Sustainability Competences and Pedagogical Approaches at the University of Nyíregyháza
摘要
The University of Nyíregyháza is situated in North-Eastern Hungary, in the city of Nyíregyháza. It has 12 institutes and nearly 4000 students and 200 teaching staff. The University of Nyíregyháza was one of the first among Hungarian higher education institutions declaring a Sustainable Development Strategy in 2010. This chapter presents the results from the 160 student responses. The main focus of the university is on the social dimension which is the most addressed, followed by the intra- and inter-generational ones. The ranking of the competences shows that System thinking and Interpersonal relations and collaboration were ranked the highest. The ranking of the pedagogical approaches resulted in Lecturing, Case studies, and Project- or problem-based being ranked the highest. The three competences mostly developed by pedagogical approaches were Assessment and evaluation, Tolerance for ambiguity and uncertainty, and Personal involvement. The three pedagogical approaches that developed the most competences were Community service learning, Traditional ecological knowledge, and Eco-justice and community. The results show some insights into the implications of education for sustainability that should be considered in the different departments/schools of the university. The results also present a snapshot of key pedagogical approaches that have been undertaken at the university to develop sustainability competences. Finally, the results of the study allow to plan a re-evaluation of the University of Nyíregyháza education related sustainability goals and the pedagogical approaches that can help achieve them.