Active Learning to Foster Economic, Social, and Environmental Sustainability Awareness

Abstract

There is a widely recognized need to accelerate the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, and higher education institutions must play a leading role to accomplish this objective. In this context, the leaders of the future must develop a set of sustainability-oriented capabilities and leadership skills in order to contribute to society’s transition toward economic, social, and environmental sustainability. The educational strategy presented in this article is based on the combination of two simulations and three serious games used to recreate three different spheres of economic, social, and environmental sustainability. These activities were applied in two different settings to represent three levels of analysis and management concerning sustainability-related issues: local, national, and international. The frameworks addressed sustainability from two perspectives based on two different approaches to the issue of distance: political and geographical. Content analysis was implemented to analyze the effect of active learning to raise awareness among undergraduate Business Management majors and help them understand the potential of this methodology to develop leadership skills. 203 students participated in the activities, and the results suggest that this innovative active learning strategy contributed to fostering key cognitive, skill-based, and affective learning outcomes related to sustainability.