Pedagogical Needs of Faculty Members for Sustainability Education

The appearance of sustainability challenges in the fields of agriculture and natural resources could be derived from the inadequate attention of higher education system in the development of sustainability education. One of the strategies in sustainability education is the integration of sustainability in teaching and learning strategies that can strengthen student's competencies for sustainability actions in the future. Therefore, this study has been conducted to analyze pedagogical needs of faculty members for sustainability education through the lens of B.Sc. graduates who were studied at University College of Agricultural and Natural Resources, University of Tehran. This study limits the pedagogy to teaching and learning strategies. To conduct the study, 120 B.Sc. graduates in different disciplines, in four five-year intervals between 1971 and 2011 were selected using simple random sampling and Cochran Formula. The data were gathered from the questionnaire. Validity of questionnaire was obtained through the opinions of thematic experts and its reliability through Cronbach's alpha. After that, the data were analyzed using the descriptive and inferential statistics by SPSS v.20. The results indicated the mean of use level of faculty members from teaching and learning strategies for sustainability education was 4.34 from 10. So, in different intervals, this amount had no significant change. Among strategies, first to third priority is related to: Expressing the applications of disciplinary content in real situations, linking different issues, and providing learning opportunities using field visits. Also, the lowest usage is related to these strategies: use of the teaching team in a course, formation of the learning groups to class discussions, and giving multidisciplinary exercises and projects to students. Therefore, the professional development of faculty members should be designed for reinforcing pedagogical skills.