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Measuring System Competence in Education for Sustainable Development

Author

Listed:
  • Nina Roczen

    (Department of Teacher and Teaching Quality, DIPF | Leibniz Institute for Research and Information in Education, 60323 Frankfurt, Germany)

  • Frank Fischer

    (Department of Geography, Justus Liebig University Gießen, 35390 Gießen, Germany)

  • Janis Fögele

    (Institute of Geography, University of Hildesheim, 31141 Hildesheim, Germany)

  • Johannes Hartig

    (Department of Teacher and Teaching Quality, DIPF | Leibniz Institute for Research and Information in Education, 60323 Frankfurt, Germany)

  • Rainer Mehren

    (Institute for Geography Education, University of Münster, 48149 Münster, Germany)

Abstract

This paper presents the development of an instrument for the assessment of system competence in the field of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). Based on an already existing, more complex model of system competence for the school subject geography, we have developed a test that refers to central themes and principles of ESD using exclusively closed answer formats. Building on the results of cognitive laboratories and expert feedback from various fields, the instrument was (further) developed in an iterative process of feedback and revision. We conducted a quantitative pilot study with N = 366 8th and 9th grade students. The results indicate that the development of our system competence test was successful—the overall test yielded a high reliability and only very few items were not working as intended. Furthermore, the difficulties of the items were appropriate for the ability levels of the students and the results of a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) suggest that the newly developed test measures system competence with one dimension. As the test is compact, easy to interpret, and yet reliable, it is particularly suitable for monitoring purposes in the field of ESD.

Suggested Citation

  • Nina Roczen & Frank Fischer & Janis Fögele & Johannes Hartig & Rainer Mehren, 2021. "Measuring System Competence in Education for Sustainable Development," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-15, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:9:p:4932-:d:545004
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. United Nations UN, 2015. "Transforming our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development," Working Papers id:7559, eSocialSciences.
    2. Rosseel, Yves, 2012. "lavaan: An R Package for Structural Equation Modeling," Journal of Statistical Software, Foundation for Open Access Statistics, vol. 48(i02).
    3. Jens Christian Benninghaus & Andreas Mühling & Kerstin Kremer & Sandra Sprenger, 2019. "Complexity in Education for Sustainable Consumption—An Educational Data Mining Approach using Mysteries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-16, January.
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