sustainability education and student learning at the university of british columbia kshamta hunter...

Sustainability Education and Student Learning at the University of British Columbia

Kshamta HunterTeaching and Learning OfficeUBC Sustainability Initiative (USI)

AASHE 2012

Commitment to create “an exceptional learning environment” that “advances a civil and sustainable society”

The UBC Plan: Place & Promise

• Created in March 2010

• Sustainability is one of 9 high level strategies at UBC, within “Place and Promise”

• USI is NOT a faculty or central approachsimilar to other universities

• Based on a funded model of a centralgroup and 3 offices

• Integration of the Operational and Teaching and Learning units

The USI

OperationalOperational

AcademicAcademicCampus as

Living Laboratory

(CLL)

The USI

Our mandate:

To educate the next generation of

sustainability leaders by transforming and

coordinating undergraduate and

graduate sustainability education at UBC.

USI Teaching and Learning Office

www.sustain.ubc.ca/teaching-learning

Coordination Activities:Outreach, support, programs, reporting

Support•Academic Advisors

advance sustainability education in all faculties

•Student Groups Networking opportunity for student groups to connect, collaborate and learn about resources

•Faculty CoPsustainability education community of practice with CTLT

Outreach•Sustainability Education Resource Centre

located in CIRS, Student Sustainability Advisor mentors students

•Website Management

including a database of >480 courses

•Sustainability Education News

E-newsletter (>550 recipients)

Course categorization

Feedback from instructors

Organized by Faculty/School

Course details, link to registration

Programs•Sustainability Ambassadors undergraduate peer program

•UBC Reads Sustainability co-curricular program aimed at UBC students in all disciplines

•Greenest City Scholars Programgraduate student internship with the City of Vancouver

Reporting•Reporting and AssessmentASSHE’s STARS, Internal reporting

Transforming sustainability education across the university

Goal: Every UBC student, regardless of their degree program, should have the option to study

sustainability via a pathway (for example, a minor)

• Context:

– Diverse array of sustainability course offerings (especially in upper years), but few programs and minors that offer meaningfully connected courses

• Challenge:

– Sustainability Academic Strategy (SAS), the mid-level plan for sustainability at UBC, expresses the following commitment:

Each student, regardless of their degree program, should have access to an education in sustainability via a “sustainability learning pathway” (up to a minor)

Teaching & Learning: Context & Challenge

Three years of each program funded.

•Spotlight: Competitive program to fund instructors to improve the sustainability content and/or delivery of an existing course

• Fellowship: Brings together faculty members from across campus to envision how to advance sustainability education at UBC

Spotlight Program and Fellowship Program

Transforming Sustainability Education at UBC: Desired Student Attributes and Pathways for Implementation

UBC Sustainability Education Framework:

Four key overarching student attributes to be fostered through

sustainability curriculum

STUDENT SUSTAINABILITY ATTRIBUTES

Holistic Systems Thinking

Sustainability Knowledge

Awareness & Integration

Acting for Positive Change

Sustainability depends on, and aspires to, a purposeful, equitable and harmonious integration of human and natural systems. Holistic, ecological or synergistic thinking provides means and methods to see, articulate and qualitatively and quantitatively measure how human and natural systems work and interact. Holistic systems thinking also requires a capacity for synthesis and for negotiating solutions to complex problems.

Sustainability depends on comprehensive knowledge within one’s area of study.

In addition, sustainability knowledge requires students to gain proficiency in the underlying ideas and principles of sustainability, and in the evaluation of different sustainability models and paradigms.

Sustainability knowledge also requires students to understand contemporary sustainability issues, particularly those which relate to their own area of study.

Sustainability requires students to be aware of their own constructing patterns and processes: how their context informs their personal perspectives and their integration of new information. Sustainability also requires students to think and act in new ways to solve complex, integrative problems through collaboration between disciplines. Collaboration demands an awareness of, and respect for, different disciplinary values, perspectives and knowledge.

A sustainability graduate has a personal value system that inspires action and embraces the individual’s capacity to create change. Committed to acting on personal beliefs but is flexible and open to critical assessment and modification of those beliefs. They also appreciate that collaborative and active engagement with communities leads to enriched creative problem solving, as well as and the ongoing development of change agent skills.

Example Learning Outcomes: Example Learning Outcomes: Example Learning Outcomes: Example Learning Outcomes:1. Demonstrate a capacity to appreciate that all actions have consequences within, between and among systems

1. Demonstrate an ability to critically evaluate competing sustainability models and paradigms

1. Appreciate that sustainability demands participation from all disciplines and contributions from society

1. Demonstrate skills and strategies to enter into dialog and create persuasive arguments relating to sustainability

Pathways Model

Key elements:1.“Book End” courses: “SUST 101” and Sustainability leadership capstone2.Well-connected courses which together integrate all the attributes

Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4

Beyond the classroom

Beyond the classroom

Discipline-based

Discipline-based

Theme-based

Theme-based

SUST 101: Introduction to sustainability ideas and principals, models and contemporary issues. The course could contain a component mentored or led by a senior students.

SUST 101: Introduction to sustainability ideas and principals, models and contemporary issues. The course could contain a component mentored or led by a senior students.

Courses within an existing program leading to an understanding of ones discipline through a sustainability lens.

Courses within an existing program leading to an understanding of ones discipline through a sustainability lens.

Sustainability-oriented student immersive experience outside the university, locally or globallySustainability-oriented student immersive experience outside the university, locally or globally

Leadership course: Students explore & reflect on attainment of sustainability attributes during their learning pathway. Opportunity for mentoring undergraduates.

Leadership course: Students explore & reflect on attainment of sustainability attributes during their learning pathway. Opportunity for mentoring undergraduates.

Courses based on a theme such as “water” taken inside or outside the student’s program of study. Ideally would include some case study analysis of the thematic issue.

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11Holistic Systems

Thinking 22 33 44Sustainability

Knowledge Awareness & Integration Acting for Positive Change

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Looking forward….

• Continue to work with faculties to develop discipline-based sustainability learning pathways (e.g. Biology Program)

• Encourage and support the development of cross-cutting pathways (e.g. a theme-based pathway around water)

• Develop the 4th year capstone sustainability leadership course (2nd pathway bookend)

• Strengthen our coordination and student engagement activities (e.g. Sustainability Ambassadors Program, networking with academic advisors across campus)

Thank you!

kshamta.hunter@ubc.ca