Students' Perspectives on Sustainability Competences and Pedagogical Approaches: Groupings and Interrelations Results From 17 International Case Studies

ABSTRACT Higher education institutions (HEIs) have been incorporating sustainability into their curricula, which is crucial for providing students with the skills and knowledge to help societies become more sustainable. During the last 15 years, there has been increasing research on sustainability competences and the pedagogical approaches to develop them. There have been proposals on lists of competences, pedagogical approaches, their groups and their links. However, most research has focused on the perspective of educators, with limited research from the students' perspective. This paper aims to provide the students' perspective of the groups of sustainability competences, groups of pedagogical approaches, and how these connect. A survey was developed for this purpose, which was applied to participants from 17 HEIs worldwide. The responses obtained were analysed in a five‐step process: Descriptive statistics, Spearman correlations, Principal Component analysis (PCA) to detect the competence and pedagogical approaches groups, correlations between the groups and regressions between the groups. The PCA analysis resulted in three competences' groups and confirmed the three pedagogical approach groups. The analyses showed differences in the competences' groups between the students' and educators' perspectives. The regression analysis groups shows how the pedagogical approach groups develop the competences' groups from the students' perspective. Developing sustainability competences requires a change in the higher educational system, where the educators' and students' perspectives need to converge so that the sustainability competence–based education model is more efficient and effective in educating the future leaders, decision‐makers, educators, management and professionals.

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Publication Details

Journal
Sustainable Development
Published
2025-01-29
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.3368
Citations
4
Primary Topic
Sustainability in Higher Education
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
35.70
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article

Students' Perspectives on Sustainability Competences and Pedagogical Approaches: Groupings and Interrelations Results From 17 International Case Studies

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35.70
article

Students' Perspectives on Sustainability Competences and Pedagogical Approaches: Groupings and Interrelations Results From 17 International Case Studies

María Teresa Jiménez‐Munguía, João Simão, Rodrigo Lozano, Janna Pietikäinen, Rob Hales, Leyla Azizi, Gabriela Ortiz‐Martínez, Şevket Can Bostancı, Savindi Caldera, María Barreiro‐Gen, Ilona Södervik, Claudio Favi, René Alejandro Lara Díaz, Cheryl Desha, Carmen Gago‐Cortés, Sandra Caeiro, Rami Ratvio, Javier Benayas del Álamo, Ilija V. Djekic, Remmer Sassen, Ubiratã Tortato, Ferenc Mónus, Orlando Sáenz, María Alló, Márta D. Tóth, Alberto Mendoza, Jordi Segalàs Coral, Nelly Ramírez‐Corona, Bartłomiej Gładysz, Jennifer Boddy, Déborah Xanat Flores Cervantes
article en
4 citations

Abstract

ABSTRACT Higher education institutions (HEIs) have been incorporating sustainability into their curricula, which is crucial for providing students with the skills and knowledge to help societies become more sustainable. During the last 15 years, there has been increasing research on sustainability competences and the pedagogical approaches to develop them. There have been proposals on lists of competences, pedagogical approaches, their groups and their links. However, most research has focused on the perspective of educators, with limited research from the students' perspective. This paper aims to provide the students' perspective of the groups of sustainability competences, groups of pedagogical approaches, and how these connect. A survey was developed for this purpose, which was applied to participants from 17 HEIs worldwide. The responses obtained were analysed in a five‐step process: Descriptive statistics, Spearman correlations, Principal Component analysis (PCA) to detect the competence and pedagogical approaches groups, correlations between the groups and regressions between the groups. The PCA analysis resulted in three competences' groups and confirmed the three pedagogical approach groups. The analyses showed differences in the competences' groups between the students' and educators' perspectives. The regression analysis groups shows how the pedagogical approach groups develop the competences' groups from the students' perspective. Developing sustainability competences requires a change in the higher educational system, where the educators' and students' perspectives need to converge so that the sustainability competence–based education model is more efficient and effective in educating the future leaders, decision‐makers, educators, management and professionals.

Sustainable DevelopmentVol. 33(3)
Warsaw University of Technology (PL), Universidade da Coruña (ES), Griffith University (AU), University of Parma (IT), University of Debrecen (HU), University of Helsinki (FI), University of the Sunshine Coast (AU), Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Paraná (BR), Universidade Aberta (PT), European University Cyprus (CY), University of Applied and Environmental Sciences (CO), University of Belgrade (RS), Dresden International University (DE), University of Nyíregyháza (HU), International University Institute (IHI) Zittau (DE), Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (ES), Universidad de las Américas Puebla (MX), Technische Universität Dresden (DE), Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (ES), Tecnológico de Monterrey (MX)
Openalex Percentile: Top 1%
Sustainability in Higher Education
35.70
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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