Abstract
The application of a constructivist approach to competence-based frameworks for sustainable development (SD) in higher education can empower students to become change agents. Acknowledging this development, this paper examines the extent to which an SD-directed master's programme at an Italian university effectively developed students' SD competences before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study is based on a mixed method approach that includes a survey and interviews in order to (a) discuss students' experiences with pedagogies that emphasize SD competences as learning outcomes and (b) analyze students' perceptions of acquiring SD competences with reference to their experience of internships, project work, and job positions (in the case of graduates). The results show that, among the analyzed SD pedagogies, case studies were perceived to enrich students' understanding of the complexity of SD issues through collective learning. However, to develop critical thinking, students recognized the need to customize the case studies' plots. Regarding practical SD activities, internships, and project work were perceived as opportunities to network with stakeholders and to develop problem-solving abilities. The pandemic significantly decreased the use of such SD pedagogies, thereby prioritizing self-directed learning and research-based internships. Despite the increase in e-learning events involving stakeholders, the prospect of interacting with them on SD topics was hampered by the limitations of information technology support. Nevertheless, the students' perceptions of the effectiveness of teaching and learning processes provide recommendations to improve the SD pedagogies and e-learning adopted by higher education institutions (HEIs).
Highlights
This section reviews the teaching approaches that focus on sustainable development (SD) competences as learning outcomes and facilitates the discussion of the constructivist approach to sustainability education, considering that constructivism is a promising teaching approach that aims to develop students’ SD competences through collective SD-related learning processes and SD Competences in Higher Education practical tasks
The literature favors the need for Higher education institutions (HEIs) to implement new pedagogies that provide students with learning outcomes (Shephard, 2008; Gatti et al, 2019), leading to the emergence of action learning-based teaching approaches that stimulate students’ motivation and critical thinking on SD, and that promote the transmission of SD competences (Gatti et al, 2019; Wilhelm et al, 2019)
The resulting research includes the proposal of new approaches to and methods of teaching that focus on competence development (Roorda, 2010; Lambrechts et al, 2013; Molderez and Fonseca, 2018), on the comparison of different teaching approaches to determine their efficacy in developing SD competences, and on methods that instill higher education curricula with the development of SD competences
Summary
This section reviews the teaching approaches that focus on sustainable development (SD) competences as learning outcomes and facilitates the discussion of the constructivist approach to sustainability education, considering that constructivism is a promising teaching approach that aims to develop students’ SD competences through collective SD-related learning processes and SD Competences in Higher Education practical tasks. Higher education institutions (HEIs) play a major role in the transition to a sustainable knowledge society (O’Riordan et al, 2020). To achieve this goal, the literature favors the need for HEIs to implement new pedagogies that provide students with learning outcomes (Shephard, 2008; Gatti et al, 2019), leading to the emergence of action learning-based teaching approaches that stimulate students’ motivation and critical thinking on SD, and that promote the transmission of SD competences (Gatti et al, 2019; Wilhelm et al, 2019). These pedagogies enable students to become “agents of change” (De Kraker et al, 2007; Lansu et al, 2010; Wilhelm et al, 2019)
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