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ABSTRACT Three graduate-level short courses on ecological agriculture and food systems were held in 1995–1997 in Norway to introduce systems thinking, creative research methods, and innovative learning approaches. In 1999, a three-day evaluation and planning workshop was held to assess course impacts, to determine relative importance of content areas, to compare learning methods with special attention to case studies, and to vision and develop action plans for future education in the region. Students and faculty agreed that soft systems research methods and varied learning processes in the course were more valuable than specific technical content that can be learned in other venues. Nine priority education areas were identified for ecological agriculture: (1) systems thinking, (2) research methods, (3) farmer/stakeholder participation, (4) improving production methods, (5) relating agriculture to food systems, (6) learning about learning, (7) values and ethics, (8) faculty development and institutional ch...

Abstract It is generally accepted that governments, municipalities, businesses and citizens alike have a role to play in transitioning towards a circular economy (CE). Yet most academic and policy discussions of CE revolve around technological solutions and business models. Although CE also means significant changes to ways of living, these aspects of CE are barely addressed. The citizen role is traditionally assumed to be that of a consumer or user of the newly developed solutions, while also following the guidelines for sorting and recycling. Little is known about how citizens envision being part of the CE, and what skills and competences are relevant for CE. Our study addresses this gap by exploring the perceptions of young adults in Finland on how CE reflects into their everyday lives. Our dataset consists of 249 responses from high school students in Finland to open-ended questions regarding CE. The results highlight that young adults in Finland strongly associate CE with recycling, waste sorting and re-selling/buying second-hand, which is in line with the conventional roles of efficient recyclers and consumers. Although CE harbors wider potential for more active citizen roles related to repair, maintenance and upcycling, these aspects are often overlooked in favor of more familiar lifestyles. Building on the 5R framework for CE and emerging themes from student responses, we bring forward the new roles of upcycler, thrifter, expert/learner, giver/benefactor and conservationist. Supporting these emerging roles is an opportunity for cooperation between young adults, other citizen groups, cities, policy makers and businesses, and a key for jointly advancing the transition to CE.

Successful energy planning requires substituting the standard economic model with a more transparent public participatory model because people play a fundamental role in climate change mitigation and renewable energy (RE) deployment. This approach requires improving communication with society and enabling smooth delivery of easy to digest information to citizens in both formal and informal educational settings. In this context, education and teachers, as the principal components, are recognized as one mechanism. We conducted a survey-based study, collecting 260 questionnaires from secondary school teachers in Jordan aiming to investigate their knowledge, perceptions, and attitudes toward RE development. The main findings of this study revealed that teachers have limited knowledge of RE and neutral perceptions regarding its use. However, teachers showed clear positive attitudes toward RE development. Overall, male teachers exhibited slightly higher knowledge of RE and female teachers held stronger positive attitudes. A number of socio-demographic and work related factors did not influence the teachers' knowledge and attitudes toward RE. It was also found that teachers require personal training regarding RE before it is introduced into school curricula.

Over the past 40 years, the sense of place concept has been well-established across a range of applications and settings; however, most theoretical developments have "privileged the slow." Evidence suggests that place attachments and place meanings are slow to evolve, sometimes not matching material or social reality (lag effects), and also tending to inhibit change. Here, we present some key blind spots in sense of place scholarship and then suggest how a reconsideration of sense of place as "fast" and "slow" could fill them. By this, we mean how direct and immediate perception-action processes presented in affordance theory (resulting in immediately perceived place meanings) can complement slower forms of social construction presented in sense of place scholarship. Key blind spots are that sense of place scholarship: (1) rarely accounts for sensory or immediately perceived meanings; (2) pays little attention to how place meanings are the joint product of attributes of environmental features and the attributes of the individual; and (3) assumes that the relationship between place attachment and behavior is linear and not constituted in dynamic relations among mind, culture, and environment. We show how these blind spots can begin to be addressed by reviewing key insights from affordance theory, and through the presentation of applied examples. We discuss future empirical research directions in terms of: (1) how sense of place is both perceived and socially constructed; (2) whether perceived and socially constructed dimensions of place can relate to one another when perceived meanings become unsituated; and (3) how place attachment may change over different stages of the life course based upon dynamic relationships between processes of perception-action and social construction. We conclude with insights into how processes of perception-action and social construction could be included in the design and management of urban landscapes.

The objective of this study was to identify Hispanic consumer pesticide-related food safety concerns, present information on efforts to reduce pesticide use, and determine the impact on consumer attitudes toward food safety. There were significant changes in the attitudes of Hispanic consumers pre- and post-video towards food safety, farming practices, and university efforts to help farmers control pests and assist with other management techniques. These findings suggest that although Hispanic consumers are generally confident in the safety of produce in the U.S.A., nevertheless they have stopped consuming certain fruits and vegetables due to food safety concerns. Hispanic consumer concerns were significantly reduced following the viewing of the Integrated Pest Management videos, suggesting that additional information and bilingual education programs on food safety and the use of pesticides by farmers will have a positive impact on consumer attitudes.

Selecting a proper study path in higher education is a difficult task for many students. They either have a lack of knowledge on the study path offered or are unsure of their interest in the various options. The current educational setups enable us to collect valid and reliable data on student success and learning behaviour. This study explores and solves the problem of what path to select by proposing possible study paths with the help of machine learning algorithms. Learning analytics (LA) and educational data mining (EDM) are technologies that aid in the analysis of educational data. In this quantitative study, we applied a questionnaire to collect data from students at the Business Information Technology Department (Bite) at the Haaga-Helia University of Applied Science. We managed to collect 101 samples from students during 2017–2018. We used various machine learning algorithms and prediction models to assess the best approach for study path selection. We applied three performance scores of accuracy, Cohen’s Kappa, and ROC curve to measure the accuracy of the algorithm results. KNIME analytics was selected as a proper tool to pre-process, prepare, analyse, and model the data. The results indicate that Random Forest (94% accuracy) and Decision Tree (93% accuracy) are the best classification models for students’ study path selection. The contribution of this study is for educational data mining research to assess the comparison of various algorithms. Furthermore, this is a novel approach to predict students’ study path selection, which educational institutes should develop to assist students in their study path selection.

Internet of Things (IoT) and Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) are an expansive heterogeneous field, where technologies are replaced faster than the engineering staff. As a consequence, traditions for education and graduation of engineers of IoT and CPS are not yet established. Cybersecurity is essential for new innovations, economic growth and public safety. On the other hand, Center for Cyber Safety and Education estimates that by 2022 there is a deficit of 350 000 cybersecurity specialists in the private sector in Europe. This paper has two contributions: First, it presents an example how an industry-university collaboration on IoT cyber security education could be organized. Then, the data be produced during the collaboration course is analyzed and compared to literature for answering to the main research question: How can future educational competences with regard to resilient cyber-physical systems be understood? Due to the multifaceted nature of the cybersecurity, previous development of degree programmes tend to synthesize either technical or societal subjects. Real multi-disciplinary synthesis has remained complicated. Our main conclusion is that future competences with regard to CPS are multidisciplinary including many industrial sectors and academic disciplines as well as multiple theories. On the other hand, traditional security thinking is not possible within new heavily interconnected systems of systems, and we should move towards resilience thinking.

AbstractHeating is the most energy-intensive sector worldwide as well as in Europe and Finland. About 37% of the heat produced in Finland is still produced with fossil fuels, including 5.5% with fossil fuel oil (FFO). Phasing out FFO from the energy mix in compliance to Finnish carbon neutrality target is complicated because of the decentralized use all over the country, especially in rural Finland. There have been policies and financial instruments targeted for replacement of FFO-fired heating systems, but the rate of heating system renovation has been slow as there are still about 300,000 FFO and gas-fired heating systems nationwide. In this study, we conducted a survey of homeowners with FFO heating systems and asked about their willingness to renovate their heating system. In addition, we asked them to prioritize their sustainability criteria and we ranked them using the analytical hierarchy process (AHP). The first part of the results show that younger homeowners are more interested in more sustainable modes of heating. Further, the results also show that the willingness to undergo an FFO heating system renovation is higher among respondents with university degrees compared to respondents with high-school and upper secondary educations. The second part of the results show that the economy and environment were given the equally highest priority ratings compared to technological and social criteria. However, older and university degree-educated respondents emphasized environmental criteria, climate change and renewable energy indicators more than their younger and high-school graduate counterparts.