1. Role Playing Exercises

 

In a role playing exercise, participants improvise from a given initial scenario.  This technique is widely used in training for occupations with a high degree of interpersonal contact e.g. sales and customer service staff, as well as in general adult education.  Role playing exercises develop situational awareness, group work, independence and the ability to form action plans.  Since these exercises are somewhat fluid by nature, the outcomes cannot be predicted in advance.  Participants are required to make complex decisions under evolving circumstances, reflecting the reality of planning and executing sustainable projects.  In the situational role play exercises I encourage participants to appreciate wider perspectives before dealing with the fine details of the component parts. 

 

Feedback from course participants is generally appreciative, with most reporting a renewed enthusiasm and curiosity allied with a new recognition of the need to acknowledge the positions of others and see beyond a purely theoretical approach to sustainability.

 

Some Role Playing Exercise examples:

 

•     Case Study of an Industrial Crisis: Metaleurop Nord
•     Incineration: Risks and Benefits to Society
•     The Potential of River and Canal Transport Solutions

 

I am working currently on other role playing scenarios and always welcome opportunities to design new ones for particular course situations.

 

 

   2. Learning through Photography

 

This learning strategy (also known as Photolangage®¹), uses themed photographic archive material to help participants to express ideas related to sustainability.

 

Objectives:  To raise awareness of the issues involved in sustainable development and personal engagement through exchange of opinions.

 

To appreciate sustainability through photography: I have selected 25 photographs with various themes, e.g. oil pollution, malnutrition in Africa, windfarms, greenfield development, the relationship between Man and Nature, solitude, and ‘wild’ places.  Participants are invited to interpret the realities represented to them in these symbolic images, and to review these different visions of the world in group discussions.

 

In a three-hour training session, each participant chooses an image related to sustainable development and explains his/her choice to the group who are encouraged to add their own comments.  This is followed by a group discussion in which the common themes that have arisen are identified and developed. 

 

This kind of training is very flexible and has been used in many teaching situations, from secondary level education through to courses for professional trainers.

 

 

¹ Photolangage is a registered trademark owned by Alan Baptiste and Claire Belisle

² Photolangage – a group communication tool using images.  A. Baptiste, C. Belisle, J-M Pechenart, C. Vacheret

 

 

 

    3.  Cognitive Maps

 

       3.1 What is a Cognitive Map?

 

While a major aim of my courses is to leave the participants with a global understanding of (and a new sensitivity towards) sustainability, it is also clearly necessary for the participants to have tools to enable them to identify and recall the key concepts that are of most value to them after the training session.  In the course of my doctoral studies in the teaching of sustainable development I developed a method for rationalising information on this topic: Cognitive Maps. Although independently designed, these are similar in practice to ‘mind maps’ developed by Tony Buzan in the 1970’s. Cognitive maps are composed of two elements: concepts (represented by words) and links (represented by arrows). 

 

Exemple :

 

 

Maps such as these can provide a way for individuals to represent for themselves the interplay between complex ideas and information they have assimilated.  The visual format also allows the participant to review their knowledge base at a glance.  Overall, I have found cognitive maps to be invaluable aids to the assimilation and recall of information.

 

 

Cognitive maps are a form of free expression and may take various forms, as shown in this example by a student on a Masters course on Ethical Development at Lyon 3 University.

 

   3.2    Using Cognitive Maps

 

As a training evaluation tool

Cognitive maps can be introduced at the outset of a course for assessing expectations and as a post-course evaluation tool.  A pre-evaluation can serve to record the participant’s expectations of the course and to identify any preconceptions (which can be addressed as the course develops) and a post-evaluation is useful for highlighting learning points.

 

 

Encouraging reflection on a personal vision of sustainability

Stimulating debates and discussions often follow a detailed analysis by participants of their cognitive maps.

 

 

Improving the quality of contributions

Using cognitive maps as part of a learning strategy can lead not only to greater retention of knowledge, but also allow the participant to better understand and make connections between different topics.

 

 

As a group exercise

Construction of cognitive maps by the group as a whole can lead to new insights and lively debates, and help to integrate the standpoints of individuals.  During these sessions potential solutions to problems identified earlier can spontaneously emerge.

 

 

For more information, an article on Cognitive Maps was published in the “International Journal of Sustainable Education, 2005”.  This paper received the Leo Jansen prize at the conference on “Engineering Education in Sustainable Development” (Barcelona, 2004), If you would like a copy, please send me an email.

 

 4         Interactive Workshops

 

I have developed several workshops with the aim of helping small groups to share their competencies and specialisms in order to address some of the issues raised by sustainable development.  A workshop I have prepared on the obstacles to implementing sustainable development is one example of this type of course.