Assessing the infusion of sustainability principles into university curricula

open3siThe current paper presents the assessment of the infusion of sustainability principles into university curricula at two Jordanian universities. The peer review process of revising the curricula infusing sustainability principles is also discussed. The research methodology involved quantitative methods to assess the revised courses. The results revealed the following: the most relevant ESD themes in the revised curricula were ìhuman connections to the physical and natural worldî, and ìethics/valuesî. The most relevant ESD topics were: ìsustainable production/consumptionî and ìhealth promotionî. The most infused ESD pillars (competencies) were: ìlearning to knowî and ìlearning to doî. The most relevant ESD principles were: ìpracticed locallyî and ìresponds through applied learningî. The findings offered a rich scenario of the strategies applied by the university professors in revising the curricula, providing evidence of a mental attitude to adopt ESD strategies, as well as a goal-oriented approach in curriculum planning. The paper also discusses the implications of the study results for syllabus revision and development, as well as the refinement of the teaching methods that focus on infusing sustainability into university curricula. Keywords: education for sustainable development, higher education, professional development, curricula revision, Reorient University Curricula to Address Sustainability (RUCAS)openBiasutti, Michele; De Baz, Theodora; Alshawa, HalaBiasutti, Michele; De Baz, Theodora; Alshawa, Hal

Social Representations between Greeks and Jordanians: A comparative study

The present paper refers to a comparative study of Social Representations (SRs) for a sample of 1207 Greek and Jordanians primary school pupils (653 from Rethymnon city of Greece and 554 from Zarka city of Jordan). The data were collected through an open-ended questionnaire. Conceptually, three directions of images or social representations were formulated; positive, neutral and negative. The results clearly show that the direction of images for both samples was moved towards neutral SRs, as depicted by the quantity of statements. The study also revealed that the main source of information about their social representations to each other was the school for the Jordanian pupils and television for the Greek pupils