Journal Resume: ‘The Emergence of a Global Innovation in Education: Diffusing Education for Sustainable Development through Social Networks’

Name: Anis Septianingsih

Class: 4E

NPM: 1910631060066

Journal: ‘The Emergence of a Global Innovation in Education: Diffusing Education for Sustainable Development through Social Networks’ by Nina Kolleck

A Resume

This journal called ‘The Emergence of a Global Innovation in Education: Diffusing Education for Sustainable Development through Social Networks’ written by Nina Kolleck describes how in recent decades, countries around the world have increasingly been confronted with international organizations’ expectations that new innovations be adopted in educational systems. As a consequence, global social innovations such as “Education for Sustainable Development” (ESD) have been implemented in different educational systems worldwide. Numerous networks have taken shape that pursues the goal of comprehensively embedding the social innovation of ESD in different education sectors such as higher education, and schools of various countries.

Through the context of the United Nations (UN) Decade, ESD has evolved into a globally promoted concept. With the growing relevance of ESD, scholars have increasingly started to analyze the diffusion and transfer of this global educational innovation. However, many scholars have so far mainly studied the implementation of ESD in schools or curricula. At the same time, we still know little about the factual implementation at the national and regional levels. This is surprising because the way ESD is implemented and diffused within UN member countries as well as the role different actors play influences how the concept is understood and realized. The transfer of new educational concepts, in turn, is shaped by the structure of social relations and the interaction of individual actors involved in innovation processes.

Furthermore, in the academic literature it is discussed that social innovations such as ESD are only successful when they are diffused through social relationships and adapted by actors embedded in networks. The chances that a social innovation will be successful increase when it is supported not only by separate individuals but rather by actors interlinked through networks that are built on trustful relationships. In this sense, it is neither exclusively (individual or collective) actors – such as people or organizations – nor only structures that are responsible for the success of social innovations.

Based on the observation that social innovations are implemented through social networks and interactions between those parties involved in innovation processes, this article has implemented Social Network Theory (SNT) and techniques of Social Network Analysis (SNA) to study how ESD is implemented through social relations.

While it is frequently argued that the implementation of the approach takes place through cross-sectorial collaboration, the current study demonstrates a lack of collaboration between people of different activity fields. The concentration of strong sectorial relationships illustrates that the municipal ESD networks tend to group closure, which indicated that individuals who collaborate more with their close neighbors than with persons beyond their own municipality.

Altogether, through successful initiatives, social developments and a strengthening of social networks, the UN Decade of ESD has, over the last decade, led to a wide-ranging implementation and worldwide diffusion of the social innovation ESD. Nevertheless, at the end of the decade and with the beginning of the follow-up world program for action – which envisages a continuation of the UN Decade of ESD in other contexts – both science and practice face big challenges. This is because the anchoring of the concept is still limited to individual, tight-knit working groups. The transfer as well as the trans-national diffusion of the concept has only been achieved to a limited extent. Whereas in recent years, national and international educational and development policy have increasingly referred to ESD, there remains a serious void between political decisions as well as educational plans and the practical implementation of ESD.

The reason why I chose this journal was because we should know and be aware of the emergence of a global innovation in education, and this journal also could be useful for scholars and practitioners in the field of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and social innovation diffusion.

After reading this journal, I can now understand how important the role of social interactions and aspects of power and influence is in implementing social innovations such as Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), and hopefully people who read this article can too.

Journal Resume: ‘Three Dimensions of Learning: Experiential Activity for Engineering Innovation Education and Research’

Name: Anis Septianingsih

Class: 4E

NPM: 1910631060066

Journal: ‘Three Dimensions of Learning: Experiential Activity for Engineering Innovation Education and Research’ by Catherine P. Killen

A Resume

This journal called ‘Three dimensions of learning: Experiential activity for engineering innovation education and research’ written by Catherine P. Killen describes about the engineering education research findings from an experiential class activity that provided three types of learning. The activity was designed to meet the needs of a relatively new and growing theme within engineering education: the management of engineering innovation. The three types of learning are: students’ learning about decision-making frameworks for managing engineering innovation and about the research process; learning about learning - through engineering education research on the effects of experiential activity on learning and retention; and learning from innovation decision research on the effectiveness of the methods used in the activity.

The design of the study, by merging three types of learning into one experiential activity, resulted in a revolutionary approach that can help engineering educators address current challenges. It builds on the ongoing evolutions in engineering education such as increasing experiential and active learning and the use of students to test methods during educational sessions.

The decision task, applied as part of the experiential engineering approaches to engineering innovation education has been a huge success. The first and most important thing is that student learning has been enhanced. Several measures of learning confirm that students have benefitted from the experiential activity. Enjoyment of the activity was high and student perceptions of educational value are statistically supported by the educational research study.

In addition, students received an additional knowledge of learning about the nature of research and the research process. The second success from the decision task is the strength of findings from the educational research study. The study has given clear correlations between experience and increased learning and retention of learning, and provides additional insights on the influence of engagement and interest in a topic. The third success is from the parallel study. The decision task has further expanded the understanding of methods for visualizing data to support project portfolio decision making. This parallel study has produced a series of findings that are reported in other publications and has also provided insights to support the educational study.

The study has implications for engineering education and research. The findings show the effect of experiential activity on learning and give out support for further addition of experiential activity in engineering education. In particular this journal shows how experiential activity can help engineering educators meet the growing need to develop engineering students’ ability to manage technological innovation. Engineering educators and researchers may find inspiration from this example and design a multi-dimensional study using a similar approach. The decision task study provides a very detailed example of experimentation in the classroom and illustrates how it can be designed to be educational and engaging and to collect data for multiple purposes. The study demonstrates how this type of approach can help to address challenges in engineering education by doing more with less. It provides an experiential learning task that is designed for innovation engineering education, generates insights through a simulated experience based on a real-world scenario, engages and educates students, and enables researchers to perform research and generate results for multiple studies at once.

The reason why I chose this journal to be resumed was because the topic of the journal seemed interesting. It provided a brand new method of learning, which is through an experiential activity. As an undergraduate trainee teacher, I also found the journal to be quite useful as it gave me an insight and knowledge about a new teaching approach that could hopefully enhance students’ learning in the future.

After reading this journal I am inspired to try to apply the teaching method hopefully one day, and maybe I could create a similar method with more advantages that can engage and educate students, and enable researches to perform research and help educators address current challenges.