Integrating Education for Sustainable Development Competencies in Teacher Education

Analysis of UNESCO ESD Priority Areas' Implementation in Romanian HEIs

Higher education institutions (HEIs) are adopting sustainable development (SD) in their strategies for the future. The roadmap by UNESCO is the path to follow to reach success. The approach is different for every HEI, thus the objective of this paper is to analyze the current state of education for sustainable development activities provided by HEIs through the eyes of the academic community (responders category: professors, researchers, associate professors). The method to conduct the study was an interview that had 40 enclosed questions and a free part at the end where the responders could bring additional information to the study if they considered it necessary. All the interviews were transcribed and given a code (e.g., RHEI1, RHEI 29) in order to perform the analysis using descriptive statistics with the help of the program MS Office EXCEL. The results showed some areas where the activities provided by HEIs need improvement and also revealed promising aspects through partnerships. Making the values of SD known to the academic and local community will help fulfill the true potential for change and future development. Moreover, the analysis showed the need to educate educators and improve their digital skills and teaching methods/techniques in order to achieve sustainable development. Another result revealed the need for improvements in HEI curricula that will contribute to gaining those skills/abilities that emerging jobs should have.

Applicability of Olympic Values in Sustainable Development

Sustainable development (SD) refers to development that can meet present needs, without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirs. For global citizens to acquire and understand SD-related knowledge and cultivate the ability to apply and practice the principles of sustainability, Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is essential. This study examines how ESD can be promoted through the Olympic Value Education Program (OVEP)—an initiative by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for spreading the Olympic spirit. It draws inferences for addressing the shortcomings of the current ESD models. To that end, it analyzes the relationship between ESD and the OVEP, their relationships with SD, concepts, content, goals, and methods, by reviewing existing literature. The study found that the OVEP can act as a tool for ESD and has the potential to allow the effective acquisition of sustainability capabilities. Additionally, it found that since Olympic value education and SD have common goals, they can develop harmoniously to promote ESD.

Exploring the Characteristics of Gifted Pre-School Children: Teachers’ Perceptions

Based on SDG4, which aims to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all, and based on the fact that education is the core of Palestinian values, the Palestinian Ministry of Education and Higher Education launched an inclusive education policy in order to integrate all students into the educational system, regardless of their talents, abilities and disabilities. Therefore, the Palestinian Government seeks to develop educational practices to adapt to the needs of all students, including gifted children. Consequently, the identification of gifted pre-school children in Palestine aims to better include them in the general education curriculum. The current study aims to investigate the characteristics of gifted children through the perceptions of the pre-school teachers in Palestine. A mixed-methods approach was adopted. The quantitative data were collected by the “Scale for Rating the Behavioral Characteristics of Gifted and Talented Students”. The pre-school teachers in the sample were randomly selected, consisting of 450 female pre-school teachers. The qualitative data were collected by semi-structured interview, which 15 female pre-school teachers took part in. There was a significant difference in teachers’ perceptions according to their academic qualifications, and according to whether gifted children need a particular curriculum or not, but there was no significant difference in teachers’ perceptions according to their experiences. The final result shows that there were many positive perceptions regarding the characteristics of gifted children through qualitative data. Therefore, there was consistency between the qualitative and quantitative data of the study. This study emphasizes the significance of continuing to highlight the characteristics of gifted children and conducting more research to reveal them.

Assessing Education for Sustainable Development in Engineering Study Programs: A Case of AI Ecosystem Creation

The issue of sustainability in education has never been more important for the future of our environment, and strategies to develop the skills needed by younger generations to meet this significant global challenge should be developed across all curricula. There is much focus on the topic of sustainability in business, finance, climate, health, water and education; however, there are some challenges when sustainability needs to be integrated into engineering or fundamental study programs (SPs). In the latter, sustainability is more often emphasized and implemented through its general principles or separate modules in social sciences and project activities. There are a number of questions and challenges in how to highlight sustainability aspects and evaluation metrics due to the specifics of the engineering study field. For evaluating the sustainability level in engineering studies, a hierarchical methodology employing the SAMR (Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, Redefinition) model is proposed, taking a technological university in Lithuania as the case study. As a more concrete example, the first and second cycle SPs titled ‘Artificial Intelligence’ are described and analyzed in all relevant perspectives of sustainability. The study proposes five tangible criteria that must be emphasized in the learning process in order to ensure the development of sustainability goals in IT/AI study programs.