IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v12y2020i15p6016-d390272.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Competences for Solving Complex Problems: A Cross-Sectional Survey on Higher Education for Sustainability Learning and Transdisciplinarity

Author

Listed:
  • Filippina Risopoulos-Pichler

    (Department of Geography and Regional Science, Regional Centre for Didactics of Geography and Economics, Faculty of Environmental, Regional and Educational Sciences, University of Graz, 8010 Graz, Austria)

  • Fedor Daghofer

    (Independent Researcher, 8010 Graz, Austria)

  • Gerald Steiner

    (Department of Knowledge and Communication Management, Faculty of Business and Globalization, Danube University Krems, 3500 Krems, Austria
    Complexity Science Hub Vienna (CSH), 1080 Vienna, Austria)

Abstract

Successfully coping with complex, real-world challenges, such as those related to sustainable development and the resilience of coupled human–environment systems, calls increasingly for adapted forms of education and extended competences. Hence, we argue that, beyond knowledge and expertise in professional domains, additionally, personal, systemic, creative, and sociocultural competences are required to meet such challenges. Herefor, institutions of higher and continuing education play a crucial role. In this paper, universities as institutions of higher education are critically considered in relation to delivering education for sustainable development by raising awareness and providing the necessary competences to cope with complex problems such as sustainable development through effective forms of higher and continuing education as well as training. Research on attitudes and perceptions regarding sustainable development and the perceived need for comprehensive competences required to deal with such complex problems is still lacking. Our study provides a first attempt to elucidate core aspects of these attitudes, perceptions, and competences aiming to contribute to future, more tailored education approaches. We discuss the outcomes of a survey on sustainability in teaching and learning conducted at four Austrian universities. The analyzed sample comprised 3200 students as the recipients of, and 498 lecturers as the providers of, sustainability education in various academic disciplines at four distinct Austrian universities. Applying a questionnaire-based investigation of self-reported sustainability-related perceptions, attitudes, and competences and conducting factor analysis and cluster analysis, five sustainability types were identified that revealed a type of specific core awareness of sustainability and the perception of required competences related to sustainable development. The results presented are positioned to build a basis for further investigation that goes beyond the self-reported assessments to enable a comparison with sustainability-related, real-world problem-solving performance.

Suggested Citation

  • Filippina Risopoulos-Pichler & Fedor Daghofer & Gerald Steiner, 2020. "Competences for Solving Complex Problems: A Cross-Sectional Survey on Higher Education for Sustainability Learning and Transdisciplinarity," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(15), pages 1-15, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:15:p:6016-:d:390272
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/15/6016/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/15/6016/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Annemarie Körfgen & Klaus Förster & Ingomar Glatz & Stephan Maier & Benedikt Becsi & Anna Meyer & Helga Kromp-Kolb & Johann Stötter, 2018. "It’s a Hit! Mapping Austrian Research Contributions to the Sustainable Development Goals," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-13, September.
    2. Gerald Steiner, 2018. "From probabilistic functionalism to a mental simulation of innovation: by collaboration from vulnerabilities to resilient societal systems," Environment Systems and Decisions, Springer, vol. 38(1), pages 92-98, March.
    3. M. Mulej & Gerald Steiner & Filippina Risopoulos & Matjaz Mulej, 2015. "Social Responsibility and Citizen-Driven Innovation in Sustainably Mastering Global Socio-Economic Crises," Systems Research and Behavioral Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(2), pages 160-167, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ronald Venn & Paquita Perez & Valerie Vandenbussche, 2022. "Competencies of Sustainability Professionals: An Empirical Study on Key Competencies for Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-22, April.
    2. Carolina Feliciana Machado & João Paulo Davim, 2022. "Higher Education for Sustainability: A Bibliometric Approach—What, Where and Who Is Doing Research in This Subject?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-15, April.
    3. Yafeng Zheng & Haogang Bao & Jun Shen & Xuesong Zhai, 2020. "Investigating Sequence Patterns of Collaborative Problem-Solving Behavior in Online Collaborative Discussion Activity," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(20), pages 1-17, October.
    4. Arantza Rico & Elena Agirre-Basurko & Aritz Ruiz-González & Igone Palacios-Agundez & Daniel Zuazagoitia, 2021. "Integrating Mathematics and Science Teaching in the Context of Education for Sustainable Development: Design and Pilot Implementation of a Teaching-Learning Sequence about Air Quality with Pre-Service," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-21, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jussi T. S. Heikkila, 2020. "Classifying economics for the common good: Connecting sustainable development goals to JEL codes," Papers 2004.04384, arXiv.org.
    2. Shin-Cheng Yeh & Haw-Jeng Chiou & Ai-Wei Wu & Ho-Ching Lee & Homer C. Wu, 2019. "Diverged Preferences towards Sustainable Development Goals? A Comparison between Academia and the Communication Industry," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(22), pages 1-21, November.
    3. Gerald Steiner & Lukas Zenk & Eva Schernhammer, 2020. "Preparing for the Next Wave of COVID-19: Resilience in the Face of a Spreading Pandemic," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(11), pages 1-6, June.
    4. Agnieszka Sompolska-Rzechuła & Agnieszka Kurdyś-Kujawska, 2021. "Towards Understanding Interactions between Sustainable Development Goals: The Role of Climate-Well-Being Linkages. Experiences of EU Countries," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-20, April.
    5. Göran Finnveden & Julie Newman & Leendert A. Verhoef, 2019. "Sustainable Development and Higher Education: Acting with a Purpose," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(14), pages 1-4, July.
    6. Mehtab Alam & Fu-Ren Lin, 2022. "Internalizing Sustainability into Research Practices of Higher Education Institutions: Case of a Research University in Taiwan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(15), pages 1-30, August.
    7. Primiano Di Nauta & Enrica Iannuzzi & Michele Milone & Claudio Nigro, 2020. "The Impact of the Sustainability Principles on the Strategic Planning and Reporting of Universities. An Exploratory Study on a Qualified Italian Sample," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-21, September.
    8. Rašič Katja & Mulej Matjaž & Čančer Vesna, 2016. "The Influential Knowledge Factors of Companies’ Performance in Slovenia," Business Systems Research, Sciendo, vol. 7(1), pages 46-58, March.
    9. Boštjan Aver & Ajda Fošner & Nikša Alfirević, 2021. "Higher Education Challenges: Developing Skills to Address Contemporary Economic and Sustainability Issues," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(22), pages 1-20, November.
    10. Lukas Zenk & Gerald Steiner & Miguel Pina e Cunha & Manfred D. Laubichler & Martin Bertau & Martin J. Kainz & Carlo Jäger & Eva S. Schernhammer, 2020. "Fast Response to Superspreading: Uncertainty and Complexity in the Context of COVID-19," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(21), pages 1-13, October.
    11. Hartmut Derler & Simon Berner & Daniela Grach & Alfred Posch & Ulrike Seebacher, 2019. "Project-Based Learning in a Transinstitutional Research Setting: Case Study on the Development of Sustainable Food Products," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-15, December.
    12. Marwa B. Hannouf & Alejandro Padilla‐Rivera & Getachew Assefa & Ian Gates, 2023. "Methodological framework to find links between life cycle sustainability assessment categories and the UN Sustainable Development Goals based on literature," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 27(3), pages 707-725, June.
    13. Erika González García & Ernesto Colomo Magaña & Andrea Cívico Ariza, 2020. "Quality Education as a Sustainable Development Goal in the Context of 2030 Agenda: Bibliometric Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(15), pages 1-18, July.
    14. Xing Gao & Keyu Zhai, 2021. "Spatial Mechanisms of Regional Innovation Mobility in China," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 156(1), pages 247-270, July.
    15. Ajishnu Roy & Aman Basu & Yanyu Su & Yan Li & Xuhui Dong, 2022. "Understanding Recent Trends in Global Sustainable Development Goal 6 Research: Scientometric, Text Mining and an Improved Framework for Future Research," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-23, February.
    16. Christine Meschede, 2020. "The Sustainable Development Goals in Scientific Literature: A Bibliometric Overview at the Meta-Level," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-14, June.
    17. Liliya Satalkina & Gerald Steiner, 2020. "Digital Entrepreneurship and its Role in Innovation Systems: A Systematic Literature Review as a Basis for Future Research Avenues for Sustainable Transitions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-27, April.
    18. Cottafava, Dario & Ascione, Grazia Sveva & Corazza, Laura & Dhir, Amandeep, 2022. "Sustainable development goals research in higher education institutions: An interdisciplinarity assessment through an entropy-based indicator," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 138-155.
    19. Raejung Lee & Jinho Kim, 2021. "Developing a Social Index for Measuring the Public Opinion Regarding the Attainment of Sustainable Development Goals," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 156(1), pages 201-221, July.
    20. Antonio Sianes, 2021. "Academic Research on the 2030 Agenda: Challenges of a Transdisciplinary Field of Study," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 12(3), pages 286-297, May.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:15:p:6016-:d:390272. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.