Exploring the Implementation of Challenge-based Learning for Sustainability in Secondary Education

Education that empowers students to address significant global challenges and guides them in understanding how to contribute to solving these issues should have a permanent place in the curriculum. Unfortunately, students in secondary education currently have limited exposure to this in their educational programs. It is crucial for them to comprehend the complexities of these scientific issues and recognize their role in promoting a sustainable future, leading to more informed and responsible citizens (Bayram-Jacobs et al., 2020). In response to these global challenges, often framed as sustainability issues, such as biodiversity and climate change, the educational concept of challenge-based learning (CBL) emerges as a potential solution for addressing these complex, open-ended, and interdisciplinary challenges. This learner-centered educational approach has been gaining prominence in higher education, positioned as a method for students to integrate disciplinary knowledge with the development of transversal competencies while addressing authentic sociotechnical societal problems. However, despite the extensive literature on CBL in higher education, less is known about this approach in secondary education. Therefore, our objective is to develop an instrument that encapsulates the most important characteristics of CBL for secondary education, that could guide teachers in designing and evaluating their educational practices.

Dit onderzoek is NRO-gefinancierd.