The Dispositions, Abilities and Behaviours (Dab) Framework for Profiling Learners’ Sustainability Competencies in Higher Education

The concepts of sustainability and sustainability competence are controversial, complex, difficult to define and measure, and have varied meanings for different people and practices. Given the complex nature of sustainability, there is limited availability of paradigmatic frameworks to guide educato...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of Teacher Education for Sustainability Vol. 17; no. 1; pp. 5 - 22
Main Authors Besong, Frida, Holland, Charlotte
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published De Gruyter Open 01.06.2015
UNESCO Chair on Interplay of Tradition and Innovation in ESD
Subjects
abilities
Academic Ability
behaviours
Beliefs
Benchmarking
dispositions
Foreign Countries
Guidelines
higher education
Intervention
Ireland
Minimum Competency Testing
Mixed Methods Research
Online Surveys
Profiles
Student Attitudes
Student Behavior
Sustainability
sustainability competencies
Undergraduate Students
Ireland
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Summary:The concepts of sustainability and sustainability competence are controversial, complex, difficult to define and measure, and have varied meanings for different people and practices. Given the complex nature of sustainability, there is limited availability of paradigmatic frameworks to guide educators in assessing sustainability competencies. This paper introduces the Dispositions, Abilities and Behaviours (DAB) framework, which influenced the design of an intervention in 2013-2014 that profiled sustainability competencies among final year undergraduate students in a higher education institution. The results of the mixed methods study indicate that the DAB framework has good potential as a guide to educators or researchers in understanding and profiling sustainability- related abilities, attitudes and actions (areas of performance) of cohorts of students within higher education settings.
ISSN:1691-5534
1691-4147
1691-5534
DOI:10.1515/jtes-2015-0001