Strategies and Guidelines
Definition of education for sustainable development
Education for sustainable development (ESD) is an educational concept based on the Guidelines for Sustainable Development. It is intended to enable people to act as agents of change within societal transformation and to resolutely help shape sustainable development. ESD comprises:
- The inclusion of ecological, economic, social and cultural aspects in promoting knowledge, skills and competencies (Hoch-N, Unisims)
- Practical and problem-oriented teaching in order to acquire practical skills and experiences in sustainable development in a specific occupational field (Hoch-N, Unisims)
- Interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity in ascertaining complexity of a topic[1]
- Attainment of key competencies for sustainable development [2] to help shape the future for present and future generations
- ESD should incite active collaboration and shaping of living and occupational conditions (Hoch-N, Unisims)
- Increased awareness of one’s own actions and their impact on the environment (Hoch-N, Unisims)
- Greater concentration on non-formal education[3] to acquire important skills (Hoch-N, Unisims)
- ESD requires transformative and innovative teaching and learning environments[4], new forms of evaluation – especially for teaching skills – and quality management (Hoch-N, Unisims)
- ESD comprises multiple areas of learning (relevant for implementing learning objectives): content, ethics, science, practice, participation[5] (Hoch-N, p. 27 et seq.)
- ESD comprises three dimensions: cognitive, behavioral and reflective, social-emotional learning objectives; attainment of the three dimensions through knowing, acting, being[6] (Hoch-N, p. 29 et seq.)
[1] Interdisciplinarity pertains to structured collaboration between multiple disciplines, in contrast to the individualized work of multidisciplinarity. Transdisciplinarity pertains to the intersection of science and society.
[2] The following are mentioned in full: systems-thinking competency, anticipatory competency, normative competency, strategic competency, collaboration competency, self-awareness competency, integrated problem-solving competency.
[3] Non-formal education refers to planned forms of teaching beyond what is included in the curriculum as well as educational courses and services for personal and social education, which typically take place outside of established places of learning. It is participative and oriented toward the learners.
[4] Innovative teaching and learning environments enable holistic, real-world, student-oriented learning.
[5] Content: Content and topics related to sustainable development, holistic view of the course topic from ecological, social, cultural and economic perspectives and in particular their interdependencies and inclusion of local-global relations, relations to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); Ethics: Ethical foundations related to sustainable development, specific ethical aspects that are related to the selected sustainable development content and academic formats, focus on intragenerational (global) and intergenerational equity; Science: Opportunity to learn about methods relevant to sustainable development, analysis of science as part of sustainable development; Practice: Subject-specific knowledge, methods and skills in sustainable development, metacompetency to adapt to newly emerging occupational fields in sustainable development; Participation: Opportunity for students to work together in the above-mentioned areas and take part in designing and assume responsibility for courses, collaboration and democratic participation should be practiced and be specific learning content as well as actively instructed and supported.
[6] Knowing: Use of various forms of knowledge and access to knowledge acquisition such as interdisciplinarity, learning to tap into, critically evaluate and sensibly employ new knowledge through suitable points of access; Acting: Practical application of the capacity to act, cooperation with non-university stakeholders and organizations; Being: Personal learning in a social context – reflecting on one’s own values and world views, one’s role (in communities or as a researcher/specialist) and one’s own actions and their consequences with regard to sustainable development, developing empathy, leeway for personal development.
The teaching mission statement of TU Dresden
The teaching mission statement was drafted in a comprehensive participative process involving individuals and representatives from all levels of TU Dresden. This teaching vision constitutes the starting point for further developing TU Dresden as a pioneering, locally ensconced and globally oriented place of teaching and learning. Sustainable teaching also comes into play here.
“TU Dresden is committed to a sustainable, environmentally friendly and resource-saving approach to teaching and research. We also see it as our responsibility to foster the corresponding values in a global society and to do our part in pursuing them. This objective is all the more critical for the members of TU Dresden, as the complex challenges of sustainable development can only be satisfied through interdisciplinary scientific cooperation among different disciplines. As a comprehensive university with a focus on technology and the humanities, TU Dresden provides skills, ways of thinking and knowledge in a special way, thereby allowing us to contribute to mastering challenges of crucial importance for the future. In this context, sustainability in teaching at TU Dresden is not only viewed as conveying the relevant scientific content; our teaching itself is also sustainable and we are involved in sustainability policy. Following the United Nations Global Action Program on Education for Sustainable Development, we advocate a concept of education that refers to proactive thinking and reflective action, as well as opening up new opportunities for participation. This concept includes interdisciplinary key skills and methods. Our courses and degree programs therefore strive to connect the fields of economy, environment, society and culture. At the same time, they acknowledge and highlight the special characteristics of specific subject, knowledge and learning cultures.
“TU Dresden’s holistic approach to sustainability extends to teaching and research and their transfer, as well as to administration. TU Dresden understands teaching sustainability as an explicitly cross-sectional task, which is addressed both in subject-specific modules and in interdisciplinary teaching and learning methods. TU Dresden records and evaluates existing teaching activities within the context of the executed sustainability concept, makes courses and continuing education programs with a connection to sustainability highly visible and develops innovative methods of teaching. All university members should be empowered to contribute to this process in a number of different ways. The goal is to further entrench education for sustainable development as an all-encompassing topic across degree programs at TU Dresden.”
You can read the entire teaching mission statement in the Internal Area of the website.