scholarly journals The Influence of Formal and Informal Education on Students’ Sustainable Development Skills, a Study in Iran

2021 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 25-35
Author(s):  
Mahtab Pouratashi
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Informal Education ◽  
Creative Thinking ◽  
Public Universities ◽  
Education For Sustainable Development ◽  
Education Students ◽  
Good Level ◽  
Sustainable Future

Abstract This study aimed to understand the influence of formal and informal education on students’ sustainable development skills. A sample of 567 students studying Humanities, Agriculture, or Engineering at public universities of Iran participated in this study. A survey was used to investigate students’ skills for sustainable development according to different forms of education. Students’ sustainable development skills were assessed including: empathy, participatory skill, systems­thinking, creative thinking, and anticipatory thinking. The results indicated that students had a good level of skills for sustainable development. Differences and similarities were found on students’ skills by different forms of education and learning. The findings confirmed that education is useful to improve individuals’ skills for sustainable development and confirmed the key role of education for sustainable development in addressing sustainable future.

Education for Sustainable Development (ESD)

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adib Rifqi Setiawan
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Education For Sustainable Development ◽  
Sustainable Future ◽  
The Way

Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) empowers people to change the way they think and work towards a sustainable future.

scholarly journals Current Practices and Future Pathways towards Competencies in Education for Sustainable Development

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (16) ◽  
pp. 8733
Author(s):  
Gisela Cebrián ◽  
Mercè Junyent ◽  
Ingrid Mulà
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Informal Education ◽  
Model Building ◽  
Education For Sustainable Development ◽  
Project Based Learning ◽  
Assessment Tools ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Group Model ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Competencies Development

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development reflects the urgency to embed the principles of education for sustainable development (ESD) into all levels of education. ESD, understood as an integral part of quality education and where all educational institutions, from preschool to higher education and in non-formal and informal education, can and should foster the development of sustainability competencies. This Special Issue entitled “Competencies in Education for Sustainable Development II” responds to this urgency and the papers presented deliver recent developments in the field of sustainability and ESD competencies. They focus on various perspectives: systematic literature reviews and conceptual contributions; curriculum developments and pedagogical approaches to explore competencies’ development, such as action research, serious games, augmented reality, multi-course project-based learning and group model building processes; testing and validation of assessment tools and processes for linking sustainability competencies to employability and quality assurance processes. The contributions show how the field of sustainability and ESD competencies has become a major focus in recent years and present emerging research developments. Further research efforts need to be put into operationalizing sustainability competencies and developing tools that help measure and assess students’ and educators’ competencies development.

Education for Sustainable Development

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-3
Author(s):  
Meghna Tare
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
South Carolina ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Informal Education ◽  
Local Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
Education For Sustainable Development ◽  
Sustainable Solutions ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Multi Stakeholder

In 2003, in response to the United Nations (UN) Decade of Education for Sustainable Development, the United Nations University (UNU) Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability launched a global multi-stakeholder network of Regional Centers of Expertise (RCEs) on education for sustainable development (ESD). RCEs facilitate multi-sector collaboration and utilize formal, non-formal, and informal education to address sustainable development challenges in local and regional communities. In essence, RCEs are a tool for transformation to a more sustainable society, combining education and action for sustainable development. As we enter the new "ESD for 2030" decade, RCEs will continue to construct platforms for cross-sectoral dialogue between regional stakeholders and actors to promote and strengthen ESD at the local level. RCEs have committed to helping advance the five priority areas of action established in the Global Action Program on ESD and the new UN decade "ESD for 2030": advancing policy by mainstreaming ESD, transforming learning and training environments using whole-institution approaches, building capacities of educators and trainers, empowering and mobilizing youth, and accelerating sustainable solutions at the local level. RCEs are uniquely positioned to serve as shepherds in the realization of the new "ESD for 2030" decade. As of January 2019, 174 RCEs have officially been acknowledged by UNU worldwide, with eight RCEs in the United States: Georgetown, South Carolina; Grand Rapids, Michigan; Greater Atlanta, Georgia; Greater Burlington, Vermont; Greater Portland, Oregon; North Texas, Texas; Salisbury, Maryland; and Shenandoah Valley, Virginia. RCEs serve an essential role in the achievement of "ESD for 2030" goals by translating global objectives into the local contexts of our communities.

Education for sustainable development in Spanish higher education: an assessment of sustainability competencies in engineering and education degrees

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fermín Sánchez-Carracedo ◽  
Daniel Romero-Portillo ◽  
Bàrbara Sureda Carbonell ◽  
Francisco Manuel Moreno-Pino
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Education For Sustainable Development ◽  
First Year ◽  
Education Students ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Spanish Higher Education ◽  
Percentage Measure ◽  
University Degree

Purpose This paper aims to present a methodology for analysing the extent to which students of a university degree perceive that they have received a good education for sustainable development (ESD). The methodology enables us to quantify this perception, which, in turn, allows us to determine: to what extent the objectives related to ESD are achieved in the degree, and to compare the learning in ESD perceived by students of different degrees. The methodology is applied to nine engineering degrees and nine education degrees in the Spanish university system. Design/methodology/approach ESD is analysed from the students’ learning perception. This perception is measured by comparing the responses of first- and fourth-year students to a questionnaire about their sustainability competencies. Two indicators have been designed to analyse the results. The first indicator, learning increase, measures the declared learning difference between fourth- and first-year students. The second indicator, learning percentage, measure the amount of learning as reported by fourth-year students compared to how much they could have learned. Findings The results show that the average learning percentage perceived by students is higher in engineering degrees (33%) than in education degrees (27%), despite the fact that the average learning increase declared by students at the end of their studies in both areas of knowledge is similar (66%). Engineering students report having achieved higher learning than education students in all sustainability competencies, with the exception of ethics. Originality/value This paper analyses ESD from the student’s perspective. Furthermore, to the knowledge of the authors, this is the first study that compares the perception of ESD between engineering and education students. This comparison allows us to determine the different approaches that university Professors take to ESD according to the discipline they teach.

scholarly journals Can Education for Sustainable Development Change Entrepreneurship Education to Deliver a Sustainable Future?

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 36-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Glenn Strachan
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Action Plan ◽  
Youth Unemployment ◽  
Entrepreneurship Education ◽  
Education For Sustainable Development ◽  
Economic Systems ◽  
Sustainable Entrepreneurship ◽  
Sustainable Future ◽  
Development Change ◽  
Sustainability Challenges

Abstract An objective of the European Union’s Entrepreneurship 2020 Action Plan is to address high levels of youth unemployment in Europe by promoting entrepreneurship. Implementing entrepreneurship education in schools, colleges and universities is one of three strategic interventions proposed by the Action Plan. Sustainable entrepreneurship is a recognised branch of the wider field of entrepreneurship and the literature on sustainable entrepreneurship sees it as a means of addressing some of the sustainability challenges of the 21st century. This article compares the pedagogical approaches and the competences of ESD (Education for Sustainable Development) with those of entrepreneurship education to identify how ESD might influence entrepreneurship education in order to develop entrepreneurs that contribute to a sustainable future. This comparison is placed in the context of the broader debate on the need to transform the dominant neo-liberal economic systems as part of the precondition for achieving a more sustainable future.

The Denaturation of Environmental Education: Exploring the Role of Ecotechnologies

2015 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annette Gough ◽  
Noel Gough
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Environmental Education ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Citizenship Education ◽  
Global Citizenship ◽  
Intrinsic Value ◽  
Education For Sustainable Development ◽  
Resource Base ◽  
Natural Resource Base

AbstractThis article explores the changing ways ‘environment’ has been represented in the discourses of environmental education and education for sustainable development (ESD) in United Nations (and related) publications since the 1970s. It draws on the writings of Jean-Luc Nancy and discusses the increasingly dominant view of the environment as a ‘natural resource base for economic and social development’ (United Nations, 2002, p. 2) and how this instrumentalisation of nature is produced by discourses and ‘ecotechnologies’ that ‘identify and define the natural realm in our relationship with it’ (Boetzkes, 2010, p. 29). This denaturation of nature is reflected in the priorities for sustainable development discussed at Rio+20 and proposed successor UNESCO projects. The article argues for the need to reassert the intrinsic value of ‘environment’ in education discourses and discusses strategies for so doing. The article is intended as a wake-up call to the changing context of the ‘environment’ in ESD discourses. In particular, we need to respond to the recent UNESCO (2013a, 2013b) direction of global citizenship education as the successor to the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development 2005–2014 that continues to reinforce an instrumentalist view of the environment as part of contributing to ‘a more just, peaceful, tolerant, inclusive, secure and sustainable world’ (UNESCO, 2013a, p. 3).

scholarly journals Innovation projects in the area of formal, non-formal and informal education for sustainable development

2021 ◽  
pp. 63-75
Author(s):  
Liudmila Sokolova ◽  
Dmitrii Sergeevich Ermakov
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Informal Education ◽  
Education For Sustainable Development ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Complex Nature ◽  
Environmental Aspects ◽  
Award Winning ◽  
Positive Individual ◽  
Innovation Projects ◽  
Societal Changes

Education for sustainable development (ESD) has been one of the priority vectors in the activity of international organizations since 1990s. The UNESCO-Japan Prize on Education for sustainable development has been awarded since 2015. This article is dedicated to the analysis of innovation projects in the area of formal, non-formal and informal education for sustainable development that have received this award over the period from 2015-= to 2019. The subject of this research is the content of projects and programs of the winner countries in the corresponding areas of ESD. The systemic approach demonstrates that the initiatives that equally affect social, economic and environmental aspects of ESD and lead to positive individual and societal changes become the winners. It is determined that the share of projects and programs in the area of formal and informal education is insignificant  (7 and 13%, respectively). Despite a considerable number for informal ESD (33%), most of the initiatives (47%) are of complex nature. The advanced experience of the award-winning countries complement the existing representations on the opportunities of studying the questions of sustainable development in the area of non-formal and informal education, as well as indicates the benefits of continuous ESD throughout life. For the implementation of ESD, the authors employ general institutional approach that reveals the strategy of activity of the educational institutions oriented towards sustainable development, which results in subsequent “ESD-transformation” of the traditional model of education.

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