The examination of pedagogies that promote effective sustainability learning has led to vigorous academic discussion, as has research regarding the role of competence-based learning for sustainability. This paper investigates the role of a study abroad program, the Engineers without Borders Design Summit, in promoting the acquisition of sustainability competencies in its students. This study analysed both content of the program pedagogy and the written learning reflections of 137 student participants to examine if the program resulted in sustainability competence acquisition. The study’s findings suggested that students did acquire sustainability competencies during the program, but also that students may become competence-literate but context-lacking as they acquire competency skillsets without understanding their purpose for use as sustainability tools or to promote sustainability outcomes. Therefore, this study recommends that competence-based education for sustainability requires situation of competence acquisition within sustainability contextualisation to ensure full competence potential is fulfilled. This study suggests that contextualisation can occur in a number of ways, including the use of defined sustainability principles as boundary conditions to frame learning environments, the use of sustainability epistemic teachers as “guides” to connect learning to sustainability and the facilitation of student experiences with unsustainability to promote personally motivated action towards sustainability.

中文翻译：

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能识字但缺乏语境？调查留学项目的潜力，以促进学生可持续发展能力的习得

对促进有效可持续性学习的教学法的检查引发了激烈的学术讨论，关于基于能力的学习对可持续性的作用的研究也是如此。本文调查了一个出国留学计划，即无国界工程师设计峰会，在促进学生获得可持续发展能力方面的作用。本研究分析了计划教学法的内容和 137 名学生参与者的书面学习反思，以检查该计划是否导致可持续性能力的获得。研究结果表明，学生在课程期间确实获得了可持续发展能力，而且，学生可能会变得有能力但缺乏背景，因为他们在不了解用作可持续性工具或促进可持续性成果的目的的情况下获得了能力技能。因此，本研究建议基于能力的可持续性教育需要在可持续性背景下获得能力的情况，以确保充分发挥能力潜力。这项研究表明，情境化可以通过多种方式发生，包括使用定义的可持续性原则作为边界条件来构建学习环境，使用可持续性认知教师作为“指南”将学习与可持续性联系起来，以及促进学生体验与促进个人动机的行动以实现可持续性的不可持续性。