Sustainability Education and Critical Thinking Integration in General Education

Abstract

Education and critical thinking are integral in the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Thus, this study aims to examine the extent of integration of sustainability education (SE) and critical thinking (CT) in General Education (GE). This research employed a descriptive quantitative method approach through a self-assessment survey questionnaire. The participants of the study were GE faculty from three universities, who answered the researcher-made questionnaire to assess the extent of integration of SE and CT in their GE courses. The self-assessment results indicate moderate to high integration of sustainable development concepts, values, attitude, and critical thinking skills in GE. Consequently, the integration of specific sustainability concept, critical thinking skills, and values varies from high to weak level for individual courses. Noticeably, some courses have weak integration of environmental and economic concepts along with the critical thinking skill of theory building and synthesis. While integration is observed to some extent, overall results suggest a need for improvement in integrating and interrelating the different dimensions of sustainability within each course as sustainability education advocates interdisciplinarity to address multifaceted problems and issues.