Sustainable Development Goals Through Challenge-Based Learning Implementation in Higher Education – Education for Sustainable Development (ESD)
The Emerald Handbook of Challenge Based Learning
ISBN: 978-1-80117-491-6, eISBN: 978-1-80117-490-9
Publication date: 8 August 2022
Abstract
This chapter reinforces that challenge-based learning (CBL) may present students with the opportunity to act on a global issue at the local level and make a positive difference in their community. This chapter presents a theoretical framework on the importance of linking Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with the CBL methodology. In addition, a method is proposed to incorporate SDGs in the development and solution of challenges related to academic activities, taking as a reference a course of the Tec21 Educational Model, whose objective was to propose sustainable solutions to challenges of municipalities in Mexico. Therefore, SDGs are an effective vehicle for the generation of challenges both by strategic partners and by governmental organizations or NGOs that together with academics can take as a basis on CBL experiences.
CBL supported by SDGs is focused on solving problems that the students identified in their community, or the place where they live or the municipality from which they or their families originate. The SDGs are global challenges that affect students and teachers locally and, therefore, it is important to use them as a reference framework in universities and generate sustainable and innovative solutions while promoting active and multidisciplinary learning.
Keywords
Citation
Martínez-Acosta, M., Membrillo-Hernández, J. and Cabañas-Izquierdo, M.R. (2022), "Sustainable Development Goals Through Challenge-Based Learning Implementation in Higher Education – Education for Sustainable Development (ESD)", Vilalta-Perdomo, E., Membrillo-Hernández, J., Michel-Villarreal, R., Lakshmi, G. and Martínez-Acosta, M. (Ed.) The Emerald Handbook of Challenge Based Learning, Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 281-299. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80117-490-920221012
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2022 Mariajulia Martínez-Acosta, Jorge Membrillo-Hernández and Miguel Ruiz Cabañas-Izquierdo. Published under exclusive licence by Emerald Publishing Limited
Introduction
Since 2013, Tec de Monterrey began an educational transformation that materialized in August 2019 with the launch of the Tec21 educational model focused on learning based on challenges, flexibility, understanding of learning as an integral experience, and the change in the role of the teachers.
One of the main proposals of the Tec21 model is based on linking students with real challenges so that they develop disciplinary and interdisciplinary skills. Today, society, and especially the new generations of students, are facing unprecedented social, economic, and environmental challenges, driven by accelerated globalization and a faster pace of technological development (OCDE, 2018). The main global and local challenges to be solved are concentrated in the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and their 169 targets (United Nations, 2015).
This chapter presents learning evidence developed under the Tec21 model focused on presenting how the challenge-based learning (CBL) methodology is an enabler of the 2030 Agenda, its goals, and targets. The SDGs are a list of real challenges faced by countries and regions and, therefore, by students in their communities. Many of the challenges considered in the SDGs affect, directly or indirectly, students.
Addressing the SDGs from a CBL perspective enables students to:
Know the global and local challenges facing humanity, countries, and their communities.
Work from a multidisciplinary perspective; the SDGs are universal and indivisible and must be approached from an integral approach considering the three dimensions of sustainable development: economic, social, and environmental.
Develop competencies, knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values that will contribute to the establishment of sustainable development and that are also required professionally in the XXI century.
Help with the implementation and localization of the 2030 Agenda since they propose possible solution proposals to the identified challenges.
Working on the SDGs in universities, through CBL, forces students to know the problems that exist, to identify how it affects them or their communities, as well as to identify possible solutions with a focus on the 2030 Agenda and sustainability.
The objective of the chapter is to demonstrate that CBL offers students, professors, and universities the opportunity to know and investigate the challenges that territories and people have, and thus identify actors and impacts and propose possible solutions to real problems, leaving no one behind, and advance the implementation of the SDGs of the United Nations 2030 Agenda.
Background – The Sustainable Development Goals, a Series of Global Challenges
On September 25, 2015, the 193 member states of the United Nations unanimously adopted the 2030 Agenda, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and their 169 specific targets. The same UN General Assembly decided that the SDGs must be achieved no later than 2030 by all countries, including all territories and all people, leaving no one behind.
This Agenda is a plan of action for people, planet, prosperity, peace, and partnership. Recognize the greatest global challenges and an indispensable requirement for sustainable development, for example, extreme poverty, hunger, climate change, inequality and exclusion, conflicts and humanitarian crises, and loss of biodiversity, mainly (United Nations Foundation, 2020).
For this reason, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, declared the decade 2020–2030 as the “Decade for Action”; 10 years to transform our world and to accelerate sustainable solutions to all the world's biggest challenges (United Nations, n.d.a).
The 17 SDGs are universal, transformational, and inclusive and describe major development challenges for humanity. The aim of the SDGs (Table 11.1) is to secure a sustainable, peaceful, prosperous, and equitable life on earth for everyone now and in the future. The goals cover global challenges that are crucial for the survival of humanity (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, 2017a, 2017b).
The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
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The SDGs and targets are integrated and indivisible, global in nature, and universally applicable, considering different national realities, capacities, and levels of development and respecting national policies and priorities. Targets are defined as aspirational and global, with each government setting its own national targets guided by the global level of ambition but taking into account national circumstances. Each government will also decide how these global targets should be incorporated in national planning processes, policies, and strategies. It is important to recognize the link between sustainable development and other relevant ongoing processes in the economic, social, and environmental fields (United Nations, 2015). In that sense, the education can, and must, contribute to a new, global and local, vision based in sustainable development.
According to Irina Bakova (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, 2017), Director-General of UNESCO, “A fundamental change is needed in the way we think about education's role in global development, because it has a catalytic impact on the well-being of individuals and the future of our planet. … Now, more than ever, education has a responsibility to be in gear with twenty-first century challenges and aspirations, and foster the right types of values and skills that will lead to sustainable and inclusive growth, and peaceful living together.”
To achieve a transformation and achieve the sustainability established in the SDGs, education is necessary. The students must become sustainability changemakers. They will achieve this by knowing the challenges, identifying their causes and consequences, investigating, working in multidisciplinary teams, with the guidance of a mentor who accompanies the knowledge, and creating solutions that result in concrete actions (Observatorio de Innovación Educativa del Tecnológico de Monterrey, 2016).
CBL is an educational methodology that stimulates reflection and the teaching and learning process. In practice, students identify a problem and look for how to solve it using the different resources they have, and where the teacher assumes the role of mentor, supervisor, and facilitator of learning (Membrillo-Hernández, 2019). CBL encourages students to identify and solve challenges, make a difference in their community, and share their results with the world (Apple Inc., 2010).
SDGs represent a challenge and a way to organize our thoughts about the world's problems, for that reason, the challenge-based education is key to building professionals that are ready to tackle the new and current global and local challenges. Advancing the implementation of the SDGs can only be achieved if students can explore the real world, through a hands-on approach, pushing their curiosity and going outside the scope of the classroom (Marty, 2018).
CBL: A Methodology to Address the Real Challenges of the 2030 Agenda
The SDGs include a complex range of social, economic, and environmental challenges, which will require transformations in the functioning of societies and economies, and in how we interact with our planet.
Considering that the 17 SDGs and their 169 goals are a list of global challenges that affect the lives of people and the development of countries and communities, therefore, education, research, innovation, and leadership will be essential to help society to face these challenges. “Universities, due to their work to generate and disseminate knowledge and their preeminent position within society, are called to play a fundamental role in achieving the SDGs. It is likely that none of the SDGs can be met without the involvement of this sector” (SDSN Australia/Pacific, 2017).
Universities play a fundamental role in achieving the SDGs, while at the same time they can benefit enormously from committing to this Agenda (See Table 11.2).
Reasons for University Commitment to the SDGs.
| How Do the SDGs Help Universities? | How Do Universities Help the SDGs? |
|---|---|
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Source: Based on the information from SDSN Australia/Pacific (2017). Getting started with the SDGs in universities: A guide for universities, higher education institutions, and the academic sector. Australia, New Zealand, and Pacific Edition. Sustainable Development Solutions Network – Australia/Pacific, Melbourne.
Methodology: Teaching With Real Challenges
CLB, a Methodology to Know and Propose Solutions to DGS
One of the objectives of the Tec21 Educational Model is for young students to release and develop their potential to transform their environment in the face of the challenges of the twenty-first century. Tec21 model, which is characterized by challenge-based learning, flexibility in learning, the promotion of a memorable experience, and inspiring teachers, is one of the most important changes at Tecnológico de Monterrey since it began 75 years ago (Villanueva, 2018).
Considering these approaches of Tec21 model, of transforming the environment and taking challenge-based learning as a reference, during the first semesters of 2020, the “SDGs Initiative at Tec” worked on the design of a course or “exploration topic” (as it is called in Tec21) whose objective was that the students propose a solution to a social, economic, or environmental challenge that any municipality in the country had. 1 It is important to mention that this “exploration topic” was designed considering the participation of students from all Tecnológico de Monterrey majors and disciplines because it is a course that can be taken by all students who want to learn about a discipline other than the training area.
The main pedagogical theory to be developed is CBL and for five weeks, the students are taught the central themes of the topic by three expert teachers and, simultaneously, work on solving the challenge presented from the first day of classes. The main objective of the topic was for the students to propose a multidisciplinary solution to a specific challenge of a community, municipality, or metropolitan area, taking as reference one or some of the SDGs of the 2030 Agenda. At the end of the course, the student will be able to analyze the variables that intervene in the sustainable development of a municipality, determine the importance of promoting sustained, inclusive, and sustainable municipal economic growth, and establish projects and policies focused on solving problems based on the causes to positively impact social transformation.
The specific objectives were for the students to (1) describe concepts related to economy, the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs, and SDGs implementation mechanisms, focused on multidimensional municipal planning for use in solving problems in their environments; (2) know the SDGs and their targets, as well as different indexes and evaluation indicators; (3) identify and analyze problematic situations in their environments that can be resolved through sustainable proposals; (4) propose collaborative/team sustainable solutions to problems that positively impact on SDGs; and (5) prepare a written report and a video where students present a sustainable solution that responds to the identified challenge of the specific municipality or metropolitan area, and that contributes to sustainable development at the local level.
The challenge was designed considering the most important current challenges identified by the United Nations, the SDGs, and their goals and responds to the need to implement the SDGs at the municipal level, as this is the basic cell of the political organization of the Mexican Republic, in which the population interacts with each other and with the government. CBL confronts students with real-life situations (local realities), and this project proposed activities that were designed to help them to connect the knowledge for developing problem-solving proposals that promote sustainable development (Portuguez Castro, 2020).
The course duration was five weeks with synchronous and asynchronous activities and content related to CBL and sustainable development, hosted on the Canvas platform. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the course was taught online through the Zoom platform.
SDGs' Challenge and Its Stages
The implementation of the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs is a global challenge that is not the exclusive responsibility of national governments; it is also the responsibility of local and municipal governments to develop plans and strategies that promote their implementation, as well as companies, civil society organizations, citizens, and universities to implement them.
Therefore, considering that everyone in Mexico, including students, lives in a municipality and is affected by what happens in it, a challenge was designed whose objective was for students to identify and develop a proposal for a sustainable solution that responds to an economic challenge of a specific municipality or metropolitan area to contribute to sustainable municipal and/or metropolitan development from an SDG approach. It is important to mention that due to the economic effects that COVID-19 had had at the national and local level, highlighting the economic slowdown derived from the suspension of activities, as well as the closure of companies and the loss of jobs, it was a priority for students to identify an economic challenge for a municipality in the country. This decision to alienate the challenge to the current great national and global challenges was possible thanks to the mechanisms of challenge-based learning.
Stages of the SDG Challenge
The challenge responds to the need to implement the SDGs at the municipal level, as this is the basic cell of the political organization of the Mexican Republic, in which the students live and develop. In the design of the challenge, it was considered that students should know more about the situation of the places where they live, since they can be the ones who identify problems or challenges, and can come up with solutions from their homes, with their neighbors, as well as take these challenges to universities and work them as central themes of their subjects. One of the additional purposes of linking the students with the municipalities was that they will develop different skills such as the ability to identify local needs and the consequent solution proposal through ideas, projects, or programs, integrating new mechanisms and actions that promote innovation, social entrepreneurship, and strategic planning considering the local social, economic, and environmental needs of each locality.
The challenge designed by the teachers are problems related to an organization or a community problem, where the student puts into practice their knowledge or develops new ones. The stages of the challenge were the following:
Stage 1. Analysis and Diagnosis of the Municipality
In this first stage, the students had to select and know the municipality or metropolitan area to work during the entire challenge during the five weeks of the course. For this stage, students should perform the following actions:
Integrate multidisciplinary teams and promote gender equality.
Select a municipality or metropolitan area where they would develop their research and proposals.
Review the 17 SDGs and their targets, prioritizing the SDGs suggested by teachers due to their link with the economic dimension of sustainable development: SDG 1 End of poverty, SDG 7 Affordable and clean energy, SDG 8 Decent work and economic growth, SDG 9 Industry, innovation and infrastructure, SDG 12 Responsible consumption and production, SDG 13 Climate action, and SDG 15 Life of terrestrial ecosystems.
Select one of the SDGs and review its specific targets; Knowing targets helped make the proposals more specific and concrete.
Carry out a sociodemographic analysis of the selected municipality or metropolitan area where advantages, opportunities, and problems that impact the municipality socially, economically, or environmentally are detected.
Stage 2. Exploratory Analysis
At this stage, the students had to search for information about the municipality and the SDGs to identify and define the most important challenge they had at that time, as well as to get to know the actors who were linked to the identified problem. Among the actions to be carried out by the teams were:
Identify the most important problem that the municipality had, as well as its causes and consequences.
Define the SDG that they would work on and implement in the municipality.
Map the market failures faced by the economic activities of the selected municipality.
Determine the actors that should be involved in the development of the proposal.
Stage 3. Success Stories of Municipal Development With an SDG Approach
At this stage the purpose was for students to learn about actions and notable examples that were being done in other cities and countries to face economic challenges and how they were planning local development by linking the SDGs to local problems. To achieve this stage, students had to:
Analyze success stories or best practices with solutions that have been implemented by other municipalities at the national and international level.
Know the economic instruments that exist to promote sustainable economic development at the municipal level.
Investigate cooperation mechanisms that could help implement your proposal for a sustainable solution in the selected municipality.
Stage 4. Strategic Planning With an SDG Approach
At this stage, the students had to have defined the local problem to work on and have figured out which SDGs and which goals would have a positive impact. Students had to:
Prepare a problem tree identifying the most relevant challenge of the municipality (main problem, causes, and consequences).
Define the sustainable solution for the municipality. Justify with logical and coherent arguments the reason for the selection, establishing the social, local, and environmental benefits that the implementation of the proposals would have, as well as the linking of the SDGs of the 2030 Agenda.
The problem and the proposed solution had to be based on local and global indicators.
Stage 5. Delivery of Results
In this final stage, the team focused on developing and integrating the final evidence: a final report and a video. Students should:
Prepare and deliver an argumentative report where they will integrate the diagnosis of the municipality, the specific problem (with causes and consequences), and the proposal for a possible solution to the challenge, clearly identifying the SDGs that would be working with their proposal.
Identify the stakeholders involved and necessary for the correct implementation of your solution.
Identify, mention, and argue that another SDG could positively impact the proposed solution. The latter considering that the 2030 Agenda is multithematic and that working on one SDG implies cobenefits in another SDG.
A difference of this project with respect to other examples that exist is that the CBL in this context is focused on solving problems that the students identified in their community, or the place where they live or the municipality from which they or their families originate. In this course, CBL does not offer to the student a learning framework that emulates real work experiences in industry and corporations (Caratozzolo & Jorge, 2020) but in identifying social, economic, and environmental challenges that limit the implementation of the SDGs on a local scale. The students took global challenges as a reference to locate them in the selected municipalities and, in this way, propose essential and sustainable solutions to the challenges that the United Nations has considered essential to solve by 2030 at the latest, and the main reason is because the SDG's have set a course that will enable us to deliver on the 2030 Agenda's promise of “transforming our world,” and lay a strong foundation on which future generations can continue to build (United Nations, 2015).
Results and Discussion
The development of this topic of specialization focused on identifying the challenges of the 2030 Agenda and proposing solutions to local problems through the methodology of challenge-based learning yielded results that responded to the learning objectives of the subject, as well as the challenge.
Initially, the objectives were achieved to ensure that students (1) discussed economic, legal and public policy dilemmas, using empirical evidence and promoting inclusion and the generation of consensus, (2) knew the importance of integrating the Development Goals Sustainable as the roadmap to draw true sustainable development at the national, subnational and municipal levels, as well as the respective goals and indicators, especially those that make up the economic axis (SDG 1, SDG 7, SDG 8, SDG 9, SDG 12, SDG 13 and SDG 15); (3) They will develop projects and activities based on planning that help solve, through the SDGs, the main municipal challenges; (4) develop collaborative work skills and integrate multidisciplinary teams; and (5) develop disciplinary and transversal competencies.
The working group was made up of 32 students from different careers and study areas, mainly from the School of Engineering and Sciences, School of Social Sciences and Government, and the Business School at Tecnológico de Monterrey. All students passed the subject and a clear development of the three competencies to be evaluated was observed: 2 were from the area of social sciences and 1 cross-sectional competencies (See Table 11.3).
Competences Evaluated and Developed by Students.
| Competence | Subcompetence |
|---|---|
| CA1. Efficient use of resources: Analyze economic models that encourage the efficient use of resources and promote development, using quantitative tools. | CA1.4. Determine the effects of the development and economic growth of a population, based on real and nominal macroeconomic variables. |
| CA7. Proposal for public impact projects: It proposes projects of public impact, using analytical, transformation and public entrepreneurship models with technological innovations. | CA7.3. Design a public entrepreneurship project proposal, using disruptive technologies. |
| SEG0400. Ethical and citizen commitment: It implements projects aimed at transforming the environment and common welfare, with ethical awareness and social responsibility. | SEG0404. Citizen commitment for social transformation: Build committed, sustainable and supportive solutions to social problems and needs, through strategies that strengthen democracy and the common good. |
Source: Tecnológico de Monterrey.
The development of the challenge was carried out in parallel with the teaching of chairs by a group of 3 expert professors in each of the thematic modules of the course: a professor of economics and economic analysis, an expert professor in diplomacy, international agreements and sustainable development, and an expert professor in planning for sustainability and coordinator of the group. These teachers were previously trained to teach classes under CBL model and to integrate their knowledge with the development of the challenge (Agüero-Pérez, 2020).
The role of teachers was focused on enabling knowledge and helping students manage their knowledge and ideas regarding the approach to solutions for the selected challenge (Agüero-Pérez, 2020). It is noteworthy to mention that the teachers, in addition to developing the role of coach, also became coresearchers and codesigners of the proposed solution to the challenge together with the students, since despite being experts in their respective subjects, they had to research data and information about the municipalities that the students selected. In addition, during the 5 weeks of the course, the teachers were in charge of making their roles in sustainable development understood and collaborating in a multidisciplinary way to share knowledge (Portuguez Castro, 2020).
Being a multidisciplinary course where students from different study areas participated, the importance of having teachers from different disciplines participated. To solve the challenge, it was necessary to respond in a multidisciplinary way to questions on economic issues, poverty, energy, industry, climate change, and waste, among others.
Challenges, SDGs and Proposed Solutions
The students had the opportunity to choose the municipality they would investigate, the challenge to solve, and the SDG to integrate into their work. For the choice of municipalities, students chose the municipality where they lived (as is the case of Toluca or Atizapán de Zaragoza), where their parents had companies (Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl or Ecatepec de Morelos), or places where one of their relatives lived or where they vacationed (Puerto Vallarta or Palenque).
The proposals focused mainly on some of the goals of SDG 9 and SDG 12 related to issues of industry, infrastructure, innovation, and waste management, followed by proposals to implement SDG 13, SDG 7, SDG 1, and SDG 4 (See Table 11.4). The variety of proposals made respond to the idea that a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary approach is necessary in academic work at universities because sustainability encompasses several technical and scientific areas.
Municipalities, Issues, and SDGs Worked on.
| Municipalities | Title of Proposal Topic | SDG |
|---|---|---|
| Tláhuac | Drop by drop | SDG 9 |
| Toluca de Lerdo | Toluca, national pioneer in the production of batteries for electric cars | SDG 9 |
| Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl | Improved management and increased value of waste | SDG 12 |
| Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl | Ciclovía in Av. Pantitlán, Nezahualcóyotl | SDG 9 |
| Puerto Vallarta | Campaign for awareness and environmental rebirth in Vallarta beaches | SDG 12 |
| Toluca de Lerdo | Sustainable Transformation in Mexico | SGD 13 |
| Atizapán de Zaragoza | Energiforma | SDG 7 |
| Palenque | Organic artisan and gastronomic market | SGD 1 |
| Oaxaca de Juárez | Trash reuse | SDG 12 |
| Ecatepec de Morelos | Ecatepec Report | SDG 4 |
In the course, the students had a series of challenges: selecting a municipality, identifying a series of problems in the municipality and prioritizing the ones most relevant to them, selecting the SDG, identifying the targets of the goal that they would integrate as a specific solution to the community problems that they had to be solved collaboratively with classmates and teachers. After working with these challenges, the students felt identified with the challenge, since working with real projects improves motivation and this results in better student learning (Terrón López & Blanco Archilla, 2017).
Evaluation
One of the additional purposes of this research is not only to validate the implementation of CBL and its functionality to address the challenges presented by the goals of sustainable development. It is also of utmost importance for the evaluation of the competences that the students developed when working with this methodology and having as a starting point the problems identified and selected by themselves.
An important point to consider in the evaluation was the fact that the students were responsible for selecting the challenge to work on, a challenge to which they themselves would propose a possible solution. The students faced the reality of investigating and knowing the problems of the selected municipality, to prioritize these problems and decide which is the most important, as well as to decide if they had sufficient resources to propose a possible solution to the most relevant problem or if they should consider some other challenge.
The evaluation of the proposals presented focused mainly on validating whether the student had developed the two initially established disciplinary competencies, as well as a transversal competency.
Competence 1. Efficient use of resources. The student analyzes economic models that encourage the efficient use of resources and promote development, using quantitative tools.
The indicators of the development of the competence are the student’s ability to:
Evaluate the decisions of economic agents, based on theoretical models, taking into account the options that the individual leaves aside and identifying the opportunity cost.
Discern different options and evaluate the benefit that other options would give an individual.
Perform a marginal analysis and apply the concept of scarcity. Graph the budget constraint.
Show responsibility and discuss the role of ethics on the use of scarce resources.
Competence 2. Debate economic, legal, and public policy dilemmas, using empirical evidence and promoting inclusion and the generation of consensus. The student conducts these multithematic debates and fosters consensus.
The indicators of the development of the competence are the student's ability to:
Analyze economic, legal, and public policy dilemmas, based on contemporary problems at the international level.
Recognize hypothetical public economic, legal, and political dilemmas. Identify diagnoses with logical arguments, derived from their ability to recognize and analyze reality, based on reliable academic sources.
Apply logical and coherent arguments. She/He is capable of integrating updated information in the construction of original arguments, conducting research in which she/he identifies key information.
Evidence of honesty by distinguishing the information that is original from that which is obtained by other sources.
Competence 3. Ethical and citizen commitment. The student implements projects aimed at transforming the environment and common welfare, with ethical awareness and social responsibility.
The indicators of the development of the competence are the student’s ability to:
Design projects aimed at solving problems and social needs, promoting the common good, sustainability or strengthening democracy.
Identify theories and approaches related to citizenship and the social sciences in general, which are related to the problem to be dealt with.
Use methodological tools to prepare their proposal.
To evaluate the development of the competence, two evaluation rubrics were carried out, one for each evidence: written report and video.
Written Report Rubric
Part I. Evaluation of the Content of the Written Report
Sociodemographic description of the municipality
Problem or challenge
Solution proposal 1: SDG
Solution proposal 2: Action plan
Incentives, barriers, and financing
Conclusion
Analysis, research, foundation, and impact
Bibliographic support
Part 2. Evaluation of the Structure, Information, Format, and Presentation of the Written Report
Argumentation, writing, and spelling
Development of the challenge
Presentation and format
Teamwork
Video Rubric
Part 1. Planning, Design, and Technical Elements
Duration
Audio
Image quality
Originality
Part 2. Thematic Content
Proposal
SDG identified
References and credits
Part 3. Encouragement to Learning
Concepts
Ethical and citizen commitment for social transformation
All these criteria were evaluated with a numerical scale. Some had a higher value due to the link that the criterion had with the competences. Among the most relevant are:
Analysis, research, foundation, and impact: The proposed solution is viable, innovative, and interesting. A solution is presented from a 2030 Agenda and SDG approach, having positive impacts on municipal economic development. The proposal considers the three dimensions of the integrity of sustainable development. As an added value, the proposal can be scalable or replicable to other municipalities.
Ethical and citizen commitment for social transformation: Build committed, sustainable, and supportive solutions to social problems and needs, through strategies that strengthen democracy and the common good.
Future Directions
Using the CBL to address the challenges presented in the United Nations SDGs and, thus, supporting the implementation and localization of the 2030 Agenda was positive and aligned with the Tec21 Model. On this occasion, it was used for a subject in the social sciences area; however, if we consider that the SDGs are multidisciplinary, it would be extremely positive to include the SDGs bear and CBL methodology in other disciplinary areas as basic schemes for solving real challenges.
The most relevant results or pieces of evidence of the implementation of CBL as an enabler of the SDGs and that could be considered for future applications are the following:
Contributed to the development of educational and learning experiences for Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), which, according to UNESCO, empowers learners of all ages with the knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes to address the interconnected global challenges we are facing, including climate change, environmental degradation, loss of biodiversity, poverty, and inequality (United Nation Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, s.f.).
It was possible to configure 10 multidisciplinary solutions that consider the main principles of the 2030 agenda: (1) Universality – Applies to all countries and involves all sectors (civil society, private sector, government, academia, citizenship, international cooperation); (2) Integrality – Balances the three dimensions of sustainable development: social inclusion, economic development, and environmental protection. Maximize synergies between objectives; and (3) Leave no one behind – Benefits everyone, particularly people in vulnerable situations. It seeks to end inequities, inequality, and exclusion.
It is necessary to have transversal skills focused on evaluating the commitment to sustainability where the ability of students to generate multidisciplinary proposals to problems related to sustainable development in its three dimensions is considered, as well as the sustainable use of natural resources, the use of energy, and the impacts that social, economic, and environmental.
Important opportunity areas were identified for the development of a new version.
Working on the SDGs through CBL helps to develop knowledge to create new ventures and to encourage creativity and innovation. In this sense, students can become creators of projects or jobs aimed at meeting the SDGs and be sustainable entrepreneurs/innovators.
Working with the CBL methodology in universities helps the development of SDGs’ implementers, students, and young people who help society and become professionals and responsible citizens (SDSN, 2020).
The 2030 Agenda is also unprecedented in its ambitious and comprehensive approach to sustainable development, integrating economic, social, and environmental dimensions and recognizing that all 17 Goals are interlinked to varying degrees (See Fig. 11.1).
Conclusion
The results of the exercise of applying challenge-based learning (CBL) as an enabler of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) indicate that it is an adequate methodology for students to know their environment, present proposals to local and global problems, and have experiential learning and support from expert teachers willing to become mentors, collaborators, and creators of multidisciplinary sustainable proposals.
The reality is that the world is changing, students change, and therefore, the way of presenting and receiving education and knowledge must be changed to transform it into solutions to the real challenges of the twenty-first century.
Students play a critical role in the implementation of the SDGs (Ruiz Cabañas-Izquierdo, 2021). According to the UN website “Youth and the SDGs” (United Nations, n.d.), they have several characteristics that make them essential in this task: they are critical thinkers, agents of change, innovators, communicators, and leaders. These are all competencies and skills that are developed using CBL as a learning method.
Education for sustainability will not be achieved if global and local challenges do not begin to be solved from the classrooms, with the tools that students know, if they do not feel ownership of the challenges, and if they do not use knowledge to create a new development model, one that is sustainable and promotes the fulfillment of the 17 SDGs and the 169 targets of the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development.
It is evident that the CBL is a methodology that could function as an instrument for students to learn about the SDGs and their goals and to be able to link them with their communities. The SDGs are global in scale and universally applicable, yet flexible enough to address unique national realities, differing levels of capacity and development, and diverse challenges at the local, national, and international levels.
Universities are making important efforts to contribute to the fulfillment of the SDGs. However, for the SDGs to be a success locally and globally, it is necessary and mandatory that they acquire a leading role in sustainable development and lead the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development and the SDGs (SDSN Australia/Pacific, 2017).
Universities and higher education institutions have a critical role in helping countries, territories, society, and persons achieve the SDGs through their research, learning and teaching, campus operations, and leadership. Educational innovation, knowledge, and the use of new learning methods to solve global challenges from universities have never been more necessary, more important, or more urgent, “with just 10 years remaining to the 2030 deadline of achieving the SDGs, the growing understanding of the urgency of addressing climate change, and now the COVID-19 crisis” (SDSN, 2020).
Universities, through educational innovation, can be used to help governments, business, and civil society to chart out the pathways to successful sustainable development, and also to be the incubators for the rapid development and rapid fusion of sustainable development technologies. Universities around the world should be in the lead of helping society to find the technical solutions to achieve these goals (Sachs, 2015).
Note
The SDG Initiative at Tec is a strategic project of the School of Social Sciences and Government of the Tecnológico de Monterrey with the objective of mobilizing the talent and resources of authorities, schools, researchers, teachers and students so that Tec participates in the generation of concrete solutions in favor of the implementation of the SDGs in Mexico and the world and become a national and international leader in the generation of initiatives and solutions for the implementation of the SDGs.
References
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- Prelims
- Introduction – The Lay of the Land
- Chapter 1 Creating a Learning Ecosystem for Developing, Sustaining, and Disseminating CBL the Case of TU/e Innovation Space
- Chapter 2 Challenge-Based Learning in Engineering Education: Toward Mapping the Landscape and Guiding Educational Practice
- Chapter 3 Implementation of the Challenge-Based Learning Approach at the Tecnologico de Monterrey, Mexico
- Chapter 4 Advancing a Design Thinking Approach to Challenge-Based Learning
- Chapter 5 Challenge Based Learning in Finance
- Chapter 6 Addressing the Challenges of DMOs in the Italian Alps Through CBL in a Time of Pandemic: A 2020–2021 Online Workshop at the University of Bergamo
- Chapter 7 Ten Years Evaluating CBL in Aerospace Engineering Education
- Chapter 8 Embedding 21st-Century Skills Through Challenge-Based Learning. Delivering Operations Management to Undergraduate Students
- Chapter 9 Self-Directed Approach as an Opportunity to Learn in Challenge-Based Learning (CBL). A CBL Experience With Cross-Disciplinary Learners at the University of Trento
- Chapter 10 Three European Experiences of Cocreating Ethical Solutions to Real-World Problems Through Challenge Based Learning
- Chapter 11 Sustainable Development Goals Through Challenge-Based Learning Implementation in Higher Education – Education for Sustainable Development (ESD)
- Chapter 12 Challenge-Based Learning for Social Innovation in a Private University in Puebla, Mexico
- Chapter 13 Involving External Partners in CBL: Reflections on Roles, Benefits, and Problems
- Chapter 14 Implementing CBL in HEI Curricula: Challenges and Opportunities for Industry Partners
- Chapter 15 Training Future Teachers to Teach With Challenge-Based Learning the Form@tive Project
- Chapter 16 Challenge Based Learning: Recommendations for the Future of Higher Education
- Index