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This paper aims to propose and evaluate an innovative approach to education for sustainable consumption (ESC) which empowers teenagers and young adults to improve sustainable consumption competences. This approach combines pedagogical learning approaches such as real-world learning (e.g. experiential learning and research-based learning) with transformative and transdisciplinary research approaches (i.e. real-world laboratory research).

Through a transdisciplinary research design, the authors explore if real-world experiments (RWEs) offer a suitable approach for sustainable consumption education at schools. RWEs are a research approach for knowledge production, aiming to go beyond temporary interventions, to establish semi-permanent spaces for sustainability transformation and reflexive learning. To evaluate this proposal, the authors study already existing active teaching and learning approaches developed within and for ESC and put these in perspective, to define and understand the RWEs.

Insights from a transdisciplinary research project which applied RWEs as a teaching and learning approach in German schools complement conceptual considerations. As a result, advantages, such as the development of core competencies among learners, but also challenges experienced, are illustrated. Though, the challenges found are not unique to the RWE, rather they point out important potentials for ESC through suggesting systematic changes in educational institutions and teaching approaches.

This paper explores RWEs as an active and participatory teaching and learning approach for sustainable consumption education at schools and delivers practical insights and a definition of RWEs as an innovative teaching and learning approach.

This article investigates the application of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) in experiential learning for authentic assessment in higher education. Recognized for its human-like content generation, GenAI has garnered widespread interest, raising concerns regarding its reliability, ethical considerations and overall impact. The purpose of this study is to explore the transformative capabilities and limitations of GenAI for experiential learning.

The study uses “thing ethnography” and “incremental prompting” to delve into the perspectives of ChatGPT 3.5, a prominent GenAI model. Through semi-structured interviews, the research prompts ChatGPT 3.5 on critical aspects such as conceptual clarity, integration of GenAI in educational settings and practical applications within the context of authentic assessment. The design examines GenAI’s potential contributions to reflective thinking, hands-on learning and genuine assessments, emphasizing the importance of responsible use.

The findings underscore GenAI’s potential to enhance experiential learning in higher education. Specifically, the research highlights GenAI’s capacity to contribute to reflective thinking, hands-on learning experiences and the facilitation of genuine assessments. Notably, the study emphasizes the significance of responsible use in harnessing the capabilities of GenAI for educational purposes.

This research showcases the application of GenAI in operations management education, specifically within lean health care. The study offers insights into its capabilities by exploring the practical implications of GenAI in a specific educational domain through thing ethnography and incremental prompting. Additionally, the article proposes future research directions, contributing to the originality of the work and opening avenues for further exploration in the integration of GenAI in education.

This study aims at understanding how higher education institutions (HEIs) can contribute to sustainable development, by designing their programmes for bringing about a transformative impact on communities and students, and also to examine what alternative pedagogical approaches could be used for that. In the past decades, HEIs have increasingly created social innovation (SI) programmes, as a way to achieve United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. These community-oriented and field-based programmes are difficult to ally with conventional classroom education. This study explores how these programmes could integrate the participatory approach and what would be the benefits. It also investigates the effectiveness of the experiential learning approach for teaching sustainability.

A case study method is used to document SI projects initiated by an HEI programme in rural India.

It was found that the participatory approach contributes to empowering communities and also benefits the students in terms of academic, professional and personal growth. Empirical findings show that experiential learning is an efficient method to teach sustainability. Ultimately, both pedagogical approaches are found to be mutually beneficial.

This study fills a gap in the literature, by providing empirical evidence on how HEI can implement innovative educational strategies such as participatory approach and experiential learning in their programmes towards teaching sustainability. A conceptual model for HEI interested in developing similar programmes is also proposed. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the first studies focusing on the context of Indian HEI.

This paper outlines the active learning methods used to develop and deliver a sustainable business course to undergraduate students. Moreover, the paper aims to investigate the effect of the sustainable business course on the students’ engagement in sustainable consumption.

From a pedagogical perspective, the paper describes the active learning methods applied in a newly introduced sustainable business course via numerous distinctive assessment techniques. On the empirical front, the research investigates the impact of the sustainable business course on the students’ engagement in sustainable consumption. To test such impact, an online survey was distributed among students who completed the sustainable business course, and as a control group for comparison, students who did not take the course.

The research results indicate a positive relationship between completion of the sustainable business course and engagement in sustainable consumption. Furthermore, the data revealed that female students exhibited more engagement in sustainable consumption than male students.

The study contributes to the literature on student-centered pedagogy, active learning techniques and the relationship between sustainable business education and engagement with sustainable consumption.

The study contributes to the literature on student-centered pedagogy, active learning techniques and the relationship between sustainable business education and engagement with sustainable consumption. Pedagogically, the nonconventional course curricula and assessment methods described in this study can be used as a reference by instructors aiming to integrate active and experiential teaching methods into their sustainable business curricula. For decision makers in higher education who are working in line with the global direction to achieve sustainability, this research provides preliminary evidence that students’ engagement with sustainability is influenced by their course curricula.

By depicting innovative approaches to teaching sustainability in business, the research enriches the field of sustainable business pedagogy which remains under-researched in many countries. Furthermore, the research goes further by investigating the effect of the course on students’ sustainable consumption. This acts as evidence of the effectiveness of teaching sustainable business in changing future leaders’ perspectives and priorities to include environmental and social aspects, which has become a global goal. Accordingly, the research has the potential to encourage more business schools to make sustainable business education mandatory.

The purpose of the study is to enhance the quality of education in rural management through the inclusion of students’ voices, namely, active participation in the curriculum development intervention. This approach aims to foster critical thinking, collaboration, communication and creativity, thereby enhancing student engagement and in turn leading to quality education.

This methodology outlines an inductive approach using focus group discussions (FGD) and thematic analysis to explore and understand the constructs related to the impact of students’ voice on quality education. Curriculum development in rural management was used as an intervention to assess the impact of the inclusion of students’ voice. This study’s inductive approach and qualitative methods provide a rich understanding of students’ experiences and perspectives.

The findings from the FGD and thematic analysis provided insights into the inclusion of students’ voice in rural management curriculum development, an intervention that enhanced the 4C’s (collaboration, communication, creativity and critical thinking) of learning and student engagement. The emerging themes illustrated the intervention’s positive effects on quality education.

This research extends the current knowledge by shedding light on integrating Kolb’s experiential learning theory with Laurillards’ conversational framework in achieving quality education in rural management which has not been extensively explored.

The paper underscores the importance of students’ voice in quality education. It provides a basis for policymakers to mandate that higher education institutions increase student engagement, thereby promoting quality education.

The findings contribute to the existing body of knowledge in the field of quality education (Sustainable Development Goal 4) in rural management. The results of our study provide a novel perspective on the experiential learning of students, which has practical implications and advances the understanding of quality education for sustainable development in business education.

This viewpoint aims to discuss the transformative role, the current challenges and the outlook of sustainability accounting education (SAE).

Higher education institutions (HEIs) have a “social responsibility” to foster competencies and skills for sustainable development within their student bodies and communities. Previous literature has explored the interplay between HEIs and sustainable development goals (SDGs) by exploring the need to incorporate the SDGs within an institution’s learning and teaching objectives. We conduct a review of previous studies, together with an informative understanding of the role of sustainability accounting education in HEIs.

Based on this review, we argue that universities can enhance the SDGs by training skilled young people in sustainability accounting, thus fostering a “transformative role” in society. The authors highlight two directions for expanding SAE: (1) there is an urgent need to improve the accounting curriculum, thus including greater attention to ecological systems, business ethics and values; and (2) new inclusive and constructionist pedagogies should be offered to radically transform the education of future accounting professionals.

Accounting and business educators in HEIs need to consider updating and upgrading systematically the existing curricula with pertinent learning outcomes and competency development relevant to SDGs and sustainability accounting. This transformative opportunity also requires engagement with the professional bodies to determine the professional curriculum. Engagement with professional accounting bodies could be challenging to transform the accountancy professions in two directions – employability and lifelong learning. New accounting professions will emerge in the future and the interplay with the current HEI model and program is crucial.

This paper fulfils an identified need to discuss, support and move sustainability accounting education forward.

This study explores virtual platforms’ capabilities, particularly emphasising the influence of educational movies embedded with lifelike narratives to serve as a potent medium for immersive learning within the auditing discipline. Through this exploration, we aim to discern how cinematic depictions can educate and encapsulate the intricate dynamics of real-world auditing scenarios, thereby enriching the educational experience for budding auditors.

By employing an action research methodology, this study engaged 134 auditing students from China in an experiment, using a questionnaire to assess their grasp of auditing concepts like internal control, corporate governance, and professional ethics.

Preliminary findings underscore the efficacy of movies as pedagogical tools. These movie experiences bridge the gap between theoretical knowledge and its real-world application, particularly highlighting the nuances of professional ethics and corporate governance. Results show that such a method amplifies students’ comprehension of auditor skillsets, practical complications, and ethical insight and nurtures professional scepticism about tangible audit issues.

This study illuminates a novel virtual learning approach using movies that primes students to exercise critical thinking and augments cognitive skillsets, especially when navigating ethical conundrums. The broader implication is the potential enhancement of auditing education quality in China, presenting educators with an innovative teaching modality that bolsters students’ critical analysis and cognitive development.

This study has multiple implications for auditing education policy. It underscores the imperative need for curriculum revision in contemporary auditing education. Our study can significantly change contemporary auditing education by incorporating movie-based experiential learning. Educators and institutions in China and other parts of the world explore this avenue, customising it to fit the unique requirements of their respective courses and the country’s contexts. Our study also highlights the challenges and recommendations for real-world audit simulation for auditing education. While our research highlights the promise of educational movies, it also sheds light on the potential difficulties in their integration. Audit educators need adequate support and training for effective assimilation, ensuring they leverage educational movies to maximise learning outcomes. Careful curation and selection of movies, combined with strategic planning, are paramount to this teaching method’s success. With the continual evolution of video tools, there is an opportunity for a more immersive and holistic education model, shaping the next generation of auditors.

This study offers insights into innovative strategies to imbue real-world experience into traditional curricula, ensuring relevance and applicability across diverse educational landscapes.

This study aims to bring together the available scattered knowledge about teaching and learning in Living Labs within higher education, and to explore their potential for supporting students’ sustainability-oriented transformative learning.

A literature review was conducted, applying a realist approach. A sample of 35 articles was analyzed qualitatively, mapping the data according to the realist constructs “context,” “intervention,” “mechanism” and “outcome” and using the constant comparison method for data analysis.

This study identified multiple characteristics of teaching and learning in sustainability-oriented Living Labs, namely, two socio-physical teaching and learning contexts, two pedagogical approaches as interventions therein, four learning processes as (potential) mechanisms and six sustainability-related learning outcomes. Two main challenges were also identified.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that brings together the scattered results from previous studies into a comprehensive description of characteristics and challenges of teaching and learning in Living Labs as sustainability-oriented learning spaces in higher education. The findings can support educators in making scientifically grounded informed choices for teaching and learning in Living Labs and inform future empirical studies to examine when, how and why certain characteristics of teaching and learning in Living Labs, as identified in this study, can support sustainability-oriented transformative learning in higher education.

The purpose of this paper is to argue for a transformative shift towards an inclusive and socially responsible framework in accounting education. Integrating the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into accounting curricula can help accountants contribute positively towards the goals’ aim. This represents not merely an educational reform but a call to action to forge a path that empowers accounting students to be technically proficient and socially conscious graduates who act as change agents working towards the public interest.

This study challenges the technical focus of accounting, conceptualising it as a multidimensional technical, social and moral practice, transcending traditional boundaries to address complex societal issues. This paper is primarily discursive, using autoethnography through presenting vignettes written by four female accounting educators across three geographical regions. These first-person narratives foster a sense of interconnectedness and shared responsibility within the accounting community, reflecting a collective commitment to integrating SDGs into accounting education. By sharing personal experiences, the authors invite readers to engage in reflective pedagogy and contribute to shaping a better world through accounting education.

The transformative potential of purposefully incorporating SDGs into accounting education is not just a theoretical concept. The vignettes in this study provide concrete evidence of how this integration can shape future accountants into socially conscious professionals driven by ethics, equity and environmental responsibility. Our collective reflection underscores the importance of collaboration and continuous learning in aligning accounting education with the SDGs, offering a hopeful vision for the future of this field.

This study builds on existing literature to encourage communication, curriculum development, collaborative teaching approaches, experiential learning opportunities, ongoing evaluation and community dialogue on reshaping accounting education by giving a rare insight into what and how people teach and from what broader motivations. It offers a practical roadmap for educators to integrate SDGs into their teaching.