Authentic learning for soft skills development and environmental sustainability

Defining and developing soft skills

Soft skills, also termed twenty-first-century skills by the United Nations and life skills by the World Health Organization (Gilyazova et al., 2021), are widely acknowledged as being essential for both personal and professional success. In this case study, we take a broad perspective on soft skills defining them as ‘intra- and inter-personal (socio-emotional) skills, essential for personal development, social participation and workplace success’ (Kechagias, 2011: 33). Such a broad perspective offers several implications for soft skills education. First, soft skills are generalisable across purposes. For example, teamwork skills can be applied in different compositions of teams such as large or small groups, or teams with familiar and unfamiliar members. Second, although soft skills are generalisable, their implementation is context-specific and thus their use can be viewed as contingent on the nature of the context in which they are being applied. For teamwork skills, for example, ship’s crew members prioritise different skills depending on the type of vessel they are working on (Bouzón et al., 2023). Third, soft skills are intangible and multidimensional. For instance, successfully working in a team requires certain leadership skills where appropriate, as well as socio-emotional communication skills, and this cannot be packaged into a single box of teamwork skills.

Given that we cannot predetermine a specific set of soft skills that need to be learnt, we need to identify a context relevant to the learners in which soft skills can be developed. This is the basis for proposals to use project-based learning approaches to develop learners’ soft skills (for example, Beckingham, 2023; González-Morales et al., 2011; Vogler et al., 2018). A project-based approach to soft skills aims to provide a rigorous experience for students to develop soft skills, perform tasks and solve real-world problems similar to those they might encounter in the workplace and the settings in which the skills will ultimately be used. The key rationale underpinning this approach is that soft skills can best be developed through experiential, hands-on learning opportunities in real-life situations (Beckingham, 2023; González-Morales et al., 2011), especially where these experiences are integrated with disciplinary learning (Gilyazova et al., 2021). In this case study, therefore, we set up a large-scale project to provide the experiential learning opportunities for developing soft skills within the disciplinary context of environmental education.

Environmental education

The context in which this case study takes place is an elective undergraduate general education course open to students from all faculties. We needed to identify a disciplinary context of interest and relevance to students of all faculties. With the need to address environmental challenges being of particular concern to younger generations (VanHeuvelen and Summers, 2019), we decided to use environmental education as the disciplinary frame within which to develop the students’ soft skills. Focusing on environmental issues also allows us to address university policy goals, especially those associated with Green Universities (Tiyarattanachai and Hollman, 2016).

Environmental education is a collective effort to educate about how the environment works, and particularly, how humans can manage and protect it. The Tbilisi Declaration states that environmental education is a learning process that increases people’s knowledge and awareness of the environment and associated challenges, which develops the necessary skills and expertise to address the challenges and fosters attitudes, motivations and commitments to make informed decisions and take responsible action (UNESCO, 1977). This declaration highlights four key components of environmental education: knowledge, awareness, skills and attitudes. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (United States EPA, 2022) adds a fifth component, namely, participation.

Environmental education, then, is far more than simply providing information about the environment. Of greater importance is the need to instil a sense of agency whereby learners understand that their own actions can have positive impacts on the environment. To do this, the fifth component of environmental education – participation – becomes paramount. The course reported on in this case study emphasises participation by providing the context and resources for students to design and implement their own environmental sustainability projects to have positive impacts in the real world.

Authentic learning to develop soft skills

As our goal is for students to develop their soft skills through experiential learning while having positive real-world impacts on the environment, we decided to take an authentic learning approach.

The literature on authentic learning (Har, 2013; Herrington and Herrington, 2006; Herrington and Oliver, 2000; Lombardi, 2007; McKenzie et al., 2002; Mims, 2003; Pinner, 2016; Roach et al., 2018; Stein et al., 2004) identifies several characteristics associated with the approach:

• Authentic context: learning takes place within a real-world context.

• Real-world relevance: the tasks learners undertake are relevant to the real world, while the real-world context is also relevant to the learners.

• Complex, sustained tasks: learners undertake large-scale tasks over a period of time which involve multiple subsidiary tasks or activities.

• Ill-defined tasks: the tasks are open-ended, allowing learners to provide their own interpretation of the task.

• Authentic activities: each of the subsidiary activities within the main task is itself authentic.

• Flexible outcomes: there is a wide range of valid ways of completing the tasks.

• Teacher as facilitator: the teacher’s main role is to provide support and guidance to help students achieve their goals.

• Scaffolding: the teacher provides support where necessary to help students attain levels of performance beyond their ability when working independently.

• Collaboration: students need to work effectively together and with others to complete the tasks.

• Multiple roles: students take on different roles at different stages of the tasks.

• Interdisciplinary: completing the tasks can involve using knowledge and skills from multiple disciplines.

• Tangible authentic product: the outcome of the task is a concrete product that provides real-world benefits.

• Authentic assessment: students are assessed based on real-world performance criteria.

• Reflection: students reflect on their own performance and learning.

A course based on authentic learning typically involves four main stages, with certain characteristics of authentic learning prominent at the different stages (McKenzie et al., 2002). The first stage of setting up the scenario introduces the overall goals of the course, highlighting the authentic context and real-world relevance of the work the students will do. Second, the task setting introduces the students to the complex, sustained, ill-defined task involving several authentic activities to reach flexible outcomes. Third, in completing the task, the teacher acts as a facilitator providing scaffolding where necessary, while the students collaborate, taking on multiple roles and using interdisciplinary knowledge and skills. Finally, students will have produced a tangible authentic product on which they will be assessed authentically. Throughout the process, students will be encouraged to engage in reflection on their performance and learning.

There is some variation in the extent to which courses which have been termed authentic learning manifest the characteristics associated with authentic learning. This variation has led Pinner (2016) to propose a continuum of authentic learning whereby courses can be considered as partially or fully authentic. At the least authentic end of the continuum is extrapolation, which involves using authentic materials, such as newspapers and web pages, to create learning tasks, although what students do on the task is not of real-world relevance. Further along the continuum towards authenticity is simulation, where tasks mimic real-world situations but are completed within the classroom. Participation takes authenticity a step further by involving learners with genuine interaction with people or situations in the real world, but where the product of the task has no real-world impact. The most authentic form of learning is termed coevolution, where students are actively involved in real-world interactions to create a product with real-world impact.

Previous reports of courses based on the principles of authentic learning illustrate the various points on the continuum of authentic learning. An example of a simulation is Mekong e-Sim (Baron and Holger, 2004), where students take on the roles of various stakeholders debating the merits of development projects in Southeast Asia. Combining face-to-face and online interaction over six weeks, the simulation encouraged critical thinking and debating skills. Creating a video presentation is an example of a participation authentic learning project (Nikitina, 2011). Some of the videos involved students in collecting information and interacting in real-world environments, but the final videos were only shown within the classroom. For coevolution, an example is a project where statistics students collaborated with an agency promoting independence skills for the blind to improve service provision (Thompson, 2009). In a meta-analysis of 50 previous studies claiming to investigate authentic learning, Nachtigall et al. (2022) identified only three that could be considered coevolution authentic learning, with the majority of studies manifesting fewer than half of the possible characteristics of authentic learning. The lack of studies into coevolution authentic learning is a cause for concern, since learning may ‘emerge from the interaction of multiple design elements’ (Nachtigall et al., 2022: 1482).

However, we are not arguing that courses at the more authentic end of the continuum are necessarily better; rather, the appropriacy of the various approaches depends on the goals of the course. Where the objective is for students to develop a single predefined soft skill (such as critical thinking), a simulation may provide a productive environment for learning. However, where the main objective is for students to develop a range of intangible soft skills relevant to future workplaces, we believe that coevolution authentic learning has the most potential.

Research purposes

In this article, we describe a coevolution authentic learning course at a Thai university which exhibits nearly all of the characteristics of authentic learning and results in tangible student-designed and implemented real-world products with clear impacts on environmental sustainability. Using the students’ reflections through the course, we look for evidence of the learning and development of soft skills, especially during the third stage of the authentic learning course.

The context

This case study took place in Thailand. Based on Hofstede’s (2011) six dimensions of culture, Thailand is notable for exhibiting high power differences, both in society in general (Buriyameathagul, 2013) and in education (Watson Todd and Darasawang, 2021). One goal of the authentic learning course, therefore, was to empower undergraduate students to take the lead in promoting environmental sustainability at the university. One feature of Thai higher education is the dominance of outcome-based education where theoretically ‘the result or outcome is clearly identified and the achievement of it is guaranteed’ (Tanprasert, 2018: 120). In using an authentic learning approach, we are challenging this paradigm, since soft skills are intangible and their learning is difficult to predict (Gilyazova et al., 2021).

The authentic learning course was implemented in King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi (KMUTT), a well-respected technological university, which has had policies promoting a green university since 2005 and has a unit called the Office for Sustainability, which provides guidance and support where necessary. The university has several undergraduate and postgraduate degrees related to environmental sustainability, and students studying on a relevant master’s degree (Environmental Social Science) were asked to join the project to act as mentors for the undergraduate students. In addition, the Buildings and Grounds Division of the university responsible for institutional infrastructure is progressive and supportive of student initiatives.

The course focused on in this case study is an existing general education course called Humans and the Environment, which was adapted to manifest the principles of authentic learning. It is an elective course for third- and fourth-year students of science and engineering, and it runs for 15 weeks with three contact hours per week. In total, 42 students (named Student 1 to Student 42 to identify the source of quotations) joined the course in two sections and, given the loose Covid-19 pandemic regulations at the time, the course used blended learning, with students only coming on to campus when it was essential. The course outline is given in Table 1, which shows the content of each of the 15 weeks of the semester, the stages of authentic learning, the characteristics of authentic learning that became salient through the course and the times at which students were asked to write reflective journals.

The task which forms the core of the authentic learning course was for students, in groups of three, to come up with an innovative project promoting environmental sustainability that they would actually implement at the university. The criteria set to guide the students were:

• The project should have a high likelihood of having a positive impact on the environment or other sustainability issues at the university.

• The project should address the Green University metrics or be clearly linked to one of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

• The project should cost between 5,000 and 200,000 baht ($150 to $5,900).

• The project should be able to be implemented within five weeks.

• The project should not require specialised workers to be implemented.

The end goal was intentionally open-ended (ill-defined task and flexible outcomes) to encourage students to be creative, to provide motivation by giving a sense of ownership of the project and to allow students to follow their own interests. Given the real-world nature of the tasks, substantial support for practical issues, such as budgeting and gaining reimbursement, was provided.

The first stage of the task was to present their proposals for projects to an audience which included a staff member from the Buildings and Grounds Division and an environmental science expert who could give feedback on the feasibility of the projects. At this stage, some students needed to change their projects as their first proposals were not feasible.

The next stage was for students to prepare brief summaries and videos presenting their projects. Since the total budget available for implementing projects was 600,000 baht ($17,600) and the total budget for all proposed projects was 1,139,332 baht ($33,500), not all projects could be implemented. To select the projects to be implemented, participatory budgeting was used (Bartocci et al., 2022). A website ( https://sola.pr.kmutt.ac.th/gump; note that this website is in Thai. A similar website in English is https://sola.pr.kmutt.ac.th/meg/) was created which allowed all KMUTT staff and students to vote on the projects they wished to see implemented (see Watson Todd, 2023, for details). The projects proposed and those selected are shown in Table 2, with their budgets. Students on teams whose projects were not selected were assigned to join successful teams in implementing their projects.

The successful teams were given five weeks to implement their projects, including planning the construction of the innovation, purchasing materials and gaining permissions where necessary. To help students implement their projects, the teachers provided support and scaffolding, and each team was assigned a master’s degree student as a mentor, as well as a member of the Buildings and Grounds Division. Nevertheless, the students were highly autonomous and took full responsibility for their decisions and actions. All accepted projects were successfully implemented, and the final products can be seen at https://kmuttsola.wixsite.com/gump/gump-project.

Research ethics statement

The authors declare that research ethics approval for this article was provided by the Institutional Review Board of King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi (IRB-2022-1214-026).

Consent for publication statement

The authors declare that research participants’ informed consent to publication of findings – including photos, videos and any personal or identifiable information – was secured prior to publication.

Conflicts of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest with this work. All efforts to sufficiently anonymise the authors during peer review of this article have been made. The authors declare no further conflicts with this article.