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Pedagogical Innovations for Sustainable Development

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Education and Approaches".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 October 2018) | Viewed by 18378

Special Issue Editors

Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama 36849, United States
Interests: education for sustainable development; sustainability science; sustainable development; sustainable development engineering, especially in a West Indian context; freshwater quality; engineering education
Baldwin Wallace University, Berea, Ohio 44017, United States
Interests: water and wastewater treatment and design; renewable energy; global engineering education; sustainable development for the developing world; engineering education; entrepreneurship; innovation

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Education is an important component for progress in the developed and developing world. The access to education, the quality of education, and education that strives to incorporate aspects of sustainability are key factors in addressing current global challenges.

To achieve a paradigm shift in education for sustainability and sustainable development, there is a need for (i) a formal education reform, (ii) integration of sustainability in non-formal education setting and outreach, and (iii) strengthened education for sustainability (President’s Council on Sustainable Development, 1996). The dissemination of successful education practices that incorporate sustainability across the globe would allow individuals, educational institutions (formal and non-formal), organizations, industry, and practitioners to assess, modify, and/or integrate these practices into their particular settings. The diffusion and adoption of best educational practices for sustainability is critical to addressing global challenges that current and future society will face.

For continued adoption and diffusion of sustainability concepts to be put into practice there is a critical need for an understanding of contemporary approaches that vary from region to region around the world. With advances in modern end-user technology come more menu options for the propagation of sustainability education diffusion. The impact of the adoption based on renewed educational methods and models need to be captured. This Special Issue attempts to capture a comprehensive collection of contemporary approaches to sustainability education.

The materials covered in this Special Issue will expand on the fields of the social sciences, engineering, sciences, education, and business. Some aspects that the topics in this special issue attempt to expand on include:

Recommended topics include, but are not limited to the following:

  • The use of modern technology as the pedagogical innovation for sustainability education – inclusive of the use of blogs, webinars, podcasts, apps (smartphones and tablets), and all social media.
  • Targeted sustainability education approaches based on differentiated learner typer/learning stypes.
  • Infusion of sustainable development into both formal and informal education
  • Sustainable development in kindergarten, primary, secondary, postsecondary/vocational/adult, community college/college/university, graduate school, informal education.
  • Challenges of integrating sustainable development—details of what they were and how were they were chosen. Details of the assessment of challenges and how they were overcome or why challenges were not addressed. For challenges not addressed, authors will be asked to explain how best they could have been resolved.
  • Successes of integrating sustainable development—measures of success: What was carried out to have a declaration of success, backed by numbers, statistics, etc., would be needed.
  • Peda- or Andragogy—analysis of both the teaching and learning techniques utilized to bring about sustainable development education. Details on why certain teaching and learning techniques were chosen would be expected.
  • Sample Module of Sustainable Development with proven impact—for any successful case, at least one sample module should be provided that clearly links to the pedagogical or andragogical principles of the case, as well as the resources needed to teach the lesson. This will be crucial for other practitioners to be able to adopt the module to their individual needs in consideration of the attached success and challenges.
  • Outreach/extension education (to include NGOs)/lifelong learning.
  • Teacher and faculty training programs inclusive of train-the-trainer approaches.
  • Assessment of national, regional, and/or global efforts of infusing sustainable development into education.
  • Interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary approaches to teaching sustainable development
  • Institutional frameworks/organizational (re)structuring and new approaches to promote sustainability/sustainable development education among specialized populations (e.g., students, staff/workforce, skilled/unskilled labor).
  • Education for preservation of indigenous methods and techniques for sustainable development in ecologically sensitive and economically repressed regions of the world.
  • Governmental and non-governmental partnerships for education for sustainable development and sustainability—local, community, state, regional, and international.

Reference

President's Council on Sustainable Development. 1996. Sustainable America: A New Consensus for Prosperity, Opportunity, and A Healthy Environment for the Future. Washington, DC: U. S. Government Printing Office.

Dr. Ken D. Thomas
Dr. Helen Muga
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Education for Sustainable Development
  • Diffusion and adoption of sustainability
  • Sustainability pedagogy/andragogy
  • Traditional educational approaches
  • Corporate/workforce educational approaches
  • Teaching methodologies by learner
  • Educational technologies
  • Transdisciplinary education

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

17 pages, 896 KiB  
Article
Customized Education as a Framework for Strengthening Collaboration between Higher Education Institutions and Regional Actors in Sustainable Development—Lessons from Albania and Kosovo
by Jonas Meyer, Michael Pillei, Friedrich Zimmermann and Gernot Stöglehner
Sustainability 2018, 10(11), 3941; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su10113941 - 30 Oct 2018
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 2945
Abstract
Higher education institutions (HEIs) in Albania and Kosovo have invested considerable efforts to tackle present regional sustainability challenges on a research-based and strategic level. This happened through their traditional role as a provider of research and education. Additional activities fostering HEIs as a [...] Read more.
Higher education institutions (HEIs) in Albania and Kosovo have invested considerable efforts to tackle present regional sustainability challenges on a research-based and strategic level. This happened through their traditional role as a provider of research and education. Additional activities fostering HEIs as a driver for sustainable regional development and innovation have been initiated as part of their third mission. However, customized education approaches were missing in order to fulfill specific regional demands of different research and learning projects in collaboration with regional actors. This paper explores the recently finished project “Connecting Science-Society Collaboration for Sustainability Innovation—ConSus” which focuses on the efforts of HEIs in Albania and Kosovo to tackle present regional sustainability challenges in both countries. An analytical framework regarding collaborative learning opportunities towards sustainable regional development and innovation has been drafted based on five key elements (capacities of HEIs in regional development, planning, learning and implementation theory, and action research). This framework has been applied to analyze the learning activities of the ConSus project. As a main finding, customized education approaches in the contexts of sustainable development (SD) and collaboration of scientific and regional actors are important elements to cope comprehensively with real-world problems. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Pedagogical Innovations for Sustainable Development)
20 pages, 1019 KiB  
Article
Embedding Higher Education into a Real-World Lab: A Process-Oriented Analysis of Six Transdisciplinary Project Courses
by Richard Beecroft
Sustainability 2018, 10(10), 3798; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su10103798 - 20 Oct 2018
Cited by 14 | Viewed by 3919
Abstract
Since the early days of the emerging research format of Real-world Labs (RwLs), higher education plays a vital role in them. Examples have been presented on teaching activities in RwLs, but the reasons for and evidence of their inclusion stays limited. To start [...] Read more.
Since the early days of the emerging research format of Real-world Labs (RwLs), higher education plays a vital role in them. Examples have been presented on teaching activities in RwLs, but the reasons for and evidence of their inclusion stays limited. To start a systematic discussion on the embedding of higher education in RwLs, this paper presents the case of six Transdisciplinary Project Courses carried out in the RwL “District Future—Urban Lab” in Karlsruhe/Germany. The paper presents the discourses on the role of learning in RwLs and compares it to those on Transition Labs and Urban Living Labs. To offer a new approach to address this aspect, the paper introduces a social practice perspective to map out the interrelations between an RwL and higher education therein. The detailed analysis of the processes is used to identify the potential of the RwL to support learning. It shows that all dimensions of social practice can be identified in the interplay between Real-world Lab and Transdisciplinary Project Courses, even though to a very different degree and in different phases. The text closes with lessons learned for teaching project courses in RwLs and similar labs. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Pedagogical Innovations for Sustainable Development)
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9 pages, 3141 KiB  
Article
Design of an Extended Experiment with Electrical Double Layer Capacitors: Electrochemical Energy Storage Devices in Green Chemistry
by Yannan Lin, Hongxia Zhao, Feng Yu and Jinfeng Yang
Sustainability 2018, 10(10), 3630; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su10103630 - 11 Oct 2018
Cited by 17 | Viewed by 4567
Abstract
An extended undergraduate experiment involving electrochemical energy storage devices and green energy is described herein. This experiment allows for curriculum design of specific training modules in the field of green chemistry. Through the study of electrical double layer capacitors, students learned to assemble [...] Read more.
An extended undergraduate experiment involving electrochemical energy storage devices and green energy is described herein. This experiment allows for curriculum design of specific training modules in the field of green chemistry. Through the study of electrical double layer capacitors, students learned to assemble an electrical double layer capacitor and perform electrochemical measurements (cyclic voltammetry and galvanostatic charge-discharge) to evaluate the effect of various electrolytes. In addition, students powered a diode with the electrical double layer capacitors. We use the laboratory module to successfully connect electrochemistry with green chemistry through the study of a real-world application. In addition, a green chemistry case study was introduced to the laboratory curriculum. During the experiment, students acquired fundamental experience in electrochemistry and gained analysis skills, critical thinking, and scientific literacy. The results of this work can be used as a case study on green chemical education that considers the students’ awareness of renewable and clean energy fields. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Pedagogical Innovations for Sustainable Development)
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16 pages, 1475 KiB  
Article
Evaluating Knowledge and Assessment-Centered Reflective-Based Learning Approaches
by Jordi Colomer, Laura Serra, Dolors Cañabate and Teresa Serra
Sustainability 2018, 10(9), 3122; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su10093122 - 01 Sep 2018
Cited by 34 | Viewed by 6211
Abstract
This paper addresses the development of knowledge and assessment-centered learning approaches within a reflective learning framework in a first-year physics class in a university faculty. The quality of students’ reflections was scored using a Self-reporting Reflective Learning Appraisal Questionnaire at the end of [...] Read more.
This paper addresses the development of knowledge and assessment-centered learning approaches within a reflective learning framework in a first-year physics class in a university faculty. The quality of students’ reflections was scored using a Self-reporting Reflective Learning Appraisal Questionnaire at the end of each learning approach. The results showed the differences between the approaches based on reflections on the learning control through self-knowledge, by connecting experience and knowledge, as well as through self-reflection and self-regulation. Assessment-centered activities fundamentally help students identify aspects of their attitudes towards, as well as regulate, their sustainability learning education. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Pedagogical Innovations for Sustainable Development)
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