Education for Sustainable Development in German Science Education: Past – Present – Future

Abstract

In this paper, we trace selected strands of the German path to Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). We start by addressing pre-ESD research, and move to the concept of Gestaltungskompetenz, the core concept of German ESD. The concept had to be realigned as to become more compatible with international research on learning outcomes (competencies). Compared to its beginnings, the meaning of Gestaltungskompetenz has much advanced, e.g., influenced by German competence research in science education, to which the Gottingen Model for socioscientific reasoning and decision making contributes. The paper presents a new competence dimension on “Evaluating and reflecting solutions quantitatively-economically” for this model. The contribution highlights the integrative and interdisciplinary scope of the educational challenges posed by Sustainable Development.