The role personal responsibility norms play in sustainable development for university students: The impact of service-learning projects

Abstract

Sustainable development is a desirable, global challenge that is as complex as it is necessary. While individual actions are positive, effective progress must start from a collective commitment. In line with this, recent research points to an urgent need for an increased effort to make sustainability education a key element in the basic literacy of all people. This study takes on this challenge of environmental education and changing attitudes in order to reach sustainable community development while relying on the principles of the value-belief-norm model (VBN). A quasi-experimental research design was used to analyze the impact of learning service projects on the activation of personal norms of university students. The results show that although no statistically significant differences appear between pre-test and post-test measurements, there is a clear trend towards improvement of personal norms about sustainable development, which encourages further research in this area.