Scholarly record
THE EDUCATION FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT FOR ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING STUDENTS
Abstract
The pollution, climate changes, loss of biodiversity and other factors have an impact on human health and is one of reasons to develop and try to come closer to the goals of sustainable development. The Agenda 2030 requires innovations and switch from linear economy to resilient and circular economy. To achieve sustainability there is a need for education for sustainable development. This term is actual already for two decades but still integration of education for sustainable development in study programs is a problematic issue. There are many reasons, firstly education for sustainable development is politically promoted and pedagogical theories and learning approaches are still in progress, secondly the sustainability topic is multidimensional and complicated, and often focused on eco-centric approach. The aim of this study is to develop and apply education for sustainable development e-learning module for environmental engineering students. The e-learning module was developed basing on twelve topics of education for sustainable development. The first step of e-learning module was focused on traditional lecture and seminar based learning approach. Students’ knowledge was tested before and after the course. The second step of the experiment was to apply active learning approach where students were divided into two groups: first group learned using traditional approach and the second group learned using active learning approach. The results show significant increase in knowledge p-value <0.001. The active learning approach shows significantly p-value <0.001 higher results in knowledge tests. The education of sustainable development requires the change of learning approaches and develop active learning methods, to develop students’ knowledge in sustainability field.
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