Green Gown Awards 2014 - Courses and Learning - University of Worcester - Finalist

Tree huggers, liars and economic collapse? The challenge of sustainability

The project has provided University of Worcester students with an exciting opportunity to participate in a unique elective module which explores the principles and practices of sustainability. Integrating students across institutes and pushing beyond disciplinary frontiers, the module nurtures critical thinking, global citizenship and employability skills. It is an innovative module which makes a tangible difference.

The 30-credit module has moved beyond traditional lecture and seminar models to adopt an enquiry-based learning approach to sustainability, embracing student-led co-creation. A broad range of expert witnesses regularly attend sessions to contribute their interpretation and understanding of sustainability in their job or research.

Evaluations of this year’s module showed that 100% of students found the expert witness sessions helpful, and at least 75% had fully engaged with the materials and reflected personally and deeply on the practices and principles of sustainability.

Top 3 learnings

1 Interdisciplinary teaching requires trust and respect and dialogue and working as a team… more meetings I’m afraid
2 Be brave with assessments, daunting for first years but persevere
3 Listen to the feedback from your students; you will get lots because it is different and use peers to allay fears.

Videos

• Tree huggers, liars and economic collapse? The challenge of sustainability (click to hide)