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Introduction

Competencies within higher education have been variously defined as the desired behaviours that students need to perform in academic, professional, and societal settings, or as the knowledge, capacities, skills and attitudes that enable students perform the tasks required of a course of study (van Berkum 2024, p. 435).

UNESCO (2017) has identified eight key competencies that individuals need in order to enable us as a society to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). UNESCO envisages that these competencies will be developed through education for learners of all ages, worldwide, and that they should be developed at levels appropriate to age and context. They are not intended to replace competencies required for specific situations, but to encompass them. Within the Trinity ESD Curriculum Design Framework, these are referred to as the ESD competencies.

In this section we will examine these competencies and how they might be embedded in modules and programmes.

ESD Competencies

To recognise and understand relationships; to analyse complex systems; to think of how systems are embedded within different domains and different scales; and to deal with uncertainty.

This involves understanding how different elements within a system interact and influence each other.

To understand and evaluate multiple futures – possible, probable and desirable; to create one’s own visions for the future; to apply the precautionary principle; to assess the consequences of actions; and to deal with risks and changes.

This helps students think ahead and prepare for future challenges.

To understand and reflect on the norms and values that underlie one’s actions; and to negotiate sustainability values, principles, goals, and targets, in a context of conflicts of interest and trade-offs, uncertain knowledge and contradictions.

This competency encourages ethical thinking and value-based decision-making.

To collectively develop and implement innovative actions that further sustainability at the local level and further afield.

This involves planning, implementing, and evaluating strategies for sustainable development.

To learn from others; to understand and respect the needs, perspectives and actions of others (empathy); to understand, relate to and be sensitive to others (empathic leadership); to deal with conflicts in a group; and to facilitate collaborative and participatory problem solving.

This competency emphasises the importance of cooperation and communication in achieving sustainability goals.

To question norms, practices, and opinions; to reflect on one’s own values, perceptions and actions; and to take a position in the sustainability discourse.

This encourages students to think critically about sustainability issues and their own role in addressing them.

To reflect on one’s own role in the local community and (global) society; to continually evaluate and further motivate one’s actions; and to deal with one’s feelings and desires.

This competency promotes personal growth and self-reflection.

The overarching ability to apply different problem-solving frameworks to complex sustainability problems and develop viable, inclusive, and equitable solution options that promote sustainable development, integrating the competences mentioned above.

This involves integrating knowledge from various disciplines to address sustainability challenges.

competencies cited and adapted from UNESCO, 2017, p.10.

Most disciplines already encompass some or all of these competencies. For example, students educated in ecology will automatically encounter systems thinking, whereas the literary arts are more likely to provide support for anticipatory and normative competencies, and social science students will most naturally develop critical thinking competencies (Sterling 2011, p. 40-49).

The UNESCO competencies are widely used when designing curriculum for higher education. UNESCO have provided examples of specific learning objectives that address the 17 SDGs and can be used to support the development of the ESD competencies (UNESCO, 2017, p. 11–11). These objectives address one or more of the cognitive, socio-emotional and behavioural learning domains outlined below:

  • Cognitive domain comprises knowledge and thinking skills necessary to better understand a particular SDG and the challenges in achieving it.
  • Socio-emotional domain includes social skills that enable learners to collaborate, negotiate and communicate to promote the SDGs as well as self-reflection skills, values, attitudes and motivations that enable learners to develop themselves.
  • Behavioural domain describes action competencies.

Competency frameworks have been examined through the domains of learning and visually represented in terms of the head, heart and hands metaphor, as mapped by Calvert et al. (2022).  Calvert et al.’s visual (2022, p. 16) has been adapted below to encompass the ESD competencies as referred to in the Trinity ESD Curriculum Design Framework.

ESD competencies mapped to the three learning domainsFigure 1: ESD competencies mapped to the three learning domains.

The following toolkits can be used to help identify the ESD competencies addressed within the curriculum:

As you are identifying the ESD competencies you may also like to record the level of proficiency your students are required to achieve.

Levels of Proficiency

In addition, it can be helpful to consider levels of proficiency for the ESD competencies. The following four levels of proficiency are defined in relation to  Bloom’s Taxonomy:

  • Beginner (Knowledge): Recall facts, terms, and basic concepts.
  • Intermediate (Comprehension and Application): Understand, explain, and apply knowledge.
  • Advanced (Analysis and Synthesis): Analyse, evaluate, and create based on understanding.
  • Expert (Evaluation and Creation): Critically evaluate, synthesize, and generate new insights 

This template may help you document the process: ESD Competencies & Learning Outcomes Template

If your module or programme does not encompass any of the ESD competencies, you should first consider the following questions in relation to each learning domain and its associated ESD competency and relevant ESD themes:

  • Is your module or programme focussed more on one or other of cognitive, socio emotional, or behavioural learning?
  • Within this context which of the ESD competencies best reflect what you are aiming to achieve?
  • What type of content or learning material can your students engage in that is both relevant to your discipline and one or more of the ESD themes?

If you are still unsure of the ESD competencies encompassed by your module or programme you can download this template which has question relating to each of the ESD competencies that you can reflect on in the context of your discipline. Template for Questions on disciplinary ESD Competencies.

In the event that you cannot identify any ESD competencies related to ESD themes you may wish to reconsider the aims and learning outcomes of the module, or in the case of a full programme, this should be done as part of a needs analysis for curriculum (re)design.

You can then rewrite your learning outcomes to encompass relevant ESD competencies.

In the previous section we examined how to identify ESD competencies related to the ESD themes that are encompassed by your module or programme.

For example, if your module or programme is focussed on cognitive, or ways of thinking, perhaps the ESD competency critical thinking will be a natural fit. However, you may also want to develop the Normative competency or students' ability to reflect on the norms and values of the discipline.

As one of the learning activities, you could ask students to consider the ethics of their discipline in the context of one or more of the SDGs from each of the tiers, thus supporting the development of ESD competencies across a number of ESD themes.

See example below.

Discipline of History

A period of relevant history could be investigated in relation to any one of the SDGs contained in the Biosphere and SDG3, Good Health and Well-being or SDG5, Gender Equality, and SDG12 Responsible Consumption and Production. ESD competencies such as systems thinking, normative competency, and collaborative competency could be developed.

Learning Outcome: learners will be able to work in a group to analyse the impact gender had on the health and well-being of the population of… in the period [date to date]… in relation to the consumption of food.

These examples are from existing 2024/2025 academic year modules.

Interprofessional module on Healthcare

Learning outcome: The learner should be able to explain the ethical and social implications of healthcare practices on global health and sustainability.

This addresses the ESD Normative competency, as it encourages students to reflect on the ethical and social impacts of their actions in the context of global health and sustainability. This module links with ESD themes Economy and Society (SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities and SDG 3: Good health and Wellbeing).

Capstone Business Module

(https://www.tcd.ie/business/programmes/undergraduate/module-outlines/buu44540/ )

Learning outcome Self-awareness: Recognise own emotions, values, purpose, and drivers and how these influence your leadership style.

This addresses the Normative Competency. To support this, students explore theory U as a leadership principal that engages with the three spheres of self, other, and system in order to underpin and understand their own decision making based on their self-biases, network / peer influences, and systemic conditions.  The relevant ESD themes they explore depend on the project selected.

Trinity undergraduate module

 Enacting Education for Sustainable Development

Learning Outcome: Explain risks of misinformation related to sustainable development.

This will require learners to engage with all three ESD themes as it includes elements of multiple SDGs, for example SDG12, Responsible Consumption and Production, SDG13, Climate Action, SDG14, Life Below Water (14), and SDG15, Life on Land. In addition, this outcome develops a level of competence in Systems thinking, Strategic Competence and Critical Thinking.

 

Some examples of learning objectives that encompasses ESD competencies in relation to specific SDGs, have been developed by UNESCO (2017). Note that the UNESCO document refers to ‘learning objectives’ rather than ‘learning outcomes', thus they may need to reframed for your use as learning outcomes. The following, adapted from UNESCO (2017, p. 33), have been designed to address SDG12, Responsible Consumption and Production, across each of the learning domains.

At the end of this course of study the learner will be able to:

  • Cognitive: Explain how individual lifestyle choices influence social, economic and environmental development.
  • Socio-emotional: Communicate the need for sustainable practices in production and consumption.
  • Behavioural: Plan, implement and evaluate consumption-related activities using existing sustainability criteria.

Key Takeaways

• It is important to have an understanding of the ESD competencies defined by UNESCO which are contained in the Trinity ESD Curriculum Design Framework.

• The Head, Heart and Hand analogy can be useful to help map the domains of learning required to the ESD competencies.

• Learning Outcomes should be written such that they encompass the development of one or more of the ESD competencies across one or more ESD themes.

• For some disciplines, and modules, the SDG context may not immediately be clear, but it is likely that reflection on the social and cultural dimensions of the full set of SDGs will indicate links on which one can build.