Enhancing Student Engagement in a Sustainability …
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they could form groups to complete a sustainability project within one semester. The
finalized research report should include items such as a title, background information,
research questions, methodology, implications, implementation steps and reference
literature. Although students worked independently on this task and it was a satisfying
experience to find that there were several brilliant and intriguing ideas from students.
These ideas can definitely provide insights to students in future.
As a matter of fact, some reforming attempts have been taken incrementally.
An example is the development of a second related sustainability course, named
“Sustainable campus management and community engagement”. The course will be
arranged in the spring semester and includes a practicum module and group project.
The envisaged class will be open to second-year students, with an upper limit of 30
students. Another faculty member will join and cosponsor the class guidance.
It should be noted that a lesson learned, and certainly one that has constantly
been re-learned, is that political sensitiveness is one factor that obstructs in-depth
communication and class discussion. Two thirds of students have admitted to this in
the survey. With strong authoritarianism and censorship imposed by the government,
any doubts about the current political regime are regarded as “politically sensitive”
issues. Teachers and students are aware of that and have learned to regulate the opinions that they express in this regard. However, this blindness to political realities not
only deprives them of the opportunity to change, but also leads to the reduction of
empathy. This is at odds with social responsibility, that lies at the heart of sustainable development. The authors argue that it is not a smart choice to be heedless of
discussing “politically sensitive” issues, when most students may be less inclined to
accept this position. An alternative approach may work better. That is to introduce
some relevant academic theories around the discussed topics, such as the essence of
democracy, the multiple-dimensions of development and the politics-governmentpolicy nexus. While teachers need not make value judgments, students can be guided
by their curiosity to take further consideration of these type of matters after class.
5.3 Initiating a Whole-Institution Approach to Enhance
Student Engagement
Figure 1 has shown the three-layered structure of student engagement. The innermost
layer, referring to engagement in the classroom, could not be separated from the
campus life and more broadly the local community life of students. A systematic
approach towards student engagement would entail the integration of class instruction
with experiential learning through community involvement initiatives. Students can
apply what they have learned during class in practice, while at the same time bringing
on-site and hand-on experiences back to class and share these with other students.
Therefore it is important for the university to build platforms, make innovations
in curriculum development and facilitate opportunities for faculty and students to
enhance engagement in general education courses.
337
they could form groups to complete a sustainability project within one semester. The
finalized research report should include items such as a title, background information,
research questions, methodology, implications, implementation steps and reference
literature. Although students worked independently on this task and it was a satisfying
experience to find that there were several brilliant and intriguing ideas from students.
These ideas can definitely provide insights to students in future.
As a matter of fact, some reforming attempts have been taken incrementally.
An example is the development of a second related sustainability course, named
“Sustainable campus management and community engagement”. The course will be
arranged in the spring semester and includes a practicum module and group project.
The envisaged class will be open to second-year students, with an upper limit of 30
students. Another faculty member will join and cosponsor the class guidance.
It should be noted that a lesson learned, and certainly one that has constantly
been re-learned, is that political sensitiveness is one factor that obstructs in-depth
communication and class discussion. Two thirds of students have admitted to this in
the survey. With strong authoritarianism and censorship imposed by the government,
any doubts about the current political regime are regarded as “politically sensitive”
issues. Teachers and students are aware of that and have learned to regulate the opinions that they express in this regard. However, this blindness to political realities not
only deprives them of the opportunity to change, but also leads to the reduction of
empathy. This is at odds with social responsibility, that lies at the heart of sustainable development. The authors argue that it is not a smart choice to be heedless of
discussing “politically sensitive” issues, when most students may be less inclined to
accept this position. An alternative approach may work better. That is to introduce
some relevant academic theories around the discussed topics, such as the essence of
democracy, the multiple-dimensions of development and the politics-governmentpolicy nexus. While teachers need not make value judgments, students can be guided
by their curiosity to take further consideration of these type of matters after class.
5.3 Initiating a Whole-Institution Approach to Enhance
Student Engagement
Figure 1 has shown the three-layered structure of student engagement. The innermost
layer, referring to engagement in the classroom, could not be separated from the
campus life and more broadly the local community life of students. A systematic
approach towards student engagement would entail the integration of class instruction
with experiential learning through community involvement initiatives. Students can
apply what they have learned during class in practice, while at the same time bringing
on-site and hand-on experiences back to class and share these with other students.
Therefore it is important for the university to build platforms, make innovations
in curriculum development and facilitate opportunities for faculty and students to
enhance engagement in general education courses.