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Top1. Main Concepts
This article explores which main didactic and pedagogic concepts can be applied for the huge global collective learning task of mastering the transition to a sustainable energy supply system. Manifold strategies and supportive actions from classical and modern pedagogy can be anticipated that will better allow for this necessary worldwide transition, usually called the “energy transition” in the face of global climate change.
In the first section, general concepts from education and evolution are presented as an introduction. Section 2 sheds light on global evolutionary pathways for development and how these could reflect the values of sustainability. The third section focuses on self-adaptive learning because this approach seems most promising, the fourth introduces how structures (i.e. societal, institutional, personal, mental or dynamic structures) may emerge given the trigger of global climate change; and the fifth and last section provides three principles for a desirable “design of social processes” that supports solutions. An annex presents in-depth data and scenarios about ongoing structural change in our global society.
1.1. What Is Meant by “Design”?
Methodologically, this article concentrates on the intentional “design of procedures”; more specifically on the design of learning procedures, be they pertaining either to (i) individual or to (ii) societal learning (Ahamer & Schrei, 2005).
Examples of such individual or collective learning are (i) the understanding of global long-term civilisational evolution and – symbolically speaking – (ii) the intentional creative deviation of said global long-term civilisational evolution from traditional paths, e.g. regarding climate change, including development and democratisation (commonly called “climate protection measures” and “development cooperation measures”). “Measures” do intentionally deviate from standard development.
1.2. What Could Be Meant by “Education”?
In an idealist sense, education could mean to design the framework conditions for personal development in such a way that a human being feels invited to effectively walk an own and successful path in order to develop their potentials.
Education, in this larger sense of the word, triggers social procedures in a society that optimally induces its population to actually change their real-world behaviour – which is ultimately the target of any learning. Educational technologies hence may support the renewed and progressive design of procedural social rules for societies.
The notion of self-adaptive learning (Bouchachia et al., 2014; Mei et al., 2017) describes the worthy equilibrium between self-regulation and outside regulation in learners.
1.3. The Target: Sustainability Through Education and Practice
The ultimate target of this paper is to contribute to designing educational principles in such a way that it produces sustainable, i.e. reliable, long-lasting, equilibrated and consensus-based action-oriented abilities in learners. As a general concept, the widely accepted target of sustainability comprises not only (1) ecological, but also (2) economic and (3) social durability of values and hence protection of human resource investments. The abovementioned “didactic sustainability” addresses the third of the three criteria.