Proposal of a Theoretical Competence-Based Model in a Civil Engineering Degree
Publication: Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice
Volume 141, Issue 2
Abstract
This paper summarizes the state of knowledge in relation to advances in education for sustainable development focused on higher education and in generic competencies, reviewing some of the existing proposals in the literature and analyzing other university approaches. It has focused on the curricula, applying a participatory methodology based on surveys and expert consultation for the identification and selection of generic competencies related to sustainability in a civil engineering degree at Universidad Europea (Spain). From the literature review, 17 generic competencies were preselected. A set of five weighted transversal competencies and their acquisition level have been obtained through surveys to stakeholders and interviews with experts. Critical thinking, adaptation to change, decision making, problem solving, and multidisciplinary team-working were chosen in order of importance. Competence acquisition level was addressed as not easy to rate or it seems to be exigent for graduate students. Problem-based learning is also selected as the best choice for the development of these sustainability generic skills in the entire civil engineering degree.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
This paper is the result of the research project OTRI 2013-UEM-12 funded by the European University in its annual call for research projects 2012/2013. From here the writers appreciate their support for the realization of this paper and also to all the experts who have worked and believed in the importance of education for sustainable development.
References
Adomssent, M., and Godemann, J. (2005). “Campus im Spannungsfeld: Sustainable University Lüneburg.” Politische Ökologie, 93(1), 52–53 (in German).
ASCE. (2008). Civil engineering body of knowledge for the 21st century: Preparing the civil engineer for the future, 2nd Ed., Reston, VA.
Minguet, P. A. (2006). “El reto educativo de la sostenibilidad en el marco europeo de la educación superior.” Escolano benito, cambio educativo y cultura de la sostenibilidad, Biblioteca Nueva, Madrid, Spain, 167–188 (in Spanish).
Bloom, B. S. (1956). Taxonomy of educational objectives, handbook I: The cognitive domain. David McKay Co. Inc., New York.
Calder, W., and Clugston, R. M. (2003). “International efforts to promote higher education for sustainable development.” Plann. Higher Educ., 31(3), 30–44.
Chau, K. W. (2007). “Incorporation of sustainability concepts into a civil engineering curriculum.” J. Prof. Issues Eng. Educ. Pract., 133(3), 188–191.
de Haan, G. (2006). “The BLK ‘21’ programme in Germany: A ‘Gestaltungskompetenz’-based model for education for sustainable development.” Environ. Educ. Res., 12(1), 19–32.
de Haan, G. (2010). “The development of ESD-related competencies in supportive institutional frameworks.” Int. Rev. Educ., 56(2–3), 315–328.
Environmental Association for Universities and Colleges. (2013). “Embedding sustainable development in the curriculum.” 〈http://www.eauc.org.uk/sorted/embeddin_sustainable:_development_in_the_curric〉 (Mar. 21, 2014).
Ferrer-Balas, D., Lozano, R., Huisingh, D., Buckland, H., Ysern, P., and Zilahy, G. (2010). “Going beyond the rhetoric: System-wide changes in universities for sustainable societies.” J. Cleaner Prod., 18(7), 607–610.
Hannover Research. (2011). Embedding sustainability into university curricula, Washington, DC.
Hobéon. (2007). DHO jaarboek 07/08, Amsterdam, Netherlands (in Dutch).
Jones, P., Selby, D., and Sterling, S. (2010). Sustainability education: Perspectives and practices across higher education, Earthscan, London.
Kevern, J. T. (2011). “Green building and sustainable infrastructure: Sustainability education for civil engineers.” J. Prof. Issues Eng. Educ. Pract., 132(2), 107–112.
Lambrechts, W., Mula, I., and Van den Haute, H. (2010). “The integration of sustainability in competence based higher education. Using competences as a starting point to achieve sustainable higher education.” Proc., Conf. on Environmental Management for Sustainable Universities, Delft, The Netherlands.
Lee, K., Barker, M., and Mouasher, A. (2013). “Is it even espoused? An exploratory study of commitment to sustainability as evidenced in vision, mission and graduate attribute statements in Australian universities.” J. Cleaner Prod., 48(1), 20–28.
Lidgren, A., Rodhe, H., and Huisingh, D. (2006). “A systemic approach to incorporate sustainability into university courses and curricula.” J. Cleaner Prod., 14(9–11), 797–809.
López Ospina, G. (2007). “Construcción de un futuro sostenible.” Década de una educación por el desarrollo sostenible, UNESCO, Quito, Equador (in Spanish).
Lozano, R. (2010). “Diffusion of sustainable development in universities’ curricula: An empirical example from Cardiff University.” J. Cleaner Prod., 18(7), 637–644.
Lozano, R. (2011). “The state of sustainability reporting in universities.” Int. J. Sustain. Higher Educ., 12(1), 67–78.
Lozano, R. (2012). “Organizational learning and creativity as means to foster sustainability in universities. Higher education for sustainability: A global overview of commitment and progress.” Higher education in the world 4. Higher education’s commitment to sustainability: From understanding to action, Vol. 4, William Clowes Printing Company, Surrey, U.K.
Lozano, R., Lozano, F. J., Mulder, K. F., Huisingh, D., and Waas, T. (2013). “Advancing higher education for sustainable development: International insights and critical reflections.” J. Cleaner Prod., 48(1), 3–9.
McKeown, R. (2002). “The ESD toolkit 2.0. Web-published document.” 〈http://www.esdtoolkit.org〉 (Mar. 21, 2014).
McLaren, M. (1989). “Environmental literacy. A critical element of a liberal education for the 21st century.” Alces, 25, 169–171.
Mochizuki, Y., and Fadeeva, Z. (2008). “Regional centres of expertise on education for sustainable development (RCEs): An overview.” Int. J. Sustain. Higher Educ., 9(4), 369–381.
Muttil, N., and Chau, K. W. (2007). “Machine-learning paradigms for selecting ecologically significant input variables.” Eng. Appl. Artif. Intell., 20(6), 735–744.
Nayef, E. G., Rosila, N., Yaacob, N., and Ismail, H. N. (2013). “Taxonomies of educational objective domain.” Int. J. Acad. Res. Bus. Soc. Sci., 3(9), 165–175.
Pavlova, M. (2009). “Conceptualisation of technology education within the paradigm of sustainable development.” Int. J. Technol. Des. Educ., 19(2), 109–132.
Roorda, N. (2010). “Sailing on the winds of change. The odyssey to sustainability of the universities of applied sciences in the Netherlands.” Ph.D. thesis, Maastricht Univ., Maastricht, Netherlands.
Rusinko, C. A. (2010). “Integrating sustainability in higher education: A generic matrix.” Int. J. Sustain. Higher Educ., 11(3), 250–259.
Saaty, T. L. (1977). “A scaling method for priorities in hierarchical structures.” J. Math. Psychol., 15(3), 234–281.
Segalàs, J., Ferrer-Balas, D., Mulder, K. F. (2008). “Conceptual maps: Measuring learning processes of engineering students concerning sustainable development.” Eur. J. Eng. Educ., 33(3), 297–306.
Segalàs, J., Ferrer-Balas, D., Svanström, M., Lundqvist, U., and Mulder, K. F. (2009). “What has to be learnt for sustainability? A comparison of bachelor engineering education competences at three European universities.” Sustainable Sci., 4(1), 17–27.
Sleurs, W. (2008). Competences for ESD (education for sustainable development) teachers: A framework to integrate ESD in the curriculum of teacher training institutes, Brussels, Belgium.
Steinemann, A. (2003). “Implementing sustainable development through problem-based learning: Pedagogy and practice.” J. Prof. Issues Eng. Educ. Pract., 129(4), 216–224.
Technical University of Catalonia. (2004). “Declaración de Barcelona.” 〈http://www.upc.edu/saladepremsa/al-dia/mes-noticies/2004/declaracio-de-barcelona-sobre-la-formacio/174〉 (Mar. 21, 2014, in Spanish).
UNESCO. (2009). “Education for sustainable development and climate change.” 〈http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0017/001791/179122e.pdf〉 (Mar. 21, 2014).
UNESCO (2011). “Education for sustainable development: An expert review of process and learning.” DESD Monitoring and Evaluation, Paris, France.
Waas, T., Verbruggen, A., and Wright, T. (2010). “University research for sustainable development: Definition and characteristics explored.” J. Cleaner Prod., 18(7), 629–636.
Wade, R. (2008). “Education for sustainability: Challenges and opportunities.” Policy Pract. Dev. Educ. Rev., 6, 30–48.
Wang, Y. (2009). “Sustainability in construction education.” J. Prof. Issues Eng. Educ. Pract., 135(1), 21–30.
Watson, M. K., Noyes, C., and Rodgers, M. O. (2013). “Student perceptions of sustainability education in civil and environmental engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology.” J. Prof. Issues Eng. Educ. Pract., 139(3), 235–243.
Wright, T. S. A., and Wilton, H. (2012). “Facilities management directors’ conceptualizations of sustainability in higher education.” J. Cleaner Prod., 31(1), 118–125.
Wu, C. L., and Chau, K. W. (2006). “Mathematical model of water quality rehabilitation with rainwater utilization: A case study at Haigang.” Int. J. Environ. Pollut., 28(3–4), 534–545.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice
Volume 141 • Issue 2 • April 2015
Copyright
© 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jan 2, 2014
Accepted: Mar 3, 2014
Published online: Apr 9, 2014
Discussion open until: Sep 9, 2014
Published in print: Apr 1, 2015
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.