What is the connection between experiential learning and sustainability?

Te Kete Ipurangi (the basket of knowledge).

This site is run by the Ministry of Education and gives guidelines and information about Education for Sustainability in the New Zealand curriculum
Experiential learning in education for sustainability is developed through personal experience, guided reflection and learning conversations. It places the student at the centre of teaching and learning to explore sustainability issues in authentic contexts using active personal experience combined with reflection and feedback to develop deeper understanding.Experiential learning activities vary in length, complexity and contexts addressed. When exploring sustainability issues teachers are encouraged to provide a range of experiential learning opportunities including experiences in the environment. To see case studies of learning experiences outside of the classroom click here.

Education for Sustainability

Week 6

For week 6, the course out line called for students of this course to: -

 Plan an experiential learning activity that can enhance sustainability awareness for your students and provide them with tools to add social environmental and economic value to your industry.

The problem with this requirement is that it pre-supposes all students of this course are lecturers.  As non-lecturers are accepted into the course, the tasks need to be couched in more inclusive language, since every person on the planet has a part to play in moving our world towards improved sustainability. The behaviour of every Otago Polytechnic employee has an impact on the people (academic staff, students, service and admin staff, visitors, stakeholders, management etc.) they come into contact with each day. We have a responsibility as individuals to act in a sustainable manner, in as far as we are able, to act as positive role models for others.  When enough people engage in “doing the right thing” on a regular basis the behaviour comes to be seen as normal and will. Over time, be adopted by others.  ‘Small things done by many can change the world.’

My project will capture the insights gained as I experienced the rolling out of this course.  Careful reflection will highlight those elements that contributed to a successful blended delivery course, identify issues that caused some difficulties and make recommendations for change to improve the course.  In carrying out this exercise a blueprint of successful strategies will be revealed and serve to inform  my own future blended delivery courses.

Tilbury (2004) referred to the terms   ‘critical reflection,’  ‘values clarification,’ and ‘participative action’ as being core components for Environmental Education for Sustainability.  And it is these terms that will be brought into play as I develop my project. 

This EfS course is probably one of the most important courses being conducted by Otago Polytechnic (in terms of the end goal of turning out sustainable practitioners in every graduating student) since it moulds conditions and instils notions of sustainability in the educators and other Polytechnic employees (engaged in the EfS course) who will all ultimately play their part in passing on notions of and modelling sustainable practice behaviours. 

Since Otago Polytechnic is moving more and more towards blended delivery of courses because of its cost effectiveness, flexibility and perceived enhanced benefit to students it is most important to examine such courses routinely and carefully to see if they perform in the manner expected, to look for any problems or issues that may need tweaking and (since all learning is dynamic and ever changing) to look for ways to make improvements.   

My plan is to critique the EfS (Education for Sustainability) course wearing my student hat.  The rationale for this is to try to find the best fit for content and delivery of this course both from my perspective and from the perspective of my classmates.  I gathered informal feedback from classmates in on-going discussions with them throughout the course, and by having them complete a course evaluation at the end. 

This project is important not only for examining this course but for also using it as a background source of ideas for creating my own blended delivery courses of English for foreign nationals.  These courses are supposed to be moving to more of a blended model but it is all new territory so it is change that needs to be managed very carefully.  The challenges (that I will go into more fully later) that my classmates encountered would be much more significant for the students that I teach since English may be their 2^nd or 3^rd  (or more) language.

Education for Sustainability – Course critique

The pros:-

• This course is well constructed from a content point of view.  It links to many excellent and useful resources which have served to open my eyes to a much more holistic view of what exactly sustainable practice equals.  Coming from a starting point of sustainability being all about recycling and looking after the environment to now understanding its much broader application as it relates to the economy, society and ecology and recognising that we all have a part to play in moving towards a sustainable future. 
• The course has raised my awareness of what is being done in my local community, highlighted opportunities to become involved in various sustainable activities and given me insights as to how I might change my own behaviour at a personal level and incorporate notions of sustainability into my own courses.
• The face to face sessions were extremely valuable and exposed me to a wide range of ideas from the course convenor and fellow students. The student cohort came from widely varied backgrounds and had a wealth of experiences and ideas to share.
• As the course materials were online I was able to engage with them whenever it suited me.

The cons:-

• No fixed deadlines were set for completion of assessable work.  This sounds very accommodating but meant that students did not give coursework the timely priority it should have had. This resulted in the equivalent of a terms work still not being completed by the end of the year for all but one student.  This comes about largely because of the policy of open enrolment.  Students can begin the course whenever they want to and complete within a timeframe that suits them within a year period.
• There were multiple platforms for course materials.  This was confusing.  Both Moodle and Wiki educator were used.
• Feedback was not routinely given for all completed work in any regularised manner. Sometimes it was comments to a blog posting, sometimes an email, sometimes oral and sometimes nothing at all.  With the course being linear in nature I found myself waiting to have one piece of work Ok’d before launching on the next bit in case I had not done a satisfactory job of the current piece of submitted work.
• There was no clear line of communication was it supposed to be by blog comments or email or both.
• Open enrolment allows maximum flexibility but when this can occur at any time over the course of a year for an 8 week course it does not allow for a sense of learning community to develop ( a necessary component for the sharing of ideas at face to face meetings).
• The course at present has been designed for lecturers and project tasks are supposed to be delivered to our students.  The course has value in being offered to all staff (academic, administrative, management, service etc.). Because of this it needs to be re-designed to be more inclusive. 
• The course was supposed to represent 50 hours of work.  I found I spend a lot more time than that. I feel that the content should not be cut back as it was valuable, but 10 points should be awarded rather than the present 5 credit points.

Recommendatons:-

1. Increase the points allocation for the course to better reflect the amount of work required.
2. Have clear deadlines for assessed work (and make special provision for those needing more time on a case by case basis).
3. Conduct a needs analysis at the start of the course to ensure that the course will deliver what students want/expect.  Sometimes the course can be modified slightly to accommodate what the students ask for (so long as it fits within the perceived parameters of the course). Some students commented to me that they would have liked a practical aspect like time spent volunteering perhaps on a community garden or the like.  Others said they would have liked a more political focus (perhaps involving some kind of action to effect desirable change on some issue).
4. Students need to know how and when to expect feedback.
5. Some students expressed a desire for more face to face sessions although this can be difficult to arrange when people have different availability for sessions.
6. The course could be tweaked to make it more inclusive for non-academic staff taking the course.
7. One person expressed a desire for more technical support, particularly with the creation of blogs.  This could have been arranged amongst the students themselves with more able students helping less able.
8. And lastly a physical hand-out could be given out at the first face to face session that outlined:-

• the course outline
• what was to be done for assessment.
• Where the course materials were to be found and an explanation of the purpose of multiple platforms if more than one was to be used.