Learning to Collaborate from Diverse Interactions in Project-Based Sustainability Courses

Theres Konrad, Arnim Wiek and Matthias Barth
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Theres Konrad: Center for Global Sustainability and Cultural Transformation, Leuphana Universität Lüneburg, 21335 Lüneburg, Germany
Arnim Wiek: School of Sustainability, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85281, USA
Matthias Barth: Institute for Sustainable Development and Learning, Leuphana Universität Lüneburg, 21335 Lüneburg, Germany

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 17, 1-15

Abstract: Project-based sustainability courses require and facilitate diverse interactions among students, 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.

Keywords: project-based learning; sustainability courses; key competencies in sustainability; interpersonal/collaborative competence; interactions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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