A novel improvement strategy of competency for education for sustainable development (ESD) of university teachers based on data mining

Abstract

Competency for ESD (education for sustainable development) of university teachers is the key to the sustainable development of higher education. Developing teachers' competency for ESD poses a new challenge for Chinese universities. Ideally, a new faculty development system should be established. However, this strategy is not feasible because of cost concerns, and improving competency for ESD by using the existing teacher competency training system is preferred. Therefore, this paper employed a specific data mining method to create a relationship model between the existing teacher competency system and the ESD competency according to teacher evaluation data. The developed model was used to analyze the teachers' core competencies that are critical to ESD competency and derive decision rules for formulating improvement strategies. The teacher competency model was applied to the International Scholarly Exchange Curriculum (ISEC) program implemented at regional universities in China to conduct an empirical case study. The results of this study are anticipated to enable the formulation of an effective and appropriate strategy for improving teachers' competency for ESD in the existing teacher development system.