Digitalization and sustainability have become central development priorities for society and the economy. In the wood sector, the adoption of modern technologies and sustainability practices is primarily hindered by a lack of competencies. In this doctoral dissertation, we therefore investigated the digital and sustainability competencies of students in wood science and technology education, focusing on factors that may influence their development, and compared these competencies with industry expectations. The study included 433 final-year students in wood science and technology, with data collected through surveys. The results show that self-perceived digital and sustainability competencies are influenced by all examined factors: learning environment, academic motivation, and topic interest. Among learning environment factors, investigation, involvement, and teacher support were significant. Factors representing intrinsic and extrinsic motivation formed a unidimensional construct that positively affected all competencies. Interest in digital and sustainability topics also positively predicted self-perceived competencies, while students with higher interest attributed a greater share of their competencies to formal education. Comparison of students’ self-perceived competencies with industry expectations revealed differences at all educational levels. Overall, the findings emphasize that the development of digital and sustainability competencies depends not only on their inclusion in the curriculum, but above all on the conditions under which these competencies are developed and enacted in pedagogical practice. The dissertation further discusses possibilities for designing a learning environment that directly supports the development of these competencies, promotes more internalized and autonomous forms of motivation, and enables the formation of learning situations that may help trigger and maintain students’ interest in digital and sustainability topics.
|
