Sustainable Development in an Engineering Degree: Teaching Actions

Universities must prepare future professionals with critical thinking skills to effectively addresscomplex social and environmental challenges. In engineering degrees, while technicalcompetences are strongly developed, the acquisition of ethical and social skills remainschallenging within the framew...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Romero Gutiérrez, Ana, García Contreras, María Reyes, Fernández Cézar, Raquel, Bejarano Franco, María Teresa
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2026
País:España
Institución:Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha
Repositorio:RUIdeRA. Repositorio Institucional de la UCLM
OAI Identifier:oai:ruidera.uclm.es:10578/46944
Acceso en línea:https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci16010144
https://hdl.handle.net/10578/46944
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Engineering
Skills
Sustainability
Sustainable development goals
University teaching
Descripción
Sumario:Universities must prepare future professionals with critical thinking skills to effectively addresscomplex social and environmental challenges. In engineering degrees, while technicalcompetences are strongly developed, the acquisition of ethical and social skills remainschallenging within the framework of traditional subjects. This paper explores how theintegration of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), following a competence-basededucational model, can contribute to the development of ethical, social, and sustainabilityrelatedcompetences in an engineering degree. A set of activities, exercises, and tasksgrounded in real professional contexts was designed to encourage students to exploresustainable solutions to social and environmental problems, supported by experientiallearning and visible thinking routines. These activities were coherently aligned throughinterdisciplinary coordination among professors teaching in the degree. The results indicatethat the proposed approach was positively received by both professors and students,who valued its contribution to personal and professional development. Students demonstratedenhanced critical thinking and greater awareness of the social and environmentalimplications of engineering decisions. This work aims to support and inspire educatorsseeking to integrate SDGs into their teaching by offering a feasible, transferable, and easy-toimplementframework for embedding ethical, social and sustainability-related competencesin engineering teaching.