Evaluation of Higher Education Students Critical Thinking Skills on Sustainability

Abstract

[EN] Construction-related enterprises are acknowledged as one of the key actors responsible for shifting society toward the sustainable future claimed by the recently established Sustainable Development Goals. However, university curricula need to emphasize guaranteeing the acquisition of transversal competencies that are essential for the future management professionals required by this new challenge. Consistent and critical thinking is considered a fundamental skill for education in sustainability. To date, no studies have presented an objective measure of the level of acquisition of such transverse skills in university curricula. This study provides an analytical tool to that end, based on the multi-criteria decision-making technique Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). Through sustainability-oriented case studies, students are faced with real managerial decision-making problems. The proposed method allows for the analytic quantification of the consistency of their responses. Such consistency is representative of their critical thinking skills. The proposed tool allows teachers not only to find the consistency of their students¿ responses but also to understand in which areas of sustainability students lack a clear vision of the problem. This tool is therefore useful for teachers to effectively adapt their syllabi according to their students¿ knowledge.