Research Papers

Document Type

Conference Paper

Abstract

Sustainability has developed into a pressing concern across disciplinary domains, and the need for teaching sustainability concepts to students has grown significantly. In this paper, we present a research study that assessed undergraduate students’ understanding of sustainability after participating in a case study discussion. We designed and implemented a role-play case study of e-scooters on a college campus. The case facilitated “near transfer,” as it focused on an issue most students have personally experienced. Furthermore, the role-play component simulated a real-world context and allowed students to take different perspectives related to the topic, resulting in a discussion of social, political, economic, and technical factors related to sustainability. The case study was implemented with 38 students. Course readings and pre-case study assignments were used by students to prepare for the role-play. Students participated in groups of 6-7 participants in student-led discussions. To evaluate the development of perspectives, we undertook a thematic analysis of the preand post-assignment questions using a framework derived from Transformative Learning Theory (TLT). Findings show that students developed a holistic view of sustainability by co-constructing decisions related to the case study presented. The role-play case study and role descriptions are presented in the Appendix.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.21427/EZXC-6M65

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

Download
Contact the Author


Share

COinS