TY - JOUR

T1 - Learning to collaborate from diverse interactions in project-based sustainability courses

AU - Konrad, Theres

AU - Wiek, Arnim

AU - Barth, Matthias

N1 - Funding: This learning was supported by regular exchange among student groups. This means that not only the teamwork setting allows for interpersonal competence development, but the exchange among peers about their group work, too. Such exchanges took place in all three courses. The GSR and tdCS course had several groups working on one umbrella project, while the ARW course had different individual student projects. Students went through the same cycles of planning, acting, and reflecting, which constituted shared experiences and the basis for reflection and exchange. This research was funded by Volkswagen Foundation and Niedersächsische Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Kultur, grant number A115235. This publication was funded by the Open Access Publication Fund of Leuphana University Lüneburg.

PY - 2021/9/2

Y1 - 2021/9/2

N2 - Project-based sustainability courses require and facilitate diverse interactions among stu-dents, instructors, stakeholders, and mentors. Most project-based courses take an instrumental approach to these interactions, so that they support the overall project deliverables. However, as courses primarily intend to build students’ key competencies in sustainability, including the competence to collaborate in teams and with stakeholders, there are opportunities to utilize these interactions more directly to build students’ interpersonal competence. This study offers insights from project-based sustainability courses at universities in Germany, the U.S., Switzerland, and Spain to empirically explore such opportunities. We investigate how students develop interpersonal competence by learning from (rather than through) their interactions with peers, instructors, stakeholders, and mentors. The findings can be used by course instructors, curriculum designers, and program administrators to more deliberately use the interactions with peers, instructors, stakeholders, and mentors in project-based sustainability courses for developing students’ competence to successfully collaborate in teams and with stakeholders.

AB - Project-based sustainability courses require and facilitate diverse interactions among stu-dents, instructors, stakeholders, and mentors. Most project-based courses take an instrumental approach to these interactions, so that they support the overall project deliverables. However, as courses primarily intend to build students’ key competencies in sustainability, including the competence to collaborate in teams and with stakeholders, there are opportunities to utilize these interactions more directly to build students’ interpersonal competence. This study offers insights from project-based sustainability courses at universities in Germany, the U.S., Switzerland, and Spain to empirically explore such opportunities. We investigate how students develop interpersonal competence by learning from (rather than through) their interactions with peers, instructors, stakeholders, and mentors. The findings can be used by course instructors, curriculum designers, and program administrators to more deliberately use the interactions with peers, instructors, stakeholders, and mentors in project-based sustainability courses for developing students’ competence to successfully collaborate in teams and with stakeholders.

KW - Interactions

KW - Interpersonal/collaborative competence

KW - Key competencies in sustainability

KW - Project-based learning

KW - Sustainability courses

KW - Sustainability education

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85114369576&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.3390/su13179884

DO - 10.3390/su13179884

M3 - Journal articles

AN - SCOPUS:85114369576

VL - 13

JO - Sustainability

JF - Sustainability

SN - 2071-1050

IS - 17

M1 - 9884

ER -