Fostering Key Competencies for Sustainability: Development of a Higher Education Teaching Format based on Service Design

Abstract

Against the background of severe global sustainability challenges, Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are called to integrate sustainability aspects into research and teaching, hereby supporting the development of sustainability competencies of students (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, 2017). Within this context, a new teaching format, that applies the Service Design methodology to tackle sustainability-related real-world challenges, was designed and conducted at a German University of Applied Sciences in autumn/winter 2021. The teaching format was evaluated by participating students respective its contribution to the fostering of their sustainability key competencies. This paper describes the developed format and outlines how and why it helped students to develop key competencies. It thereby contributes to a highly relevant and increasingly considered research stream dealing with teaching effectiveness and the impact of pedagogical approaches on sustainability-related competencies (Cebrián, Junyent, & Mulà, 2020).