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Categorising sustainability learning outcomes in engineering
Sá Couto, Bruna Sègalas, Jordi Dias, Joana Maia
Sá Couto, Bruna
Sègalas, Jordi
Dias, Joana Maia
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Date
2025
Educational Level
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Geographical Setting
Abstract
As global challenges become increasingly urgent, the integration of sustainability in engineering education is essential. Engineers, as stewards of technological progress and problem solving, play a pivotal role in shaping a sustainable future by addressing pressing issues affecting our planet and society. This emphasizes the critical need to cultivate Sustainability Learning Outcomes (SLOs) in engineering education, ensuring that future engineers acquire the abilities, skills and knowledge required to meet both current and future challenges. This study explores what categories SLOs in engineering literature falls under. A review was conducted to address this matter. The PRISMA 2020 methodology was used to document the process of identifying and selecting articles for analysis. Articles were retrieved from representative databases in education, and screening was based on the following exclusion criteria i) duplicates across data sources; ii) studies outside the scope of the research question according to the title; iii) papers not written in English; iv) inaccessible papers; and v) studies outside the scope of the research question according to their content. The study identified six categories ("Knowledge and Understanding of Sustainability", "Sustainability Skills and Capabilities", "Sustainable Engineering Application", "Ethical/Social Responsibility and Values", "Personal and professional growth" and "Collaboration and Communication Skills and Stakeholder's Role"). The main finding of this study is that SLOs in engineering education address transversally the studied categories and show a strong emphasis on applied learning. This reflects the expectation of graduates to apply their knowledge to practical situations while having the need to have critical skills, capabilities and ethical awareness to meet the demands of their professional practice aligned with sustainable development challenges. This review contributes to understand which categories of SLOs are most commonly addressed in engineering education and serves as an important step towards promoting the needed level of SLO integration in engineering education as well as a common language.
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Keywords (free text)
stakeholder engagement, engineering education, engineering for sustainable development, education for sustainabilty, sustainability in engineering