The Impact of the Sand Table Simulation Teaching Method on Secondary Vocational Students’ Sustainable Practical Competencies: An Empirical Study on Engineering Bidding Instruction

Against the backdrop of the global sustainable development agenda and China’s “dual carbon” strategy, vocational education confronts an urgent mandate to nurture talents with professional proficiency and sustainable literacy. Thus, this study innovatively employed the sand table simulation teaching method in the secondary vocational course “Engineering Bidding and Contract Management”, integrating sustainability principles such as green procurement and life cycle cost analysis within a structured “learning–thinking–acting–reflecting” framework. The study aims to empirically explore the impact of this approach on the sustainable practice capabilities of secondary vocational students. Using a single-group pretest–posttest design, a 16-week intervention was conducted with 40 students. Data were collected via questionnaires, interviews, observations, and professional assessments, analyzed via paired t-tests. The results show that the method significantly enhanced students’ sustainable practical competencies: all posttest dimension scores exceeded pretest scores (p < 0.05, Cohen’s d = 2.201). This study verifies the effectiveness of sand table simulation teaching method in sustainable education and expands its application to engineering secondary vocational courses. It also provides a situational and operational teaching paradigm and empirical support for the integration of vocational education with SDGs.