AI for Sustainable and Creative Learning in Education
A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Education and Approaches".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 25 August 2026 | Viewed by 227
Special Issue Editors
Interests: human-AI co-creative learning experience; creativity studies; sustainability in education, AI and education; STEM education; pedagogical design; problem- and project-based learning; teacher education and professional development
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: AI-enhanced experiential learning; creative learning environments; spatial experience design in education; human-AI collaboration for sustainability; transdisciplinary approaches to learning in complex socio-ecological systems; distributed and embodied cognition in education
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: the use of AI in STEM education, project-based and problem-based learning in STEM; learning with microcontrollers and virtual labs; ICT in competency-based learning.
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into education presents a unique opportunity to advance both creativity and sustainability in teaching and learning, fostering educational systems and cultures that are better equipped to meet the challenges of a changing world. As we face escalating environmental challenges, cultivating a generation of learners equipped with sustainable and creative thinking practices is imperative. This Special Issue titled "AI for Sustainable and Creative Learning in Education" seeks to explore how AI technologies can facilitate sustainable educational frameworks and pedagogies, thereby contributing to the broader discourse on sustainability in education across disciplines and contexts.
The primary aim of this Special Issue is to highlight innovative applications of AI that promote sustainable education, aligning with the mission of the journal to address interdisciplinary approaches to sustainability challenges. In addition to technological and pedagogical innovation, we encourage work that engages with theoretical perspectives on human and more-than-human learning systems. Relevant perspectives include media ecology, ecology of mind, distributed ontologies, embodied cognition, and the archaeology of mind. Such approaches can illuminate how AI may support the evolution of thinking and cognitive development in complex socio-ecological contexts. We welcome contributions that examine the effectiveness of AI-driven tools in fostering learning, enhancing curricular sustainability, and improving educational access and equity while attending to ethical, cultural, and relational dimensions of AI in education.
In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but not limited to) the following:
- Adaptive learning technologies for sustainability
- AI-enhanced curriculum design
- Human-AI co-creative learning experiences
- Impacts of AI in education
- AI literacy development
- AI and professional development
- AI ethics in education
- AI and caring for inclusive education
- AI, education, and social-technology system
- AI in distributed and embodied cognition
- AI in the design and mediation of learning environments
- AI for spatially and materially situated learning
- Evolutionary approaches to thinking and learning in human-AI-environment relations
We look forward to receiving your contributions.
Dr. Chunfang Zhou
Prof. Dr. Connie Svabo
Dr. Serhii Petrovych
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- AI
- sustainability
- creativity
- human-AI interaction
- AI literacy
- education
- teaching
- learning
- pedagogical design
- professional development
- ecology of mind
- distributed ontologies
- embodied cognition
- cognitive evolution
- learning ecologies
- learning environments
- educational technologies
Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue
- Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
- Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
- Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
- External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
- Reprint: MDPI Books provides the opportunity to republish successful Special Issues in book format, both online and in print.
Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.