Abstract
Extant research into the efficacy of—especially interdisciplinary—higher education for sustainable development (HESD) is limited. A need exists to investigate students’ development of sustainability knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours. Furthermore, universities have experienced difficulties implementing interdisciplinary HESD because of organisational barriers due to monodisciplinary structures, as well as educators’ and students’ reservations. This study introduces an interdisciplinary approach to HESD and investigates its efficacy regarding students’ development of sustainability knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours at a university in Germany. The approach applies a series of lectures by different sustainability experts accompanied by several tutorials that support students’ interdisciplinary learning and teamwork towards an interdisciplinary sustainability product. Tutors were trained in interdisciplinary teaching methods, as well as interdisciplinary communication and conflict management, beforehand. Before participating in the interdisciplinary course, the students had a moderate level of sustainability knowledge and behaviour, and a high level of sustainability attitudes. The results from the pre–post-test analysis indicate an increase in students’ sustainability knowledge and behaviours, and no change in students’ sustainability attitudes. If typical barriers to interdisciplinarity are mitigated, interdisciplinary HESD can facilitate students’ development.
Highlights
In 2000, the United Nations (UN) Millennium Conference was held in New YorkCity, and, as a result, the so-called Millennium Declaration with eight goals (MillenniumDevelopment Goals) was established [1]
The results show that student teachers prioritise the acquisition of knowledge, practical skills related to nature and natural sciences, and positive attitudes towards sustainability
Universities play an important role in the implementation of education for sustainable development [4,5]
Summary
Development Goals) was established [1]. The agenda comprises 17 global goals for sustainable development, i.e., Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) [2]. To implement the concepts and topics in education, the UN decade for education for sustainable development (ESD) and the following Global Action Programme (GAP) [3] were launched, in which educational institutions, especially universities, aimed to implement and achieve the sustainability goals through education for sustainable development (ESD). All levels of the education system are basically involved in the implementation, universities play a special role in implementing the programme, as is often emphasised [4,5]. During the UN decade for ESD and GAP, various initiatives were launched, especially in higher education (HE)
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