AI Summary & Key Takeaways
AI InsightThis article will detail the education program and assessment techniques while high- lighting each student's unique characteristics, barriers to change, and motivations for ac- tion.
📌 3 Key Takeaways
Abstract
Achieving a sustainable future requires that individuals adopt sustainable behaviors, which are often learned and cemented at a young age. Yet, traditional education efforts have been inadequate in fostering transformative change, in part because many programs focus on fact-heavy, teacher-centered techniques while neglecting the practices that behavioral and sustainability scholars highlight as central to creating change. To address this gap, the pre- sent research integrates three critical yet mostly disparate bodies of research-- educational pedagogy, behavior change, and sustainability competencies. This interdisciplinary ap- proach to education was implemented and evaluated with a small group of students during an intensive summer program and year-long case study. The curriculum focused on food and waste behaviors and utilized experiential, real-world, problem-based methods in order to increase competence in sustainability and promote pro-environmental actions. The im- pact of the program was assessed through surveys, interviews, videos, and participant ob- servations. The data showed that significant changes in knowledge and behaviors were achieved, while suggesting that social knowledge in terms of food is more resistant to change as compared to that of waste. Throughout the year, students maintained significant behavior changes in terms of their waste decisions; however, sustainable food behaviors were more resistant to long-term change due to the students' social and cultural environ- ment. This article will detail the education program and assessment techniques while high- lighting each student's unique characteristics, barriers to change, and motivations for ac- tion.