Engineering students' sustainability learning: Examining opportunities to learn about sustainability and their role in student outcomes

Abstract Background Engineering students will be responsible for building new technologies that either mitigate or exacerbate future sustainability problems. Engineering educators are thus tasked with educating engineering students on the knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors that will make them change makers of the future. Purpose The purpose of this research was to examine the learning opportunity structures that engineering students experience, as well as how students' opportunities to learn about sustainability‐related issues are related to cognitive and behavioral learning outcomes. Methods We surveyed engineering students at a large, public Midwestern university at the beginning and end of an academic year. Using structural equation modeling, this analysis focuses on engineering students' self‐reported opportunities to learn about sustainability‐related issues, as well as their self‐reported learning outcomes. Results We document sociodemographic differences in students' sustainability learning outcomes, including statistically significant sex differences in leadership and activism behaviors among engineering students. Additionally, various opportunities to learn about sustainability appear to be related to different learning outcomes, with implications for faculty pedagogies and learning activities. Finally, the relationship between cocurricular participation in sustainability‐related activities and cognitive and behavioral learning outcomes appears to be mediated by students' opportunities for learning about sustainability. Conclusion Engineering educators must carefully conceptualize the relationship between various opportunities to learn about sustainability and the specific learning outcomes those learning opportunities may foster. Moreover, opportunities to engage in sustainability‐related actions outside of the classroom may enhance students' learning in engineering education.