Student perspectives on quality education at their school: Toward a valid and reliable questionnaire to monitor quality education for sustainability teaching (QUEST-Q)

In an era when the problematic human-nature relationship has led to complex sustainability problems, quality education should equip students so they are prepared to face the challenges ahead. In order to do so, educational practitioners, policy makers, and researchers need tools to monitor efforts made. We posit that a comprehensive approach to teaching for sustainability adds quality to education for sustainability. The current study builds on earlier theoretic work on quality education for sustainability teaching (QUEST), aiming to 1) initiate the development of an assessment instrument for monitoring the quality of sustainability teaching based on the perspective of those who the education aims to empower, i.e., the students and 2) contribute to further theory development. To this end, the QUEST-framework was developed into a set of five scales that tap into students’ perspective on the content (or what, i.e., relevant holistic knowledge and sustainability competencies), educational approach (or how, i.e., a pluralistic and action-oriented teaching approach), partners and locations (where and with whom) of teaching and learning. The five scales together build a questionnaire instrument to monitor quality education for sustainability teaching (QUEST-Q). Think aloud protocols and interviews with students and teachers support the cognitive and content validity of the scales. Reliability and construct validity were verified, with all scales showing acceptable model fit. Results are discussed in light of advancing theory and providing avenues for future research. We offer practitioners, policy makers, and researchers the QUEST-Q to monitor students’ experiences of quality education to support a sustainable future.