Assessing the learning outcomes of the creativity competence linked to the SDG6: Clean water and sanitation. A case study in the university context.

Abstract

Introduction: The 2030 Agenda regards Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) as an essential tool to address the major challenges of today's global transformations. The university promotes a wide range of teaching initiatives to deploy sustainability competences (SC), although the impact of most of them on learning is unknown. The objective of this paper is to examine from a students’ perspective, and according to a proposed instrument, the cognitive, social, emotional and behavioural learning outcomes of ESD practice, the development of the creativity competence based on SDG6: Clean Water and Sanitation. This paper starts with a literature review of the ESD concept and scope of its implementation especially in the Spanish university context, and later presents the methodology, findings and related discussion. Method: A mixed research project was conducted. A qualitative approach was initially used with two discussion groups, and subsequently a quantitative approach was applied, based on an ad-hoc questionnaire distributed to 149 students in the penultimate year of the Faculty of Economics and Business Studies at the University of Deusto (UD), once they had completed their practice engagement. A total of 121 responses were obtained. Outcomes: Students reported that they had increased their knowledge of SDGs and awareness of the importance of water, and thought that they will behave more responsibly with regard to water. Although necessary, they found the sustainability training they had received to be limited. They also showed motivation and a favourable attitude to take on similar training challenges and engage in solving social problems. Discussion: Students' practice and attitude provide an excellent opportunity to contribute to the promotion of sustainability. Proposals for improvement are put forward.