Higher Education Didactis for Sustainability - HEDS 

Objectives 

The purpose of the course is that the participants develop the ability to incorporate education for sustainable development into a course, program or other pedagogical activities within higher education, with  subject, scientific and subject didactic overbearings taken into account, but also show didactical readiness for action to incorporate education for sustainable development into higher education.

Learning Outcomes 

• Be able to create and critically discuss suggestions for integrating education for sustainable development into higher education.
  
  

Course Content 

• How do we make sense of sustainability? 
  To make sense of why learning for a sustainable development is necessary and what it means, this encourages you to explore a few basic questions necessary to engage in.
• Competences, and frameworks and curriculum 
  Participants will learn to work with key sustainability competencies such as systems thinking, values thinking, self-reflection, and teacher competencies. Also, you will learn how to work practically with learning activities to support attaining key competencies, and systematically to assess curriculum integration of key competencies.
  
  
• Didactical models for teaching and learning in ESD 
  Three concepts central for ESD are introduced: holism, pluralism and transdisciplinarity. Questions to explore are: How is knowledge related to sustainability transformed into higher education teaching and learning? In what ways can different disciplines contribute a holistic perspective on sustainability issues?
  
  
• The future role of the university 
  Aims to help you explore the role of universities, and our educations, in relation to future scenarios is discussed: What scenarios of the future seem likely and is it for those scenarios that we educate our students? Is it possible to prepare students for a diversity of different future scenarios and is this something we are already doing? What are the different perceptions of how universities can and should act and how do we act at  universities where we work?
  
  

Examination 

Group assignment, problem based learning. 

• active participation in the PBL group ​
• participation in group work both synchronously and asynchronously, taking responsibility for tasks, creating presentations, giving feedback to colleagues etc.​
• Meetings 1-2times each week 

Written assignment, reflective blog posts for each topic

• approx. 200-400 words each, include references to literature/resources.

Practice, giving peer feedback. 

• comment on reflections ​written by your peers, at least once for each topic.
  ​

Literature 

The course literature consists of scientific articles and other resources openly available online.  For each topic we provide a list of readings and other resources which participants can chose from. Below you can see some of the key articles we will use: 

Getting started week

We recommend two articles, please consider them optional and see our comments below.

• Savin-Baden, M., (2014) Problem-based learning: New constellations for the 21stCentury. Journal of Excellence in College Teaching 25. (3/4) 197-219. Problem-based learning-New constellations for the 21stCentury.2014.Savin-Baden.pdf
  If you are not so familiar with PBL and collaborative learning, this article (and the whole journal issue) could be a good starting point.
• Kek, M. & Huijser, H. (2015). 21st century skills: problem based learning and the University of the FutureLinks to an external site.. Paper Third 21st Century Academic Forum Conference, Harvard, Boston, USA. 21st century skills-problem based learning and the University of the Future.kekhuijser.pdf
  This one is more “inspiring” and maybe preferable if you already know something about PBL.

Topic 1

• Hopwood, B., Mellor, M., and O’Brien, G. (2005). Sustainable development: mapping different approachesLinks to an external site.. Sustainable Development, 13(1):38–52.
  (Compares how different approaches towards sustainability are grounded in ecological or social concerns.)
• Holmqvist, D., & Millenberg, F. (2024). Carving space to learn for sustainable futures: A theory-informed adult education approach to teaching. European journal for Research on the Education and Learning of Adults, 15(3), 299-315. https://rela.ep.liu.se/article/view/5237/4405

Topic 2

• Brundiers, K., Barth, M., Cebrián, G. et al. Key competencies in sustainability in higher education—toward an agreed-upon reference frameworkLinks to an external site.. Sustain Sci 16, 13–29 (2021). (overview of sustainability competencies)
• UNESCO (2017). Education for sustainable development goals: Learning objectives (Key competencies, learning objectives and learning activities related to the SDGs).

Topic 3 

• Wilhelm, S., Förster, R., & Zimmermann, A. B. (2019). Implementing competence orientation: Towards constructively aligned education for sustainable development in university-level teaching-and-learning Links to an external site.. Sustainability, 11(7), 1891.

Topic 4

• Maniates, M (2017) “Suddenly more than academic: Higher education for a post-growth world” from the book EarthEd: Rethinking Education on a Changing Planet. Links to an external site.or at Maniates bloggLinks to an external site. 

Topic 5 

• Group creations and participant`s learning reflections