Approaching elective courses and courses on special topics in Chemistry can seem daunting at times, given the varied backgrounds of the students, together with the broad nature of topics. Often, institutions may give incentives for creating sustainability related course offerings, but knowing where to start and how to organize the information…

This study examines how middle school students develop an increasingly coherent understanding of aquatic ecosystems. As part of a broader design research study that used Structure-Behavior-Function (SBF) theory as an organizing conceptual representation, we created two instructional units that focused on pond and aquarium environments. We coded…

Anchored in the work of Fanon (1952), Mbembe (2019), and Spivak (1988), I take an autoethnographic journey that traces colonization and the subtle forces of coercion that exist in the academy and society, particularly in the US. I draw on Holland et al. (1998) to position myself in a figured world, a unique constellatory network of histories,…

Higher education plays an important role in preparing future citizens and leaders with the capacity to address systemic issues behind complex problems such as climate change. There have however been few attempts to assess systems-related competencies in the context of complex problems. This study adapted an existing scenario-based assessment tool…

System pausing at pre-determined positions during multimedia presentations can enhance multimedia learning. However, the pause positions are usually set up based on the structure of the learning material (e.g., segmentation principle) rather than on the complexity of its different sections (as determined by levels of element interactivity,…

In an era of worsening environmental crises, students may not perceive themselves as able to impact and change the inevitably upcoming futures. Accordingly, a common goal of educational systems has been to develop students' agency beliefs and sensemaking in a complex world. Simultaneously, students are facing unprecedented levels of future…

The prevalence of systems thinking pedagogy is growing in classrooms because of its inclusion in the Next Generation Science Standards and its potential as a tool for addressing complex, global problems. While most of the research on systems thinking targets the ways students develop system thinking skills, this qualitative study explores…

Popular instructional approaches in Early Childhood Education for Sustainability (ECEfS) are co-construction learning, transformative learning and ecological learning. These rely on constructivism that could challenge human-nature relationships of ECEfS. In this study, we aim to discover and reshape human-nature relationships embedded in the…

Pedagogy is a term used broadly to refer to both how and why an educator influences learning. Given the importance of quality transformative learning experiences noted in the sustainability education literature, the role of an educator's values, assumptions and philosophy underpinning their educational capability for the provision of learning…

Biological systems exhibit strong dynamic variations; for example, a system may have a tendency towards either a steady state, periodic behaviour or chaotic oscillations. These findings, explained by dynamic systems theory, have allowed researchers to formally relate a wide variety of systems, such as the theory of rumour propagation, glucose…

Background/purpose: Although studies on teacher research are becoming more common in English language teaching (ELT), there is still a lack of understanding regarding how university lecturers shape their research identities. Using Ecological systems theory and Self-determination theory, this study examines the construction of research identities…

Teachers often hesitate to advocate for multilingual learners (MLs) beyond their classrooms due to insufficient training and a perceived lack of agency to influence systemic change. Previous instructional coaching models have typically focused on improving classroom practices rather than fostering broader advocacy, resulting in limited…

This article introduces sustainable learning and education (SLE), an emerging philosophy of learning and teaching founded on principles of sustainability. SLE is not necessarily education for sustainability, but rather sustainable learning, a new and different idea. The intention behind SLE is to create and proliferate sustainable curricula and…

Education for global citizenship is one of many of strategies adopted by higher education institutions. We share the findings of a qualitative study in one Australian university that examined the impact of a university goal to embed global citizenship. We found Bronfenbrenner's ecological model to be a suitable framework to examine the process of…

Purpose: Approaches to solving sustainability problems require a specific problem-solving mode, encompassing the complexity, fuzziness and interdisciplinary nature of the problem. This paper aims to promote a complex systems' view of addressing sustainability problems, in particular through the tool of network science, and provides an outline of…