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Browsing by Author "Mancini, Maria Serena"

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  • Ecological footprint reduction recommendations for higher education Iistitutions
    Publication . Pires, Sara Moreno; Dias, Marta Ferreira; Onofretti, Giulia; Madeira, Catarina; Nicolau, Mariana; Galli, Alessandro; Mancini, Maria Serena; Patrizi, Nicoletta; Mapar, Mahsa; Malandrakis, George; Lopes, Myriam; Pulselli, Federico Maria; Nicolau, Paula Bacelar; Caeiro, Sandra; Gomes, Ana Paula; Nadais, Maria Helena; Gigliotti, Massimo; Papadopoulou, Athanasia; Niccolucci, Valentina; Theodosiou, Nikolaos; Zachos, Dimitrios
    2022Book Open access Show more
  • Guidelines for setting-up transdisciplinary sustainability courses
    Publication . Pulselli, Federico Maria; Malandrakis, George; Mancini, Maria Serena; Nicolau, Paula Bacelar; Nicolau, Mariana; Mapar, Mahsa; Theodosiou, Nikolaos; Patrizi, Nicoletta; Galli, Alessandro; Pires, Sara Moreno; Caeiro, Sandra; Papadopoulou, Athanasia; Niccolucci, Valentina; Givliotti, Massimo; Zachos, Dimitrios
    This report, developed by the ERASMUS+ project EUSTEPs (Enhancing Universities’ Sustainability TEaching and Practices), presents Guidelines for the creation of a Sustainability Course. It proposes a transdisciplinary curricular unit that can be included within all University degree programs (both bachelor and master). The document includes possible reasons, procedures, contents, and opportunities connected to such didactic initiative, with the aim of creating an approach that can be replicated in many Universities around the world interested in its implementation. It builds on the multi-year experience of the University of Siena (Italy) as a reference point, and the positive feedback from the EUSTEPs’ academic consortium members (namely Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, University of Aveiro and Universidade Aberta). Thanks to its flexibility, every University can interpret the proposal presented in this report in a different way and proceed according to its own preferences, conditions, knowledge, and rules.
    2021Report Open access Show more
  • Teaching sustainability within the context of everyday life: steps toward achieving the sustainable development goals through the EUSTEPs module
    Publication . Moreno Pires, Sara; Mapar, Mahsa; Nicolau, Mariana; Patrizi, N.; Malandrakis, Georgios; Pulselli, Federico; Nicolau, Paula Bacelar; Caeiro, Sandra; Niccolucci, V.; Theodossiou, N. P.; Mancini, Maria Serena; Galli, Allessandro
    In a world characterized by Ecological Overshoot, education can nurture sustainability-minded citizens and future leaders to help accelerate the transition towards a one-planet compatible society. Despite the essential role of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in contributing to a sustainable society, a holistic understanding of how to incorporate sustainability initiatives into HEIs is still lacking. Given the importance of HEIs in societies and considering the number of students, educators, and staff they host every day, ensuring that sustainability is both taught and practiced within campuses becomes fundamental. To this end, a strategic partnership was created in 2019 to set up the ERASMUS+ project EUSTEPs - Enhancing Universities’ Sustainability Teaching and Practices through Ecological Footprint. Among the main outputs of the project is a teaching module for introducing the sustainability concept to students. This module takes a 360-degree approach to teach sustainability, allowing students to endogenously realize the full complexity of sustainability, in an engaging and captivating manner. This paper thus aims to: 1) present the EUSTEPs Module, its pedagogical approach and structure, and the learning outcomes and competencies students are expected to gain; 2) review the outcomes of its first pilot teaching in four European HEIs, and 3) shed light on how this Module contributes to the development of competences and pedagogical approaches for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Our findings show that 90% of the students were ‘satisfied’ or ‘very satisfied’ with the Module, rating the Ecological Footprint as the most useful teaching tool among those included in the Module, and appreciated the interactive nature of the proposed teaching. Feedback obtained from students during the pilot teaching contributed to shaping the Module’s final structure and content. The Module – an important interactive sustainability pedagogical tool – is now ready for use with students from different disciplines, thus contributing to progress towards the UN 2030 Agenda, particularly SDG 4, SDG 11, SDG 12, and SDG 13.
    2022Journal article Open access Show more