Designing Powerful Learning Environments in Education for Sustainable Development: A Conceptual Framework

Policymakers have pinpointed the importance of living in a more sustainable society. Education for Sustainable Development aims at developing future citizens competent to take actions in order to cope with Sustainable Development issues. The instructional design that teachers apply in class play a crucial role in students’ learning. This study is a conceptual analysis based on a narrative review of the literature in the field of Environmental Education/Education for Sustainable Development. It makes use of the CLIA-model (Competence, Learning, Intervention, Assessment), developed by De Corte, Verschaffel and Masui in 2004 to prescribe how a powerful learning environment in Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) could be developed. In particular, the study focusses on the Intervention component. Holistic, pluralistic as well as action-oriented teaching in Education for Sustainable Development are thought to be effective in cultivating students’ action competence. This paper presents first the Action-oriented ESD framework. This framework consists of five components: (a) action-taking, b) students’ leadership in their learning and teaching, c) peer interaction, (d) community involvement and e) interdisciplinarity. We then integrate the Action-oriented ESD framework with Holism and Pluralism into the Holism-Pluralism-Action-orientation in the ESD framework. Integrating holistic, pluralistic as well as action-oriented teaching in ESD is highly important in theoretical discussion as well as in instructional design. The Holism-Pluralism-Action-orientation ESD framework addresses the lack of an integrated conceptual framework in the field of ESD. This framework is motivated by a growing consensus on the importance of these three approaches in ESD teaching. The Holism-Pluralism-Action-orientation in ESD Framework is based on more than three decades of efforts to define knowledge on Environmental Education/Education for Sustainable Development teaching and on the rich and growing body of research on effective ESD teaching.