Sustainability science in management education: Cognitive and affective sustainability learning in an MBA course

Abstract

Sustainability science is the interdisciplinary study of sustainability that embodies natural sciences, social sciences, and that is actionable in practice. We crafted and deployed an MBA course that integrated natural and social sciences based on two systems of instructional design: the ADDIE conceptual model and Bloom's revised taxonomy. The progression to higher levels of the taxonomy targets higher-level critical thinking skill acquisition. Sequencing of instructional design was informed by construal level theory (CLT), which posits localized sustainability stimuli are more concretely understood and actionable than distant stimuli. Using a quasi-experimental design, evaluation results indicate that treatment students significantly improved on the cognitive and affective measures of sustainability learning from pre-to post-tests. To assist with curricular adaptation, course-/module-level learning objectives, assignment descriptions, and discussion questions are provided. The study is pedagogically innovative, as the first known to integrate sustainability science to target student cognitive and affective learning about sustainability. Findings suggest the CLT can be utilized to sequence sustainability content from abstract and distant to concrete and local. Research has linked this localized understanding to managerial agency to responsibly respond. The study also provides a robust and replicable research design, including measures for assessing cognitive and affective sustainability learning.