Sustainability education: a systemic framework for evaluating educational outcomes towards the Sustainable Development Goals

The UN 2030 agenda of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) envisions a future of inclusive equity, justice and prosperity within environmental limits, and places an important emphasis on education as stated in Goal 4. Education is acknowledged as a means for achieving the remaining Goals, with Sustainability as a goal for education in target 4.7. However, the interconnectedness of the SDGs and the complexity of Sustainability as a concept make it difficult to relate the SDGs to educational learning outcomes, with what Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) aims to achieve remaining ambiguous. To address this, the aim of the thesis was to develop a framework to redefine ESD as a tool that can deliver the Sustainability transformation required. Using the SDGs as end points for a Sustainability state, and through a participatory approach, education stakeholders and learners work together to construct a localised vision of Sustainability, relate this to educational outcomes and identify the competences the learners need to develop as citizens for the Sustainability vision to emerge. The framework allows for the development of evaluation tools that can support educational institutions to monitor and manage their progress in transforming societies towards Sustainability. Universities are engines of societal transformation, can nurture future citizens and can navigate them towards Sustainability through their educational programmes. The contribution of these programmes to Sustainability depends on how well aligned their intended learning outcomes are to Sustainability and then how effective they are in developing these as competences in students. The tool developed therefore first reviews the alignment of University programmes intended learning outcomes to the enabling conditions for a vision of Sustainability based on the SDGs to emerge and then how effective the programmes are in developing Sustainability competences in their students. The first part is based on a systemic grouping of the SDGs into eight Sustainability attributes, using multi-criteria analysis to compare and rank programmes according to the alignment of their learning outcomes to the Sustainability attributes and their contribution to Sustainability. From its testing using data from a University’s eighteen master’s programmes on a range of subjects and then application to compare forty UK and European master’s programmes focusing on environment and Sustainability, findings demonstrated that even environmental programmes face some important gaps related to health, wellbeing, diversity, inclusion, and collaboration, amongst others, and reinforce the need for all universities to understand the contribution of their programmes to Sustainability. The second part of the tool developed covered the effectiveness of educational programmes by evaluating the attainment of Sustainability competences in University students. Its application was demonstrated through a case study of a Master’s programme, offering insights of how it can benefit Higher Education practitioners to improve how they deliver their programmes’ learning outcomes as Sustainability competences in students, and how they can use the evidence created to monitor progress. As an example, the potential of the tool to inform the programme’s ongoing curriculum review was discussed. Considering the potential to shape learners from a young age towards behaviours aligned with promotion of planetary health and wellbeing, the framework was then applied and further developed for school education. Its application for selecting and assessing learning outcomes for Sustainability was researched in two case studies in the UK, conducted in a primary and a secondary school that followed different approaches in integrating ESD into their curricula. The primary school introduced ESD as the thread that pervades and links all curricular subjects, whereas the secondary school introduced a new course on the SDGs. Both schools were found to be effective in developing the intended learning outcomes in their students, with some weaknesses related to their approach identified as well. Overall the thesis delivered its objectives, demonstrating the framework’s potential to evaluate the contribution of education to Sustainability, as well as to assess students’ Sustainability competences development at different stages, contributing to the operationalisation of the role of educational programmes to Sustainability transformation.Open Acces

Responsible research and innovation in science education: insights from evaluating the impact of using digital media and arts-based methods on RRI values

The European Commission policy approach of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) is gaining momentum in European research planning and development as a strategy to align scientific and technological progress with socially desirable and acceptable ends. One of the RRI agendas is science education, aiming to foster future generations' acquisition of skills and values needed to engage in society responsibly. To this end, it is argued that RRI-based science education can benefit from more interdisciplinary methods such as those based on arts and digital technologies. However, the evidence existing on the impact of science education activities using digital media and arts-based methods on RRI values remains underexplored. This article comparatively reviews previous evidence on the evaluation of these activities, from primary to higher education, to examine whether and how RRI-related learning outcomes are evaluated and how these activities impact on students' learning. Forty academic publications were selected and its content analysed according to five RRI values: creative and critical thinking, engagement, inclusiveness, gender equality and integration of ethical issues. When evaluating the impact of digital and arts-based methods in science education activities, creative and critical thinking, engagement and partly inclusiveness are the RRI values mainly addressed. In contrast, gender equality and ethics integration are neglected. Digital-based methods seem to be more focused on students' questioning and inquiry skills, whereas those using arts often examine imagination, curiosity and autonomy. Differences in the evaluation focus between studies on digital media and those on arts partly explain differences in their impact on RRI values, but also result in non-documented outcomes and undermine their potential. Further developments in interdisciplinary approaches to science education following the RRI policy agenda should reinforce the design of the activities as well as procedural aspects of the evaluation research

Teaching climate change in the context of the climate system. A mixed method study on the development of systems thinking skills in German 7th grade students regarding the climate

Research has shown a fragmented understanding of climate change among students that hardly accounts for the dynamic interrelations in the climate system and may pose a barrier in understanding adaptation and mitigation strategies (Shepardson et al., 2017, 2011, Calmbach 2016). While much is known the impact of short-term interventions on the general system understanding of students, what is lacking to date is 1) a specific intervention on climate system understanding and 2) insights into the process of developing system understanding in students. Helpful insights in this context come from Conceptual Development theories for they allow the development of systemic thinking to be viewed in terms of conceptual expansion or conceptual change. Starting from these desiderates, a teaching-learning sequence was developed based on the SYSDENE model of system competence (Frischknecht et al. 2008). In the sequence young learners systematically link experiences from formal science education with the experiences at three non-formal learning environments. A mixed-methods approach was used to explore the impact of this 3-month sequence on 19 7th grade students. A written pre-/post-test suggested a significant improvement in Climate System Reconstruction for the group (pre-test Median = 6.75 vs. post-test Median = 12.5, Wilcoxon Test: p = .003, r = .82). However, a qualitative analysis of classroom conversations, interviews and concept maps indicated that cognitive development toward a higher level of system thinking was neither continuous nor did every student reach it. Moreover, the SYSDENE model’s Competence Area “Describe System Model” proves critical. Being able to describe the main climate system factors is not sufficient, one also needs to be able to distinct weather from climate and grasp several scientific concepts related to the climate (e.g. greenhouse effect, water cycle, evaporation, reflection) in order to understand climate as a system. (DIPF/Orig.)Der Beitrag ist Teil einer größeren Studie zur Entwicklung von Systemdenken in Bezug auf das Klima bei Gesamtschüler:innen der Jahrgangsstufe 7. Wie die Forschung zeigt, weisen Schüler:innen ein fragmentiertes Verständnis des Klimawandels auf, das dynamische Zusammenhänge im Klimasystem kaum berücksichtigt und insofern ein Hindernis für das Verständnis von Anpassungs- und Minderungsstrategien darstellt (Shepardson et al., 2017, 2011, Calmbach 2016). Davon ausgehend wurde eine auf dem SYSDENE-Modell der Systemkompetenz basierende Lehr-Lern-Sequenz zum Klimasystem entwickelt (Frischknecht et al. 2008). In der Sequenz verknüpfen junge Lernende systematisch Erfahrungen aus dem formalen naturwissenschaftlichen Unterricht mit den Erfahrungen in drei non-formalen Lernumgebungen. Mit einem Mixed-Method-Ansatz wurden die Auswirkungen dieser dreimonatigen Sequenz auf 19 Schülerinnen und Schüler der siebten Klasse untersucht. Ein schriftlicher Prä-/Posttest deutete auf eine signifikante Verbesserung in der Rekonstruktion von Klima als komplexes System hin (Median Prä = 6,75, Median Post = 12,5, Wilcoxon-Test: p = .003, r = .82). Eine qualitative Analyse der Klassengespräche, Interviews und Concept Maps zeigte jedoch, dass die kognitive Entwicklung hin zu einer höheren Ebene des Systemischen Denkens weder kontinuierlich verlief, noch von allen Schülern realisiert werden konnte. Darüber hinaus erweist sich der grundlegende Kompetenzbereich "Modell Beschreiben" des SYSDENE-Modells als kritisch. Es genügt hierbei nicht, die wichtigsten Faktoren des Klimasystems beschreiben zu können, Lernende müssen auch in der Lage sein, Wetter und Klima voneinander zu unterscheiden und verschiedene wissenschaftliche Konzepte im Zusammenhang mit dem Klima (z. B. Treibhauseffekt, Wasserkreislauf, Verdunstung, Reflexion) zu verstehen und anzuwenden. (Autorin

Overview and Analysis of Practices with Open Educational Resources in Adult Education in Europe

OER4Adults aimed to provide an overview of Open Educational Practices in adult learning in Europe, identifying enablers and barriers to successful implementation of practices with OER. The project was conducted in 2012-2013 by a team from the Caledonian Academy, Glasgow Caledonian University, funded by The Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (IPTS). The project drew on data from four main sources: • OER4Adults inventory of over 150 OER initiatives relevant to adult learning in Europe • Responses from the leaders of 36 OER initiatives to a detailed SWOT survey • Responses from 89 lifelong learners and adult educators to a short poll • The Vision Papers on Open Education 2030: Lifelong Learning published by IPTS Interpretation was informed by interviews with OER and adult education experts, discussion at the IPTS Foresight Workshop on Open Education and Lifelong Learning 2030, and evaluation of the UKOER programme. Analysis revealed 6 tensions that drive developing practices around OER in adult learning as well 6 summary recommendations for the further development of such practices