DOI
10.1108/14676371211242562

Summary
Summary mixed with 'Relevance for Comp..." section

Relevance for Complex Systems Knowledge
This study has been conducted in Cambridge University with students enrolled in the Masters programme Engineering for Sustainable Development. This publication explores the learning of themes of sustainable development using multiple educational methods aimed toward obtaining real world understanding of sustainable development.

Since this study is conducted under postgraduate conditions, the author has made an important reference to Fisk and Ahearn (2006) and how MSc level education holds two advantages. 1. Student maturity, realism, work experience. 2. They are likely to adopt high level jobs as project leaders, managers etc. and will be inclined towards these job role characteristics in learning activities.

The significance of identifying key themes to sustainable development is instrumental for effective learning. 8 themes have been identified and detailed on pg 3.

Feedback from students found that the most successful learning activities adopted were:

Residential Field Courses – On one field trip students were challenged to find a solution to an unsolvable real world issue in the field (engineering based). The true learning outcome was to demonstrate the complexity of such an issue and why it hasn’t been solved to this day. Another field trip involved visiting examples of successfully implicated classroom based theory e.g eco-village and wind farm visits.

Role Play and Games

The author made an immediate comment to the need to create an emotional attachment to decision making during role play, for example, set up a scenario where by different students adopt the roles of decision makers and publicans affected by said decisions. Debate and discussion is encourage to demonstrate the complexity of human interrelations in the context of sustainable solutions/decisions. The study also makes reference to multiple learning games and their effectiveness at steering students towards caring for outcomes and results of decisions.

Systems Thinking – Book Review

Addressing problems in a systematic matter while understanding the influence of non-linear dynamics and feedback loops is identified as an essential theme from day one. Students are assigned the task to read ‘The Hidden Connections’ (Capra 2002). This provides students with context for discussion and critique on various topics throughout the course.

During detailed student feedback surveys, field courses and role playing were identified as strong points for achieving learning outcomes. The study concludes that a combination of multiple learning activities enabled students to develop new ways of thinking.

Point of Strength
This publication is specific to MSc level teachings of complex systems at a highly reputable university and clearly demonstrates the successes of various teaching methods.

The results are based off student feedback. The study utilises feedback survey methods that may be useful to replicate.

The study found that certain methods (field work and role playing/games) were most effective while others also had some success. Some learning methods were found to not fully reflect or demonstrate the sustainable development themes.