DOI
10.3390/su11071993

Summary
This study is concerned with the teaching of sustainable development and the perception that student teachers have in their ability to teach the subject. The study methodology included the survey of 578 student teachers in education across Europe. In recent years there has been a shift in process of measuring student teachers abilities. Where the traditional method included measuring by strength of different competences among the teachers, there is now a trend towards assessment of what student teachers are capable of doing as actual teachers. Dahl references Albert Bandura’s cognitive theory on efficacy to support this trend observation. Bandura states that “the ability to do something is, to a high degree, dependant on belief a person has in his or her ability”. Questions arise for Dahl here. What do student teachers feel or think they are capable of or prepared to do? What do they think they think they can do?

Darling-Hammon defines 5 dimensions of teacher professionalism.

Design of curriculum and instruction
Support for diverse learners
Use of assessment to guide learning
Creation of a productive classroom
Development of teacher professionalism

The methodology was conducted in three step process. A list for discussion was drawn from Darling-Hammon and Scholung & Dahl. A discussion was facilitated with the student teachers and teacher educators in each partner institution. The results from these discussions was analysis and used to create a 21-item questionnaire. The 21 items are listed on page 3. The findings indicate that item 21 has the weakest reliability in student teachers. Item 21 of the questionnaire is “teach in a way that values sustainability and promotes environmentally sound ways of living”. In the seven programmes in this study only Edinburgh clearly represents the need to teach for a sustainable society. Dahl found that there was a strong difference among the institutions on how students think about their self-efficacy in teaching for sustainability suggesting that the concept is given different weight in the various teacher education programmes.

Evans et al suggests four different modes in which teacher education programmes could better integrate sustainability education: 1. Embedding sustainability education widely across curriculum areas, courses and institutions, 2. Through a dedicated core/compulsory subject, 3. Through a component of a core/compulsory subject and 4. Through a dedicated elective subject.  

Relevance for Complex Systems Knowledge
This study is relevant to the sustainable development topic. It offers insight into the enhancement student teacher competency making it applicable to improving education programs. Insight is drawn from the belief of student teachers abilities to teach sustainable development concepts and promote environmentally conscious ways of teaching. This study would be a highly useful resource for discussions with teachers. The importance of integrating better methods of teaching in these programmes feeds into the greater system of sustainable development as the effects of enhancing student teacher belief would positively cascade.

Point of Strength
Dahl making reference to Albert Bandura’s cognitive behaviour on efficacy is a useful reference here. The theory has gained great empirical support and determines several of the questions in the OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS).

The identification of item 21 being the weakest could be utilised a focal point for another study, using this paper as a starting point. Darling-Hammon 5 dimensions of teacher professionalisms could also be a useful resource.