The potential of Living Labs for practice -oriented learning and competence development in natural and agrarian specialities
Abstract
The Purpose. The aim of the article is to provide a theoretical justification for the necessity of implementing the Living Lab (LL) as a critically important environment for the formation of practice-oriented competences defined by the national standards of higher education for the specialities “Ecology”, “Geography” and “Agronomy” at the bachelor’s and master’s levels.
Research methods. The key method of the research was content analysis of the competences specified in the educational standards for the specialities “Ecology”, “Geography” and “Agronomy” at the bachelor’s and master’s levels, as well as a comparative analysis of the decoding results.
Main material. The research results have shown that master’s programmes, particularly in the speciality “Geography”, have the greatest potential for the integration of Living Labs, where the share of competences with strong and medium linkage to the LL reaches 70–75%. Bachelor’s programmes are characterised by a predominance of competences with weak linkage to the LL, which is explained by the dominance of theoretical and general skill components of training. It has been established that professional competences oriented towards field research, interdisciplinary synthesis, work in a real environment and project activities are most closely related to the potential of Living Labs. At the same time, in most educational standards, competences related to the communication of results and interaction with stakeholders are insufficiently represented.
Conclusions. The conducted content analysis of competences of the national standards of higher education for the specialities “Ecology”, “Geography” and “Agronomy” (bachelor’s and master’s levels) has demonstrated that the most demanded categories are interdisciplinarity, real context and research character. In contrast, communication of results and project approach have significantly lower indicators, especially at the bachelor’s level. The expediency of using Living Labs as an innovative educational environment for the training of specialists in natural sciences has been confirmed, and the directions for its integration into educational programmes in accordance with higher education standards have been outlined.
Downloads
References
Didyk, Kh., & Optasiuk, O. (2024). Living Laboratories (Living Labs) and Prospects for Their Activities. In Podilski Readings. Research, Environmental Protection and Conservation of Biotic and Landscape Diversity, Natural Science Education (pp. 73–77). Kamianets-Podilskyi: Kamianets-Podilskyi Ivan Ohiienko National University [in Ukrainian].
Kostenko, N., & Ivanov, V. (2003). Experience of content analysis: Models and practices. Tsentr vilnoi presy [in Ukrainian].
Muradyan, O., Deineko, O., Filippova, O. (2023). Kharkiv Living Lab: from an open innovation ecosystem to a participatory system of food sustainability during wartime. SOCIOPROSTIR: the interdisciplinary online collection of scientific works on sociology and social work, 13, 23-30. https://doi.org/10.26565/2218-2470- 2023-13-03 [in Ukrainian].
Optasiuk, S., Optasiuk, O., Hryhorchuk, I., & Korsun, O. (2024). Prospects For The Activities Of Living Labs In Ukraine. Collection of scientific papers Kamianets-Podilsky Ivan Ohienko National University Pedagogical series, 30, 125–130. https://doi.org/10.32626/2307-4507.2024-30.125-130 [in Ukrainian].
Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine. (2018). Standard of higher education of Ukraine for the first (bachelor’s) level of higher education in the field of knowledge 10 “Natural sciences”, speciality 101 “Ecology” [in Ukrainian].
Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine. (2018). Standard of higher education of Ukraine for the first (bachelor’s) level of higher education in the field of knowledge 20 “Agricultural sciences and food”, speciality 201 “Agronomy” [in Ukrainian].
Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine. (2020). Standard of higher education of Ukraine for the first (bachelor’s) level of higher education in the field of knowledge 10 “Natural sciences”, speciality 106 “Geography” [in Ukrainian].
Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine. (2018). Standard of higher education of Ukraine for the second (master’s) level of higher education in the field of knowledge 10 “Natural sciences”, speciality 101 “Ecology” [in Ukrainian].
Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine. (2020). Standard of higher education of Ukraine for the second (master’s) level of higher education in the field of knowledge 20 “Agricultural sciences and food”, speciality 201 “Agronomy” [in Ukrainian].
Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine. (2021). Standard of higher education of Ukraine for the second (master’s) level of higher education in the field of knowledge 10 “Natural sciences”, speciality 106 “Geography” [in Ukrainian].
Rogers, S., Jeffery, A., Pringle, J., Law, A., Nobajas, A., Szkornik, K., … Hobson, L.. (2023). Experiential and authentic learning in a Living Lab: the role of a campus-based Living Lab as a teaching and learning environment. Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education, (28). https://doi.org/10.47408/jldhe.vi28.1020 [in English].
Fresto, C. J. M. ESG in Living Labs: Corporate Co-creation For Sustainable Innovation. (2025). UKLO Proceedings, 1(1), 39-47. DOI: https://doi.org/10.20544/AISC.1.1.25.P04 [in English].
Krippendorff, K. (2018). Content Analysis: An Introduction to Its Methodology (4th ed.). SAGE Publications, Inc. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781071878781 [in English].
Morales, I., Segalás, J., & Masseck, T. (2023). Urban Living Labs: A Higher Education Approach to Teaching and Learning about Sustainable Development. Sustainability, 15(20), 14876. https://doi.org/10.3390/su152014876 [in English].
O’Brien, J. (2021, 7 July). Practice Guides. Living Lab: Applied research to affect change for sustainable development. advance-he.ac.uk. https://www.advance-he.ac.uk/knowledge-hub/living-lab-applied-research-affect-change-sustainable-development [in English].
Partnerships between students and organisations for Sustainable Development through assessment. (n. d.). University Living Lab. https://www.universitylivinglab.org/ [in English].
Paskaleva, K., & Cooper, I. (2021). Are living labs effective? Exploring the evidence. Technovation, 106, 102311. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.technovation.2021.102311 [in English].
Scholl, C., de Kraker, J., & Dijk, M. (2022). Enhancing the contribution of urban living labs to sustainability transformations: towards a meta-lab approach. Urban Transformations, 4(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s42854-022-00038-4 [in English].
Schuurman, D., DeLosRíos-White, M. I., & Desole, M. (2025). Living Lab origins, developments, and future perspectives. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14764597 [in English].
The University Living Lab: Harnessing the potential of students to scale up green skills for sustainability. (2025, 7 October). Times Higher Education (THE). https://www.timeshighereducation.com/green-skills/university-living-lab-harnessing-potential-studentsscale-green-skills-sustainability [in English].
Tercanli, H., & Jongbloed, B. (2022). A Systematic Review of the Literature on Living Labs in Higher Education Institutions: Potentials and Constraints. Sustainability (Switzerland), 14(19), 1-27. 12234. https://doi.org/10.3390/su141912234 [in English].
Procentese, F., Gatti, F., De Falco, F. M., Autorino, Y., & Marano, B. (2025). Using the Living Lab Methodology to Build Inclusive Communities: A Participatory Action Research. Journal of Community Psychology, 53(8). https://doi.org/10.1002/jcop.70054 [in English].
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
