Instilling environmentsl sustainability among first year engineering students using cooperative problem-based learning approach

Abstract

Environmental sustainability is an issue that is not new but is rather complex to define. Quality teaching has been identified as the most effective lever to transform engineering education into delivering the related outcomes for students, who would be engineers of the future. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of Cooperative Problem-based Learning (CPBL) in instilling students’ knowledge and promoting behaviour changes associated with environmental sustainability. This study consists of two phases. In phase one, a quantitative study was conducted to investigate the level of students’ prior knowledge and practice on pro-environmental behaviour among 316 first year students from three engineering faculties, prior to admission to the university. These were measured using a set of questionnaire which was adapted from several environmental attitude inventories after it was statistically tested. In phase two, a mixed method research was carried out to investigate the implementation of CPBL towards students’ knowledge and behaviour changes associated with environmental sustainability, as featured in the syllabus of the first-year ‘Introduction to Engineering’ course at one of engineering faculties at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. 63 first year chemical engineering students participated in this phase. In the quantitative study, the questionnaire in phase one was administrated before and upon completion of the course. Descriptive and inferential analyses were conducted using Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS) software. The statistical results showed that most of the engineering students had low to moderate level of knowledge and effort to practice sustainable lifestyles before the course and increased the level at the end of the course. Furthermore, a qualitative study was also performed to investigate how the use of problem and learning environment in CPBL enhanced students’ knowledge and behaviour using thematic analysis. The results showed the convergence of the four domains of knowledge (declarative, procedural, effectiveness and social) among the students. Supports from the CPBL learning environment had significantly changed students’ perceptions associated with environmental sustainability on knowledge, skills, responsibility and readiness to be engineers in the future. Finally, a framework for teaching environmental sustainability through formal education in engineering which is able to instil students’ knowledge and promote behaviour associated with environmental sustainability was recommended for educators.