An experience-based learning framework: Activities for the initial development of sustainability competencies

Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

Authors

Purpose
This paper aims to present an experience-based learning framework that provides a bottom-up, student-centered entrance point for the development of systems thinking, normative and collaborative competencies in sustainability.

Design/methodology/approach
The framework combines mental mapping with exploratory walking. It interweaves mapping and walking activities with methodological and theoretical inputs as well as with reflections and discussions. The framework aligns experiential activities, i.e. mental mapping and walking, with learning objectives, i.e. novice-level sustainability competencies. The authors applied the framework for student activities in Phoenix/Tempe and Hamburg/Lüneburg as part of The Global Classroom, a project between Arizona State University in the USA and Leuphana University of Lüneburg in Germany.

Findings
The application of the experience-based learning framework demonstrates how students started developing systems thinking (e.g. understanding urban systems as functional entities and across different domains), normative (e.g. using different sustainability principles) and collaborative (e.g. learning across disciplinary, social and cultural differences) competencies in sustainability.

Originality/value
The experience-based learning framework contributes to the development of curricular activities for the initial development of sustainability competencies in introductory-level courses. It enables students from different disciplinary, social and cultural backgrounds, e.g. in international education, to collaboratively start developing such competencies. The framework can be adapted to different educational contexts.
Original languageEnglish
JournalInternational Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education
Volume17
Issue number6
Pages (from-to)827-852
Number of pages26
ISSN1467-6370
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2016

Recently viewed

Publications

  1. Should learners use their hands for learning? Results from an eye-tracking study
  2. Soft Skills for Hard Constraints
  3. Parameterized Synthetic Image Data Set for Fisheye Lens
  4. Integrating the underlying structure of stochasticity into community ecology
  5. A Framework for Applying Natural Language Processing in Digital Health Interventions
  6. How does Enterprise Architecture support the Design and Realization of Data-Driven Business Models?
  7. Mining Implications From Data
  8. Scheme and Technical Issues in Water Quality Control
  9. There is no Software, there are just Services: Introduction
  10. Internet and computer based interventions for cannabis use
  11. Development of a scoring parameter to characterize data quality of centroids in high-resolution mass spectra
  12. Topic selection and development in learner-native speaker voice-based telecollaborative discourse
  13. Conjunctive cohesion in English language EU documents - A corpus-based analysis and its implications
  14. E-stability and stability of adaptive learning in models with private information
  15. Restoring Causal Analysis to Structural Equation ModelingReview of Causality: Models, Reasoning, and Inference (2nd Edition), by Judea Pearl
  16. A Study on the Performance of Adaptive Neural Networks for Haze Reduction with a Focus on Precision
  17. Student Behavior in Error-Correction-Tasks and its Relation to Perception of Competence
  18. Effects of diversity versus segregation on automatic approach and avoidance behavior towards own and other ethnic groups
  19. DISKNET – A Platform for the Systematic Accumulation of Knowledge in IS Research
  20. IT Governance in Scaling Agile Frameworks
  21. Different facets of tree sapling diversity influence browsing intensity by deer dependent on spatial scale
  22. Challenge-oriented policy making and innovation systems theory: reconsidering systemic instruments
  23. Differentiating forest types using TerraSAR–X spotlight images based on inferential statistics and multivariate analysis
  24. Understanding the error-structure of Time-driven Activity-based Costing
  25. Integration of laboratory experiments into introductory electrical engineering courses
  26. Hill–Chao numbers allow decomposing gamma multifunctionality into alpha and beta components
  27. The interplay between posture control and memory for spatial locations
  28. Do Specific Text Features Influence Click Probabilities in Paid Search Advertising?
  29. Interactive Media as Fields of Transduction
  30. Plant density modifies root system architecture in spring barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) through a change in nodal root number
  31. Development of an Active Aging Index for the Organizational Level
  32. Applying the Three Horizons approach in local and regional scenarios to support policy coherence in SDG implementation
  33. Digital twin support for laser-based assembly assistance
  34. "Doing" Sustainability Assessment in Different Consumption and Production Contexts-Lessons from Case Study Comparison