Abstract: The paper presents DICA4Schools, an education initiative of Politecnico di Milano aimed at disseminating scientific knowledge on environmental sustainability to primary and secondary schools. The program emphasizes an inclusive and engaging pedagogical approach that leverages the Kolb Cycle, Problem-Based Learning, and Inquiry-Based Learning methodologies. By incorporating peer education activities, the program also fosters critical thinking and collaborative skills. DICA4Schools promotes sustainability and resilience through interactive and hands-on learning experiences (i.e., lab experiments, games, and technological tools). These activities are planned and tailored to students’ ages and their prior knowledge and aligned with the SDGs identified as relevant by the school teachers. Preliminary impact assessment indicates that DICA4Schools has been successful in enhancing students’ knowledge and awareness of environmental sustainability. The program has also stimulated interest in STEM disciplines among both female and male students, demonstrating the potential of academic institutions to play a vital role in education for sustainable development starting from early years education.
Continue Reading
This paper will focus on a qualitative research project that occurred in the fall of 2011 at Chandler Gilbert Community College, which set out to better understand the learning process of experiential education by observing the comments and actions of students interacting in nature-based learning. The research study is based on the premise that students who develop a moral awareness of nature will better understand the core conceptual components of environmental sustainability. The main objective of this research project was to assess the transformational learning of students enrolled in PHI-216 Environmental Ethics courses who engaged in experiential learning to better understand environmental sustainability.
Continue Reading
Reza Banai makes a strong case for urban sustainability as the perfect area of practice to apply a broad range of effective pedagogies. The complex multi-disciplinary nature of urban design means that it requires advanced, high-level, analytical, holistic, hands-on pedagogies to bring about real solutions for sustainability. With urban popuplations booming worldwide, chances to apply Banai’s nexus between urban sustainability and a robust education abound.
Continue Reading
Graduate students enrolled in an education research course (many of the students were school teachers) that the author taught during the spring 2010 semester participated in this “green” course project. Those students who were not school teachers, who worked for private companies or government agencies, focused their projects on green communities, workplaces, or households. Students conducted their projects based on inquiry-based learning, and this sustainability study reported in the current paper itself derives from an inquiry-based approach. The results from this study demonstrated that daily curricular activities at universities and schools provide an important way to support environmentally responsible living. Implementing green course projects similar to the one described here is one of many ways in which university teachers can incorporate “sustainability” into their curricula.
Continue ReadingHelping people learn to adopt more pro-social lifestyles usually involves persuading them to take new, beneficial actions. However, certain pro-social goals, such as achieving environmental sustainability, also require people to stop performing harmful actions—people are commonly instructed to drive less, use less electricity, and otherwise reduce the amount of resources they consume and waste they […]
Continue Reading
Journal of Sustainability Education is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License. 
