Special Issue "Education 4.0: Mobilizing for Sustainable Development"

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Education and Approaches".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 October 2021.

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. María Soledad Ramírez Montoya
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Humanities and Education, Tecnologico de Monterrey, Av. Eugenio Garza Sada 2501 Sur, Col. Tecnológico, Monterrey C.P. 64849, N.L., Mexico
Interests: educational innovation; educational entrepreneurship; open educational movement
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Ebba Ossiannilsson
E-Mail Website1 Website2
Guest Editor
Swedish Association for Distance Education and International Council for Open and Distance Education, Lund, 222 35, Sweden
Interests: Product Innovation; Enterprise Integration Engineering; Concurrent Engineering; Rapid Product Development
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Arturo Molina Gutiérrez
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Engineering and Sciences, Tecnologico de Monterrey, Mexico City 02860, Mexico
Interests: product innovation; enterprise integration engineering; concurrent engineering; rapid product development
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Jane-Frances Agbu
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Faculty of Health Sciences, National Open University of Nigeria, Lagos, Nigeria
Interests: Psychology; Health and development; OER; Open Education

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Sustainable development is linked to meeting the needs of the present while also visualizing the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Education plays an important role in sustainability socially, ecologically, economically, and politically. Through education, we can promote instances for sustainable development that support social and economic development and care for the environment. Within this framework, the sustainable development goals of the UNESCO 2030 agenda (United Nations, 2015) establish opportunities to contribute to education and to open up knowledge for society (Ramírez-Montoya, 2020).

Technological and communications footprints and open systems have brought with them opportunities to create new methodologies, resources, and trajectories in education. These changes generate paradigms and innovative educational models for the formation of a digital citizenship or for the development of talents in a civilization based on intangibility. Today, the application of best practices and the use of emerging technologies in combination with innovative pedagogical procedures is known as "Education 4.0" (Miranda et al. In press).

This Special Issue aims to invite the sharing of innovative research and applications within the framework of four basic components of Education 4.0 to serve as a reference in the design of new educational innovation projects (Ramírez-Montoya & Lugo-Ocando, 2020) necessary to promote instances of sustainable development:

i) the training and development of desirable skills in today's students,

ii) the incorporation of new learning methods,

iii) the application of current and emerging ICT and open educational resources,

iv) the use of innovative infrastructures to improve learning processes, and

v) open education in support of sustainable development objectives.

References:

Miranda, J. Corella, C. N. Navarro-Tuch, S.. A. Noguez, J. Molina-Espinosa, J. M. , Bustamante-Bello, M. R., Ramírez-Montoya, M. S., Rosas-Fernández, J. B , Molina. A. (In press). The Core Components of Education 4.0 in Higher Education: Three Case Studies”. Journal Computers & Electrical Engineering.

Ramírez-Montoya, M. S. (2020). Challenges for Open Education with Educational Innovation: a Systematic Literature Review. Sustainability, 12, 7053; doi:10.3390/su12177053. Retrieved from: https://hdl.handle.net/11285/636785.

Ramírez-Montoya, M.S., & Lugo-Ocando, J. (2020). Systematic review of mixed methods in the framework of educational innovation. [Revisión sistemática de métodos mixtos en el marco de la innovación educativa]. Comunicar, 65, 111349. https://doi.org/10.3916/C65-2020-01

United Nations (2015). Sustainable development goals. https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/

Prof. Dr. María Soledad Ramírez Montoya
Prof. Dr. Ebba Ossiannilsson
Prof. Dr. Arturo Molina
Prof. Dr. Jane-Frances Agbu
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 papers will be 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 1900 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

  • Transversal and disciplinary competences for social, economic, or environmental commitment (critical thinking skills, problem solving, innovation, entrepreneurship, social-emotional, ethical, and ICT, among others);
  • Methods and active strategies for innovative environments for sustainable development (challenge-based learning, problem-based learning, evidence-based educational innovation, and research-based learning, among others);
  • Innovative learning environments linked to sustainable development (face-to-face, distance, blended);
  • Emerging technologies for education, technology-based tools for education, tools and platforms for educational innovation (internet of things, big data, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, mixed reality, augmented reality, MOOC, open platforms, virtual and remote laboratories, resources for educational innovation, and open educational resources)
  • Innovation of products, services, methods for society;
  • Educational innovation for sustainable development (continuous innovation, systemic innovation, disruptive innovation, open innovation);
  • Collaborative networks for multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, or transdisciplinary work
  • Educational practices linked to solidarity or social commitment, sustainable development objectives;
  • Innovative practices that promote cultural, social, educational, or economic development;
  • Co-construction practices with educational input 4.0;
  • Educational entrepreneurship for sustainable development;
  • Open education, open science, open practices in support of sustainable development objectives

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

Article
Sustainability in Education: A Scale on Perceptions of Organisational Discipline Related to the COVID-19 Period
Sustainability 2021, 13(15), 8343; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13158343 - 27 Jul 2021
Viewed by 427
Abstract
Higher education institutions are the most important institutions that form the basis of societies. The devoted students, academic and administrative employees enlighten the future and keep these institutions alive. Employees of higher education institutions have to teach a discipline with the order existing [...] Read more.
Higher education institutions are the most important institutions that form the basis of societies. The devoted students, academic and administrative employees enlighten the future and keep these institutions alive. Employees of higher education institutions have to teach a discipline with the order existing in their organisation and their relations with each other. The purpose of this study is to determine using the “organisational discipline” perceptions of higher education employees in different situations and determine the differences according to their socio-demographic characteristics. In the literature review of this study, no scale related to the perception of organisa-tional discipline was found. For this purpose, a scale consisting of six sub-dimensions that will cover the perception of organisational discipline was prepared. The validity and reliability of the prepared scale were determined by conducting a study. COVID-19 pandemic affected the world in all sectors throughout, a prepared scale was applied to 357 higher education institution academics who has been teaching online for a long time. Forward-looking sustainable higher education strategy, the discipline scale plays an essential role in the organisation. In this period, the perceptions of organisational discipline were tried to be determined by considering their current situation. The data obtained in the research were applied independent sample t-test and analysis of variance (ANOVA); T-test, one of the post-hoc tests, was used as further analysis. The study determined that if there is significant difference in perceptions of organisational discipline related to gender, age, nationality, educational status, professional seniority, academic title and working style. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Education 4.0: Mobilizing for Sustainable Development)
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Article
A Qualitative and Quantitative Study on Critical Thinking in Social Education Degree Students
Sustainability 2021, 13(12), 6865; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13126865 - 17 Jun 2021
Viewed by 497
Abstract
Critical thinking is present in the educational intentions in higher education with more or less programmatic development. In the training of social educators, such thinking is considered a fundamental pillar for a good performance of their functions in the social field. By means [...] Read more.
Critical thinking is present in the educational intentions in higher education with more or less programmatic development. In the training of social educators, such thinking is considered a fundamental pillar for a good performance of their functions in the social field. By means of qualitative and quantitative instruments, we set ourselves the objective of knowing the opinions of 72 Social Education degree students of the University of Huelva (Spain) about critical thinking, higher education, and their position on the subject. The results obtained showed that students have an approximate general knowledge of what critical thinking is, but a clear lack of knowledge of how it is developed. In addition, it is observed that there is a great contradiction between what they say and what they actually do, as, although they value its development in the degree and professional performance, they do not develop or commit themselves de facto to this competence. Moreover, they recognize that the university is a context that favors critical competence, but at the same time they are very critical about the teachings offered in this regard. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Education 4.0: Mobilizing for Sustainable Development)
Article
Design Framework Based on TEC21 Educational Model and Education 4.0 Implemented in a Capstone Project: A Case Study of an Electric Vehicle Suspension System
Sustainability 2021, 13(11), 5768; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13115768 - 21 May 2021
Viewed by 633
Abstract
Nowadays, engineering students have to improve specific competencies to tackle the challenges of 21st-century-industry, referred to as Industry 4.0. Hence, this article describes the integration and implementation of Education 4.0 strategies with the new educational model of our university to respond to the [...] Read more.
Nowadays, engineering students have to improve specific competencies to tackle the challenges of 21st-century-industry, referred to as Industry 4.0. Hence, this article describes the integration and implementation of Education 4.0 strategies with the new educational model of our university to respond to the needs of Industry 4.0 and society. The TEC21 Educational Model implemented at Tecnologico de Monterrey in Mexico aims to develop disciplinary and transversal competencies for creative and strategic problem-solving of present and future challenges. Education 4.0, as opposed to traditional education, seeks to provide solutions to these challenges through innovative pedagogies supported by emerging technologies. This article presents a case study of a Capstone project developed with undergraduate engineering students. The proposed structure integrates the TEC21 model and Education 4.0 through new strategies and laboratories, all linked to industry. The results of a multidisciplinary project focused on an electric vehicle racing team are presented, composed of Education 4.0 elements and competencies development in leadership, innovation, and entrepreneurship. The project was a collaboration between academia and the productive sector. The results verified the students’ success in acquiring the necessary competencies and skills to become technological leaders in today’s modern industry. One of the main contributions shown is a suitable education framework for bringing together the characteristics established by Education 4.0 and achieved by our educational experience based on Education 4.0. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Education 4.0: Mobilizing for Sustainable Development)
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