University Teaching Assessment through the lens of Sustainability: Assess in order to transform

Author(s):

M. Angeles Ull(presenting / submitting)Pilar Aznar-Minguet(presenting)M.Pilar Martínez-Agut Albert Piñero

Conference:

ECER 2015

Network:

30. Environmental and Sustainability Education Research (ESER)

Format:

Poster

Session Information

30 SES 05.5 PS, General Poster Session

General Poster Session

Time:

2015-09-09

12:30-14:00

Room:

Poster Area

Chair:

Jonas Lysgaard

Contribution

The transition to sustainability cannot be seen as a bet for the future, but as a strategy to be applied in the present time to build sustainable societies. This is the commitment renewed by education for sustainability in the program of Global Action (GAP), promoted in the Aichi-Nagoya Declaration on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) (UNESCO, 2014). Urgent measures are required to strengthen and expand to a greater extent the educational actions focused on the achievement of a viable future, and scale up ESD actions in each of five priority areas; 1) Policy support; 2) Whole –institution approaches- ; 3) Educators; 4) Youth; and 5) Local communities.

In this context, University training represents an important asset to implement sustainability in all of its areas of action, responding to the call of the UNESCO to make specific contributions to launch the GAP. There is evidence that sustainability is being integrated into higher-education institutions' mission and planning, curricula, research, student life, and operations, and that universities have engaged and influenced policy and practice in the area of sustainability (Sterling, 2005; Lozano, 2006; Rowe, 2007). But progress in reorienting the curriculum in relation to sustainable development has been slow (Tilbury, 2012a, b). The literature and research in the area to date show few successful examples of comprehensive large-scale curriculum change (De Harpe & Thomas, 2009). Ensuring a future quality academic practice in higher education requires institutional structures which support sustainability principles and practice; but also university educators who are motivated and capable of embedding sustainability in their teaching, regardless of the courses they teach (UNECE, 2011; Barth, 2014). According to the UNECE strategy for education for the sustainable development of United Nations University education thus understood requires a change of culture teaching empowering educators and building competences (knowledge, skills and attitudes) for educators whose task it is to prepare learners for a fulfilling, productive and environmentally sustainable life (UNECE, 2013; Aznar-Minguet & Martinez-Agut, 2013)

The present study aims to:

a) diagnose the level of introduction of sustainability in teaching activities.

b) facilitate professional self-evaluation of the University teaching staff from sustainability criteria.

c) implement the application of principles and criteria related to sustainability in university teaching for the change required by the transition to sustainability.

The evaluation of sustainability in teaching activities has a regulatory role of the teaching-learning processes and allows university to guide the direction of successive training processes. For such evaluation a self-diagnostic questionnaire, which has already been built and validated, has been used (Aznar Minguet et al., 2014a)

Method

With this aim, an evaluative research is proposed as a methodology associated with the socio-critical paradigm, where aim instrument is proposed to evaluate the presence of sustainability in the teaching activities of the University teaching staff. It involves the application of value judgments to both know the effectiveness of the activities carried out with respect to this area of intervention, and determine the degree of success in relation to the objectives pursued (Lukas & Santiago, 2009). It is an action research focused on change and decision making, for a transforming action in University teaching, which is needed for the transition to sustainability. Based on this assumption, the present paper focuses on analyzing the finding of a study conducted in Valencia (Spain), during 2014 academic year, in which a previously validated self-diagnostic questionnaire was applied. This questionnaire allows to evaluate the teaching activity of the teaching staff with a series of items grouped in four areas: to) sustainability within the contents and activities of the subject which is taught, 8 items; (b) sustainability within teacher’s attitudes and behaviours, 6 items; (c) teacher training in relation to sustainability, 5 items; and (d) Sustainability according to the resources they use and the wastes they produce, 8 items (Aznar Minguet et al 2014 b). Using some features from the Delphi methodology, we have assigned weighting coefficients which quantify the importance of each area. The questions contained in the items require type answers: a lot, quite, little, nothing. They rely on consensual value judgements about an accomplished performance, and allow us to establish strategies for individual and curriculum improvement, since the domain grades in each evaluated content are clearly identified. The target population has been all teachers (n=632) of the scientific and technical areas of the University of Valencia, who have teaching duties in the faculties of Biology Sciences, Physics, Mathematics and Chemistry, and in the Higher Technical School of Engineering. A statistically significant sample of this population (152 teachers) has been taken, with a 95.5% confidence level and an uncertainty level of 7%, enough to achieve the validation objective. The sample has been correspondingly subdivided between the different centres, departments and categories, and gender of the teaching staff. The analysis of data has been done with Data desk 7.

Expected Outcomes

The results offer a diagnosis about the inclusion of sustainability in teaching within the study areas of science and engineering, and serve as a starting point to initiate a process of change and transition towards teaching practices that include the principles, criteria and values related to sustainability. The questionnaire is inserted in the Virtual Classroom of the University, so that teachers can periodically self-apply it and assess about the improvement achieved in their teaching activities. Its regular completion, allows teachers to automatically view the valuations obtained in each of the four assessed fields.

References

Aznar Minguet, P.; Ull, M. A.; Piñero, A. & Martínez Agut, M.P. (2014a) Evaluation of Sustainability in the Teaching of University Professors: Construction and Validation of a Self-diagnostic Questionnaire. Communication/poster. European Congress of Educational Research. ECER. Oporto. Aznar Minguet, P.; Ull, M. A.; Piñero, A. & Martínez Agut, M. P. (2014b) Autodiagnóstico de la inclusión de la sostenibilidad en las actividades docentes del profesorado universitario.Universidad de Valencia. Licencia creative commons by.nc-nd. OTRI (UV): 126721 Aznar Minguet, P. & Martínez Agut, M.P. (2013) La perspectiva de la sostenibilidad en la sociedad del conocimiento interconectado: gobernanza, educación, ética. Revista de Teoría de la Educación. Educación y Cultura en la Sociedad de la Información (TESI),14(3), pp. 37-60 Barth, M. (2014) Implementing Sustainability in Higher Education. Learning in an age of transformation. London. Routledge Publishers. De Harpe B, & Thomas, I. (2009) Curriculum Change in Universities: Conditions that Facilitate Education for Sustainable Development. Journal of Education for Sustainable Development 1 March: 75-85. Lozano, R. (2006). Incorporation and institutionalization of sustainable development into universities: breaking through barriers to change. Journal of Cleaner Production, 14 (9 & 11), 787-796. Lukas, J. F. & Santiago, K. (2009) Evaluación Educativa (Segunda Edición). Madrid: Alianza Editorial. Sterling, S. (2005) Higher education, sustainability, and the role of systemic learning in Blaze Corcoran P.B. and Wals, A. E.J. (Eds) Higher Education and the Challenge of Sustainability: Problematics, Promise and Practice, Dordretch: Kluwer Academic Press Tilbury, D. (2012) Another World is Desirable: Transforming Higher Education for Sustainability In, Sterling, S, Maxey, L and Luna H, (eds) The Sustainable University: Process and Prospects, London: Earthscan/Routledge. ISBN: 978-0-415-62774-0 Rowe, D. (2007) Education for a Sustainable Future. Science Vol. 317 (5836), pp. 323-324. DOI: 10.1126/science.1143552 UNECE (2011) Strategy for Education for Sustainable development. ECE/CEP/AC13/2011/6 UNECE (2013) Empowering educators for a sustainable future. Tools for policy and practice workshops on competences in education for sustainable development. ECE/CEP/AC.13/2013/4. GE.13-20120 UNESCO (2014) World Conference on Education for sustainable development: learning today for a sustainable future. Aichi-Nagoya (Japón) 10-12 noviembre de 2014. www.unesco.org/new/en/unesco-world-conference-on-esd-2014/.

Author Information

M. Angeles Ull (presenting / submitting)

university of Valencia (Spain)

ERI Sustainability Studies

Valencia

Pilar Aznar-Minguet (presenting)

University of Valencia (Spain)

VALENCIA

M.Pilar Martínez-Agut

ERI Sustainability Studies. University of Valencia, Spain

Albert Piñero

University of Valencia, Spain

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