Smart Energy, Smart Schools: Project-Based Learning About Energy Transition and Digitalization

Theoretical Background

The need for a sustainable, future-oriented development is unquestioned and is described in the WBGU¹ report “World in Transition” (WBGU, 2011) as a comprehensive social transformation process. Especially in the confrontation with multiple crises, shaping social debates currently, it is postulated that education for sustainable development can have an important impact. Although many people are interested in sustainability and associate great chances to a sustainable future development, they have little faith in the achievability of the desired future (Grund & Brock, 2020). These insights are contradictory to a certain extent to the requirements of a social transformation process in which actors participate as responsible citizens in designing a sustainable development. The project on which this article is based addresses the issue and examines the chances and limitations of designing learning opportunities in the context of the energy transition.

ESD aims to empower people to think and act in a sustainable way which requires critical reflection on one's own actions and active participation in social decision-making processes (de Haan, 2008). Regarding this, learning opportunities should be designed to enable own experiences of self-efficacy (Bandura, 1977; Oberrauch et al., 2021), as well as encouragement. These actions demand reflection in the context of sustainability concepts. Research projects in the context of ESD have shown that proactive action and self-efficacy experiences have a great impact on students' sustainability-related awareness, interest formation and attitudes (e.g., Fisman, 2005; Malberg Dyg & Wistoft, 2018).