Week 7 :-Promoting sustainable behaviour in ourselves and those over whom we have influence
Reflect on how your learning activity enhances sustainability and
question whether your ideas fit within
Otago Polytechnic’s aims of Inspiring Capability.
My learning activity (critiquing the EfS course) will reflect
on features of the current course content and delivery and, from my own
experience and the experience of classmates in this course, seek to make
recommendations for improvements. This
is normal practice for all courses but is particularly significant in this
course as it exemplifies blended delivery.
Since blended delivery is the new model for Otago
Polytechnic courses it is wise to reflect on the efficacy of this modality to
ensure we adopt ‘best practice’ that will serve students needs well and make
this institutions courses stand out from others. Evaluation of this course through reflective
practice will make it more sustainable in terms of those all important factors student
retention and success. It will also
guide blended delivery courses that I will develop in the future and thereby
heighten their effectiveness. Reflective
practice is an endeavour that we all need to engage in for every part of our
lives since the decisions we make as individuals have a flow on effect to everything
and everyone around us.
Individuals need to reflect on their behaviour in terms of
the many hats that they wear (for myself these could be:- teacher, student,
parent, consumer, friend..and so on) to judge whether or not the decisions that
are made in each situation are sustainable.
This same reflective practice is an activity that would be rolled out to
the students and included in the courses that I facilitate. Insights gained on the EfS course would be brought
into play and passed on to others.
For example:-
- Students would be asked to diarise
a day of their life to critique the choices and decisions they made over
the day wearing “various hats” to see if they were acting in a sustainable
manner and to consider whether or not they might be able to make more
sustainable choices.
- Students are asked to do a
unit of work that requires them to think about some of the resources that
they control or have an impact on such as time, money and the environment.
They look at a number of scenarios related to use of these resources, extrapolate
on what the outcome will be from continuing this behaviour, and consider
changes that might be desirable/possible.
For example- We find ourselves buying things we don’t really need,
to be fashionable or feel excited/good /happy for a short time (retail
therapy). These things often just
clutter up our lives and may be just a cover up for a more deep seated
need that can’t be easily satisfied.
- Students as consumers….
- Students are asked to
categorise a number of items in a list and decide if they are needs or
wants
- Students are shown examples of
rampant spending from the sustainability blog and then asked to write
about what they think they need in their life to make them happy.
- Students are asked to imagine how life
would be if they only focussed on what they needed instead of wanting the
latest ‘this and that’ and always wanting more of everything (keeping up
with the Jonses).
- Students are asked to consider
an issue that affects them personally and take action to do something
about it. E.g. write to the paper
to complain about the removal of seats in public bus shelters. They could start a petition about this
issue and present it to the local city council to try and effect change.
- Students could explore other
issues at a national level that they feel strongly about and find out what
different political parties say they will do about this issue e.g. the
rise in unemployment.
- Students could join a
community group such as Transition Valley
473 and engage in activities that interested them or that others might
benefit from such as working in a community garden or volunteering their
skills to repair bicycles etc.
All of these ideas fit well with Otago Polytechnic’s goal
to produce graduates (and employees) that are focussed, forward thinking able
to solve problems and conduct their lives in sustainable ways.
