Visible Learning Trajectories Programme Sustainability track
Guidance for integrating sustainability into educational programmes
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With the Sustainability track, degree programmes can work on developing their sustainability vision and translating it into concrete steps to place greater emphasis on sustainability within their curriculum. Degree programmes that have completed or are participating in the VisibleLearning Trajectories Programme are provided with tools to co-create and integrate sustainability into their educational programmes, guided by Coyan Tromp, a curriculum developer with expertise in sustainability, and experienced teacher Lieke Mulder.
What does the Sustainability track entail? Coyan Tromp and Lieke Mulder from the Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies (IIS), who developed the track in collaboration with the Visible Learning Trajectories Programme team, explain.
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Ecological, social and economic sustainability
For all academic degree programmes, it is essential to address sustainability challenges, so students learn to handle the complex issues of our time, such as climate change and social inequality.
“Many teachers primarily associate sustainability with ecological aspects, such as paper use or modifying their field trips,” Coyan explains. “We meet with degree programmes to explore together how ecological, social and economic sustainability can all be interwoven into their education. Social sustainability, for instance, focuses on promoting human well-being, equality and justice.”
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Shaping the sustainability vision of the degree programme
“The goal of the Sustainability track is to bring greater attention to sustainability challenges in educational programmes, so that students are trained as professionals with a sharp understanding of the complexity of these challenges,” Lieke explains. “We support degree programmes in two ways: first, by helping them shape their sustainability vision, and second, by co-creating with them to explore how this vision can be incorporated and implemented into their curriculum.” Teachers are provided with tools and knowledge to effectively deliver this type of education.
The level of ambition is determined by the programme. “We start by defining the ambition level together with the programme director,” Coyan explains.
“To facilitate this, we developed a practical tool that helps degree programmes make choices that align with their levels of ambition, goals and capabilities. This provides insight into different levels of ambition and helps set a clear direction.”
Teacher professionalisation and curriculum innovation combined
To tackle major sustainability challenges, students need both knowledge and sustainability skills. “Knowledge,” Lieke explains, “can be both discipline-specific knowledge to make the field more sustainable or knowledge to contribute to sustainability goals. For instance, in the Master’s in Software Engineering, you could aim to make your code as computationally efficient as possible but also design software that promotes social equality. With the degree programme, we explore both the areas of scientific expertise and connections with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We provide advice on how these could be integrated into the intended learning outcomes.”
In addition to knowledge, students need specific sustainability skills. For example, they must be future-oriented and systemic thinkers with strong problem-solving abilities. “We examine where these skills are already being developed within the programme, how they might be connected to sustainability contexts, and provide advice on how to strengthen them in the teaching methods, learning trajectory objectives, and/or exit qualifications of the degree programme,” says Lieke.
Lieke Mulder:
‘It’s essential for students to understand how systems work. To maintain a habitable planet, they must be able to think systemically, be future-oriented and solve problems effectively.’ |
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“At higher ambition levels, we address systemic changes within the field of the degree programme. What paradigms and systems exist in their professional landscape, and how can these be adjusted? Think of economic systems, software development, archiving or other sectors. The question is: are these systems inherently sustainable? This can be examined from both ecological and social perspectives.”
In the Sustainability track, we provide teachers with support to analyse their curriculum. This creates insight into various aspects of sustainability and helps aligning the teaching team. “We have a wide range of tools, such as scenario planning, to enable teachers to help students think about possible futures,” Lieke adds. By performing curriculum analyses and providing professional development for teachers with knowledge of relevant theories and teaching methods, we ensure that teachers can train students to become sustainable professionals.
The Importance of sustainability
Sustainability is not only a priority in the UvA Strategic Plan for 2021–2026, but also widely supported by students and teaching teams. Sometimes, review committees emphasise the importance of integrating sustainability into curricula.
Coyan explains: “There are various subfields of sustainability that interact and often overlap. Knowledge about sustainability is essential to account for these areas and work as sustainably and future-oriented as possible. We are happy to collaborate on embedding sustainability on multiple fronts, without compromising the focus of the degree programme. Through this track, the degree programme’s sustainability ambitions are translated into inspiring and concrete learning objectives, learning trajectories, teaching methods and assessments.”
| Are you a teacher, interested in making your course more sustainable? Coyan and Lieke share their tips:
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More information
Following the Sustainability pilot project, launched in September 2023 in collaboration with Coyan Tromp and Lieke Mulder (IIS), Sustainability is now a track that degree programmes can follow after or during participating in the Visible Learning Trajectories Programme, to translate their sustainability ambitions into inspiring and concrete learning objectives, learning trajectories, teaching methods and assessments. To date, three Bachelor’s degree programmes have completed the Sustainability track under the guidance of Coyan Tromp and Lieke Mulder.
Read more about the Visible Learning Trajectories Programme
Do you have any questions, or are you interested in completing the Visible Learning Trajectories Programme and/or Sustainability track? Contact us