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Competences in Sustainability in
Engineering Education

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1 Introduction
Definition:
Competences represent a dynamic combination of cognitive and
meta-cognitive knowledge and understanding, interpersonal,
intellectual and practical skills, and ethical values.
Fostering competences is the object of educational programmes.
Competences will be formed in various course units and assessed at
different stages. (Tunning, 2007)

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1 Introduction
Taxonomies:
 Capacities:
1. Knowledge and understanding (To know)
2. Skills and abilities (To do)
3. Attitudes (To be)
4. Ethics and Values
 Focus:
1. Generic
2. Specific

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2 Sustainability competences in Engineering
What competences in Sustainability do you think
engineers may have when graduating?

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2 Sustainability competences in Engineering
Are those competences introduced in you current
engineering curriculums?

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2 Sustainability competences in Engineering
How can/should those competences introduced in
your curriculum?

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2 Sustainability competences in Engineering
Analysis:
1.National level:
• UK Standards for engineering (UK)
• ABET (USA)
• Criteria for Academic and Master’s Curricula (The Netherlands)
2.International level:
• Barcelona Declaration (2n EESD Conference)
• CDIO (Conceive-Design-Implement-Operate)

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2 Sustainability competences in Engineering
Results:
 Critical thinking is regularly mentioned
explicitly (…is able to critically reflect...;
.. “why” and “what if” reasoning…) and
implicitly (…understand how their work
interacts with society and the
environment…) in sets of
competences. The idea of mental
processes of discernment, analysis and
evaluation in an open-minded point of
view is often highlighted.

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2 Sustainability competences in Engineering
Results:
 Systemic thinking is expressed as the idea that everything
interacts with the things around it and that the world
therefore consists of complex relationships. The need for
having the competence to move beyond the tradition of
breaking reality down into disconnected parts.

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2 Sustainability competences in Engineering
Results:
 Inter-trans-disciplinarity is also stated as important for
SD taking into account both, the participation of different
professionals to solve problems and stakeholder
participation in technological processes.

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2 Sustainability competences in Engineering
Results:
 Values and ethics are at the core of the meta-cognitive
sets of competences, they are shown as the main force to
change attitudes to act personally and professionally for
SD.

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2 Sustainability competences in Engineering
Barcelona Declaration in EESD 2004:
today's engineers must be able to:
 Understand how their work interacts with society and the
environment, locally and globally, in order to identify potential
challenges, risks and impacts.
 Understand the contribution of their work in different cultural, social
and political contexts and take those differences into account.
 Work in multidisciplinary teams, in order to adapt current technology
to the demands imposed by sustainable lifestyles, resource
efficiency, pollution prevention and waste management.

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2 Sustainability competences in Engineering
Barcelona Declaration in EESD 2004:
today's engineers must be able to:
 Apply a holistic and systemic approach to solving problems and the
ability to move beyond the tradition of breaking reality down into
disconnected parts.
 Participate actively in the discussion and definition of economic,
social and technological policies, to help redirect society towards
more sustainable development.
 Apply professional knowledge according to deontological principles
and universal values and ethics.
 Listen closely to the demands of citizens and other stakeholders and
let them have a say in the development of new technologies and
infrastructures.

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3 Example at DUT – Chalmers UT and UPC
• Study of SD generic • 3 Case studies: Official ESD competences
competences of Bachelor documents
engineering graduates
• Cognitive domain
– Knowledge and
understanding
– Skills and abilities
– Attitudes
• Level of learning
– Blooms’ taxonomy -
Cognitive learning
– Kratwhohl’s taxonomy -
Metacognitve learning

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3 Example at DUT – Chalmers UT and UPC
Knowledge and understanding
comprehension DUT
2
UPC
CUT
Bloom's Taxonomy
knowledge
1
0
World current Causes of Sustainability Science, Instruments for
situation unsustainability fundamentals Technology and sustainable
Society technologies

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3 Example at DUT – Chalmers UT and UPC
Skills and abilities
evaluation
6
DUT
synthesis
5 UPC
CUT
analysis
4
Bloom's Taxonomy
application
3
comprehension
2
knowledge
1
0
Sel f-l ea rni ng Coopera tion a nd SD Probl em Sys temi c thi nki ng Cri tica l thi nki ng Soci a l
tra ns di s ci pl i na ri ty s ol vi ng pa rtici pa tion

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3 Example at DUT – Chalmers UT and UPC
Attitudes
DUT
5
value complex UPC
CUT
value organization
4
Krathwohl's Taxonomy
valuing
3
responding
2
receiving
1
0
Responsibility - Respect - Ethics - Peace Concern - Risk
Commitment - SD culture awareness
challenge
acknowledgement

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3 Example at DUT – Chalmers UT and UPC
Cognitive
Key word Level of achievement
domain
• Findings:
World current situation Comprehension
– Inter-trans- Causes of unsustainability Comprehension
disciplinarity Knowledge
and Sustainability fundamentals Comprehension
– Systemic Thinking understanding
Science, technology and society Comprehension
– Critical thinking Instruments for sustainable technologies Knowledge
– Values and ethics Self-learning Application
Cooperation and transdisciplinarity Evaluation
Skills and SD Problem solving Synthesis
abilities Systemic thinking Evaluation
Critical thinking Evaluation
Social participation Evaluation
Responsibility
Commitment Valuing
SD challenge acknowledgement
Respect
Attitudes
Ethical sense Organization
Peace culture
Concern
Value complex
Risk awareness

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4 UPC Sustainability Competence
UPC Generic competences:
 Entrepreneurship and Innovation
 Sustainability and social commitment
 third language
 Effective oral and written communication
 Teamwork
 Use of information resources
 autonomous learning

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4 UPC Sustainability Competence
Definition
 To know and understand the complexity of economic and social phenomena
typical of the welfare society,
 ability to relate welfare with globalization and sustainability,
 ability to use in a balanced and compatible approach techniques, technology,
economy and sustainability.

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4 UPC Sustainability Competence
Levels of competence
Level 1: Systemically and critically analyze the overall situation, taking into
account the sustainability and sustainable human development in an
interdisciplinary approach, and recognizing the social and environmental
implications of the professional field.
Level 2: Apply sustainability criteria and codes of professional ethics in the
design and evaluation of technological solutions.
Level 3: Take into account the social, economic and environmental solutions
when applying and implementing projects consistent with human development
and sustainability.
S1 S2 S3 S4 S5 S6 S7 S8
Level 1 Level 1
Level 2 Level 2
Level 3 Level 3