Engineer students’ views on competencies for sustainable development: a case from a systemic PBL environment using Q methodology

ABSTRACT

Despite an emerging emphasis on the role of engineers in achieving the SDGs, there is still a lack of agreement on which competencies should be prioritised to prepare them to tackle future sustainability challenges. By formulating a theoretical framework of key sustainable competencies based on prior studies, this study investigated engineering students’ subjective views on which competencies they considered as the most important to support them in becoming sustainable engineers/designers. Using Q methodology, views were collected from 26 master students in a Sustainable Design programme in a Danish systemic problem- and project-based (PBL) context. Three key competencies were identified: collaboration, interdisciplinarity, and systemic thinking. Competences within the ‘doing’ and ‘being’ dimensions were represented the strongest. There is a hierarchy between the competencies, with collaboration being the highest level, as it demonstrates that it is transversal to the others. These results emphasised the role of PBL in developing competencies for sustainability and in reinforcing the value of Education for Sustainable Development.

KEYWORDS:

• Engineering education
• education for sustainable development
• sustainability competence
• problem-based learning
• student viewpoints
• Q methodology

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethics declaration

This study was submitted to the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation's Human Research Ethics Committee, Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and approved under the number 48109321.3.0000.5248.

Notes

1 European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System

2 To identify the testimonials given by the students, we will use the Vx-Y nomenclature, where Vx is the viewpoint number and Y is the student number.

Additional information

Funding

This study was financed in part by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - Brasil (CAPES) [grant number Finance Code 001].

Notes on contributors

Luiz Ney d'Escoffier

Luiz Ney d'Escoffier is a biologist, master in Science, Technology and Education and PhD student in Teaching in Biosciences and Health at the Oswaldo Cruz Institute, Brazil, in collaboration with the Centre for Problem-Based Learning in Engineering Education for Sustainability under the auspices of UNESCO, Aalborg University, Denmark. He is a technologist at the Oswaldo Cruz Institute, Fiocruz, Brazil. He is interested in competencies development, Project Based Learning (PBL), sustainability and active methodologies. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0392-1628

Dan Jiang

Dan Jiang is currently pursuing her Ph.D. degree in UNESCO Centre for Problem-Based Learning in Engineering Science and Sustainability, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark. Her research focuses on intercultural learning, learner agency, problem – and project – based learning (PBL), and student learning for sustainability.

Aida Guerra

Aida Guerra received the Ph.D. degree in PBL and education for sustainable development in science and engineering education (EESD) from Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark, in 2014. She is the Vice-Director of the Aalborg Centre for PBL in Engineering Science and Sustainability under the auspices of UNESCO and an Associate Professor within the field of Problem-Based, Project-Organised Learning (PBL), and Engineering Education for Sustainable Development with the Department of Planning and the Institute of Advanced Studies in PBL, Aalborg University. She is also an active member of several engineering education organisations. Her current research focus is on PBL, curriculum and pedagogical development, readiness for change, integration of sustainability in engineering education, student agency for sustainability, and competencies. She has published several articles, and conference papers and has been given several international presentations and workshops within these fields.

Andres Felipe Valderrama Pineda

Andrés Felipe Valderrama Pineda was trained in Mechanical Engineering (BSc) at Universidad de Los Andes Colombia, History of Technology (MSc) at Imperial College, London, UK, and holds a PhD in Design and Innovation from the Technical University of Denmark. He has researched in Design of Large Sociotechnical Systems, History of Engineering Education, Sustainable Transitions, Design with People and, more recently, in Design for Sustainable Transitions. As coordinator of a research group in the field and as responsible of a master’s program, Dr. Valderrama is permanently studying, discussing, and researching on how the future of engineering education should evolve to become aligned with sustainability priorities.

Imad Abou-Hayt

Imad Abou-Hayt has an MSc degree in mathematics from the University of Copenhagen, an MSc degree in engineering from the Technical University of Denmark, and a PhD in the didactics of engineering from Aalborg University, Denmark. He is associate professor at the Department of Sustainability and Planning, Aalborg University, Denmark. Imad teaches mathematics and engineering science courses and does research in mathematics education as well as in engineering education.