effect [22,27,32,35,36], while three other studies focused on teacher education in the areas of ESD demonstrated the same [29,33,37]. For instance, some of these studies found that ESD courses strongly impacted participants' positive beliefs, norms and attitudes towards sustainable development [29,37].…”

“…However, the author explained that this was mainly because the program design was not specifically for pre-service teachers [28]. It is also noteworthy that one assessment suggested that ESD-related competencies were developed differently among university students according to gender, disciplinary, affiliation and age [36]. For instance, as a result of the same ESD course, interpersonal competencies improved more among female students than male students, and normative orientation improved only among younger students [36].…”

Managerial Competencies Required to Achieve Sustainable Development Projects: A Proposed Model for Managers

“…Managerial competencies can be used to attain the desired sustainable development outputs (Chung et al, 2016;Dudin et al, 2017;Dumitrescu, et al, 2014;Dzhengiz & Niesten, 2019;Mukhopadhyay et al, 2011;Remington-Doucette & Musgrove, 2015). This indicates that having a manager with robust managerial competencies is essential to complete sustainable development projects.…”