Design and Validation of Instrument for Evaluating Indicators of Pedagogy in Sustainable Teaching- Learning Process in Higher Education

Introduction: In recent years, higher education has faced three major paradigm shifts: "Development of lifelong learning", "Democratization of knowledge" and "Development of the global knowledge community".  This study aims to design and validate a evaluating mechanism for the pedagogical elements and dimensions in sustainable teaching-learning processes in both public and private academic institutions. Methods: This is an explanatory mixed method research design that has been done sequentially in two parts, qualitative and quantitative. In the qualitative section, data was collected via semi-structured interviews. Participants including 17 experts and higher education specialists who were selected by purposive sampling method. In this section, inductive content analysis method was applied for data analysis and findings was validated by participants and colleagues. The model of  the quantitative section was descriptive-survey. For this 322 faculty members  in public and private universities were selected based on the Cochran's estimation for formulating sample size. A researcher- made questionnaire including 3 subscales was used for data collection respectively. Data was analyzed using SPSS and AMOS software. Result: The results of data analysis in the coding process led to the identification of 75 open codes, which were finally classified into 22 core categories and 3 selected codes (students, curriculum, professors).  In quantitative part, findings showed that it is sufficiently and appropriately could identify the components of sustainable pedagogy. The findings also showed that the current status of relevant indicators in public universities (2.99) is significantly higher than private universities (2.88) (p <0.05: t = 4.11). Conclusion: According to the results of the study, it can be expressed, universities should move towards sustainability in order to maintain their stability in the current situation. Accordingly, one of the main indicators of a sustainable university is sustainable pedagogy, which has a sustainable strategy and a multifaceted view of the curriculum  and emphasizes on nurturing creative and intelligent students and up-to-date professors, and an academic identity that always seeks to strengthen the identity of professional citizens who could help a stable and pioneering society. Therefore, the findings of this study can be used in order to enrich the teaching-learning processes as much as possible.