Assessment is needed to successfully chart a way forward in Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), yet assessment in ESD is underdeveloped both in theory and in practice (Redman, et. al., 2021). It is not just an insufficiency of assessment, what is truly missing is innovation applied with rigor and scale which aligns assessment with the principles of ESD in a way that bolsters its effectiveness in educating change agents (Fischer et al, In Press). The field of ESD itself is increasingly grounded in innovative pedagogies and learning outcomes, and it follows that (learning) assessment must have similar ambition. On top of this, the purpose of assessment is often seen as something that gets in the way of learning, but in fact the summative and formative aspects of assessment can (and should) be mutually supportive of each other (Black, 2013). Finally, while innovation in ESD learning assessment has begun to bubble up in higher education (see for example King et al, 2024), far too little is being done on assessment in K-12. This research therefore asks the question of whether an assessment can be seamlessly integrated into an innovative K-12 education program in a way that meets the principles of ESD, supports learning, and enables measurement of key competency development.

This presentation discusses the first evidence of an attempt to answer this question through the design and implementation of a learning assessment into the Green Transition of Education and educational TECHnology (GreenEdTech) project, a collaborative project focused on integrating ESD into the Danish school system (https://greenedtech.aau.dk/). In GreenEdTech students and teachers collaborate with professional green actors from green industries, public organisations, and NGOs in solving authentic sustainability problems as part of education for sustainable development in elementary/middle school grades 7th – 10th. The collaboration takes place both physically and via the GreenEdTech digital learning platform developed to support education for sustainable development grounded in the real world. This digital learning platform has been developed by a consortium consisting of partners from educational research, IT development, and industry. 

GreenEdTech created the opportunity to fill the aforementioned gap in usable and demonstrably effective ESD learning assessments by designing a framework and tool(s) that are holistically integrated into an ESD learning program. This means that the assessment is carefully aligned with both objectives and pedagogies (Biggs, 1996), built in a way that works seamlessly with the course work, and prioritizes formative goals of bolstering the students' learning. Data is being collected from the implementation of the digital learning platform with 15 schools over the course of 2024 and 2025. These data (such as surveys, student work, interviews, and observations (both in person and via digital logs) are triangulated with the specifically designed assessment tools to validate the assessment approach's ability to both measure and support learning. Throughout, the goal of this effort is to create a tool that is not just an academic exercise (something that is all too common in the field right now), but rather can and will be used after the research is completed to meet both its summative and formative purposes.

Using a research informed approach (Redman 2021; Fischer et. al. In Press), GreenEdTech crafted an assessment framework that is aligned and authentic while supporting both summative and formative purposes. GreenEdTech uses the most widely adopted learning objective framework for ESD, key sustainability competencies (Redman and Wiek, 2021; Brundiers et. al. 2021), and has built standard learning units to go with the competencies systems, futures, values, and strategies. Rubrics were crafted that were aligned with both the learning objectives and the standard content of the learning units. First, sub components of the competencies were identified and a general description of what competency would look like. Specific signs of that competency were developed with further specifics to sort responses into low, medium, and high. These rubrics were piloted on real student work and validated by ESD experts. The core mission of GreenEdTech is to design an approach and build a digital platform which enables students to develop key competencies in sustainability by tackling real-world sustainability challenges. It is therefore especially critical that the assessment portion of the learning also be authentic as well. This is done so by creating assessment tools that are also core to the students' work that they are doing as part of their projects to address their particular sustainability challenge. So for example, after learning about the sustainability challenge the students are tasked with identifying and mapping the different actors, resources, and other relevant variables, work which is then assessed for evidence of systems thinking competence in particular but also to a lesser degree other competencies such as values thinking. The digital platform means that assessment of this task can be seamlessly integrated into the workflow and assessed via the previously mentioned rubric. Finally, the assessment produces data of a type and timing that supports not just formative assessment but also summative as well. The extent of competency development in the students can be measured via the evaluations of their work with the rubrics which in a typical setting would provide summative (end of unit) feedback in the form of a grade. One of the innovations of the GreenEdTech approach is the rubric and coding scheme is being integrated into an AI-based engine which will, in real-time, assess the students' work, provide immediate feedback, and encourage them to supplement their learning to fill demonstrated gaps (e.g. review the unit on systems thinking again).

The GreenEdTech project has developed a digital learning platform for real-world ESD learning for middle grade students in Denmark which includes an integrated and innovative approach to learning assessment. This learning assessment responds to the shortfalls of current assessment in ESD that have been identified in the literature (Fischer et. al., In Press), such as a lack of alignment with learning outcomes and pedagogies, an over-reliance on standard approaches, a focus on the summative dimension of assessment, in-authentic design, and a mis-alignment with ESD principles and aspirations. The assessment has been integrated into the digital platform in a way to provide a streamlined learning experience for the learners and enables rapid and continuous formative feedback and guidance to the students while producing usable measures for formative assessment. This work has resulted in an assessment model that is generic enough to work across heterogenous cases while specific enough to be relevant to students and effective in measuring their competence. Analysis of the results of the initial implementation of this approach across a diverse array of middle grade schools in Denmark will be shared. When it comes to charting a way forward for ESD, there is an enormous need for more and better data about what works and how. Yet assessment research and practice in ESD has not yet matured to the extent needed to meet this demand. The challenges of sustainability are however urgent and therefore assessment must draw heavily from the experiences of other fields. Indeed that is what GreenEdTech has done, bringing together experience in citizen science, drawing on assessment best practices from across numerous education fields, and aligning it with the unique characteristics of ESD. This approach of seamless integration offers a model which could be used in many contexts to achieve successful ESD learning assessments.

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