Learning Objectives in Education for Sustainable Development. On the Way to Empirically Verifiable Competencies

The recommended learning objectives in Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) have, for the most part, not been operationalized until now. Furthermore, connections to results of empirical educational research are often lacking. However, this is necessary in order to evaluate the provisions of fostering ESD. Taking concepts of empirical educational research into account, we suggest a frame-model for the structuring of relevant competencies. This model distinguishes between a basic and an elaborated level of sustainability competencies. On each level, differentiations are made between cognitive, affective-motivational and behavioural aspects. In the context of German secondary school learning, the focus is on inter-and cross-disciplinary competencies and a basic level of more domain-specific competencies. In university contexts, a level of elaborated sustainability compentencies including highly domain-specific as well as inter-and trans disciplinary competencies are relevant. The proposed frame-model of competencies relevant in ESD will be helpful in the structuring of existing concepts and operationalizations, to connect these competencies to other existing research, and to identify domains where operationalization is still lacking.