SHAPE2GETHER – JOINT EDUCATION FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT WITH GEOTECHNOLOGIES AND SERIOUS GAMES

Abstract

Despite growing recognition of the importance to foster students’ agency in climate change education, approaches that are both integrated and interdisciplinary remain limited. This paper addresses this gap by examining an interdisciplinary approach, developed within the “Shape2Gether” project, that combines geotechnologies, education for sustainable development (ESD), experiential learning, and game-based methods within a coherent pedagogical framework for sustainability and climate-change education. It examines how this approach can help students develop knowledge, confidence, and action competence in communicating complex sustainability issues. Shape2Gether (S2G) is a three-year Erasmus+ project uniting seven European universities. The project aims to support students in becoming “agents of change” capable of critically engaging with, communicating, and addressing complex socio-environmental challenges. Across three international summer schools (held in Norway, Malta, and Germany), students participated in a cumulative learning trajectory supported by online preparation and inter-summer-school assignments. They worked with advanced geotechnologies, engaged in place-based fieldwork, collaborated in interdisciplinary teams, and used discursive game design to communicate sustainability issues through virtual reality tours, multimedia products, and playable game prototypes. Student evaluations indicate strong gains in sustainability literacy, technological skills, intercultural competence, and confidence in communicating climate-change topics. Participants particularly valued experiential learning, international collaboration, and creative communication methods, which together fostered action competence and personal growth. A systematic review of European study programmes revealed that although geotechnologies, sustainability education, and game-based learning are each well represented individually, no existing long-term higher-education programme integrates all three domains. This highlights a structural educational gap and further supports the relevance of the Shape2Gether pedagogical model. The findings provide both empirical evidence and conceptual guidance for designing a joint international curriculum that combines geotechnologies, education for sustainable development, experiential methods, and discursive game design. The paper contributes to the conceptualisation of students as “agents of change”, provides empirical insights into the implementation of an interdisciplinary curriculum prototype, and lays the groundwork for the development of a joint international higher-education programme.