Pre-Service Teachers’ Perceptions of, and Experiences with, Technology-Enhanced Transformative Learning towards Education for Sustainable Development

Stanislav Avsec,Vesna Ferk Savec

doi:10.3390/su131810443

Abstract

Teacher education for sustainable development (ESD) is faced with continuing unsustainability trends, which require deep and enduring social transformation. Transformative learning is a possible solution to facilitating reflection on the cognitive and socio-emotional processes underpinning students’ learning towards sustainability. The purpose of this paper is to investigate students’ perceptions of, and experiences with, technology-enhanced self-directed learning and design thinking as possible moderators of transformative learning in order to advance the concept and practice of teacher ESD. These perceptions and experiences are represented by 225 pedagogical and non-pedagogical students from the University of Ljubljana, asked to respond anonymously to three online questionnaires in May and June 2021. Findings indicate that strengthening the transformative aspect of ESD in pre-service teachers requires the consideration of critical reflection, self-awareness, risk propensity, holistic view and openness to diversity, and social support. Moreover, self-directed learning was found to be a moderator for transformative learning among pre-service science teachers, while design thinking was evenly developed among transformative learning for both low- and high-ability students, no matter the study programme. The conditioning factors and explanatory arguments for these results are also discussed.

Highlights

IntroductionPublisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations
We have found that pre-service teachers have significantly outperformed their non-pedagogical counterparts in Interpersonal skills, Team knowledge, and Social support, which points to more developed skills for collaboration, communication, and interactions, in line with the findings by [25]
We argue that design thinking can be used in higher education, especially in teacher education programmes, as a relatively new approach in transformative learning, which is in line with the findings by [19,20,60]

Summary

Introduction

Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. From primary school to university studies, faces the challenge of equipping students with competitive knowledge and higher-order thinking, which are skills needed for the 21st century [1], while having to design new learning spaces for ESD to overcome planetary boundaries [2,3]. Higher education needs special attention because its complex environment is directly related to the labour market, industry, society, and sustainable development [1]. ESD “must play a central role in our unavoidable commitment to build a sustainable future for the good of our society and the planet” [4]

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion