Abstract:

There is a growing importance of education for sustainable development. Through our courses and subjects, we as teachers can promote not only specific knowledge related to these subjects, but also an attitude and awareness of students toward several important topics regarding sustainable development. Within these sustainable development topics, there are relevant issues related to environmental degradation (pollution, climate change, loss of biodiversity, etc.). In this paper, we combine literature on education for sustainable development and active learning activities with the purpose of developing environmental awareness in our students. The paper is based on a learning experience implemented with undergraduate students (Degree of Business Administration) and graduate students (Master of Tourism Management), in two subjects focused on environmental management in the University of Alicante. In this paper, we describe several active learning activities that have been implemented as assignments in these subjects (activities on climate change, other environmental problems, circular economy, and a final project about environmental impacts and good environmental practices of specific industries and companies). And we also check how these assignments help change the students' environmental awareness, comparing this awareness at the beginning and at the end of the teaching period of the subjects. The findings show that this environmental awareness has increased.

Keywords:

Education for Sustainable Development, Active Learning Approaches, Environmental Awareness.