Abstract:

The post-COVID pandemic has seen major changes in the educational frameworks of institutions of higher learning all over the world. The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Report 2020 has identified a target SDG, SDG4, that promotes lifelong learning and quality education. For many educators, this meant a paradigm shift in their teaching and learning methodologies and processes. In addition, embracing the new, post-pandemic, normal meant transitioning to online and hybrid learning teaching and learning methods, integrating technology into the learning environment, and blurring the lines between physical and virtual education. However, educators are still challenged to implement adequate teaching and learning frameworks that would provide their students with 21st century competencies and prepare them for workplace environments.

The Partnership for 21st Century Skills (2019) identifies 3 areas of competencies needed in today’s workplace:
1) learning skills such as collaboration, critical and creative thinking, problem-solving and communication skills;
2) literacy skills which includes IT-based, information-based and media-based literacy, and
3) life skills such as independent learning, social and leadership skills, accountability and responsibility for decision-making.

In the recent 2023 World Economic Forum Annual Meeting, Education 4.0 was presented as a new direction for educational progress and the new way of learning. Specifically, Education 4.0 calls for the redesign of current learning environments in order to imbue students with 3 critical skills:
1) Problem-solving,
2) Collaboration, and
3) Adaptability.
At the university level, inculcating students with these three skills can be challenging for educators, as many lack the proper pedagogical frameworks and instructional strategies to guide the redesign of their learning environments.

In this research study, authentic learning approaches are proposed to underpin the redesign of a design education course in an Indonesian university, and support a groups-based problem-solving learning environment centered around developing solutions for the UN’s SDGs. Herrington, Reeves and Oliver (2014) suggest 9 authentic principles that would provide students with meaningful and relevant learning experiences, from the design of authentic tasks and activities, to collaboration and reflection, to coaching and scaffolding, and to the integration of assessments. Through this redesigned authentic learning environment, students worked in a group to solve a complex design problem, collaborate with each other on this group project and be responsible and accountable for all decision-making and solutions developed. A mixed method research design was carried out on undergraduate Indonesian Design Education students taking a course in Commercial and Service Design in Universitas Ciputra, Indonesia. Data was collected and triangulated through a 5-point Likert scale questionnaire with an open-ended section to solicit student comments and feedback. Findings from the study show that students were positive toward this learning environment and were able to present innovative and creative design solutions for SDG awareness. These results provide strong support for the integration of authentic learning into the education framework to cultivate Education 4.0 critical skills, and as a practical guide for educators interested in redesigning their classrooms for 21st century learners.

Keywords:

Problem-solving, collaboration, authentic learning, SDGs.