Drawing Sustainability: Helping
Students to Know What They Know
Kay Emblen-Perry
1 Introduction
The traditional adage that “a picture is worth a thousand words” has been long held
as true by the scientific community; consequently, ‘drawing’ is a well-established
teaching tool for science within Higher Education (HE). However, the recognition
that students can understand and communicate complex issues through drawing
(Boehm and Lees-Spalding 1993) and recognise learning in the process of drawing
(Gobert and Clement 1999; Roam 2008; Quillin and Thomas 2015) suggests that
it could also be a valuable and innovative learning and teaching approach for
students studying non-scientific subjects such as sustainability and society in business management. The simplicity of the approach and its flexibility for learners could
promote learning recognition within Education for Sustainability (EfS) within the
business curriculum so that students come to know what they know, i.e. they develop
a conscious recognition of their own knowledge and, through this acknowledgement
of self-knowledge, appreciate their personal and professional knowledge, skills and
values. Consequently, an innovative in-class activity has been adopted for Business
Management students; drawing sustainability.
The activity of drawing sustainability, incorporated within sustainability modules
for Business Management students which introduce them to social justice, environmental protection and economic legitimacy and their roles within the Sustainable
Development Goals, is designed to achieve two purposes. Firstly, to provide a simple
way for students to recognise their learning and secondly, to provide a benchmark
for tutors to recognise students’ knowledge at the start of the module and extent of
learning through the module.
K. Emblen-Perry (B)
University of Worcester Business School, Castle Street, Worcester WR1 3AS, UK
e-mail: k.emblenperry@worc.ac.uk
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
W. Leal Filho et al. (eds.), Universities, Sustainability and Society: Supporting
the Implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, World Sustainability Series,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-63399-8_15
217
Students to Know What They Know
Kay Emblen-Perry
1 Introduction
The traditional adage that “a picture is worth a thousand words” has been long held
as true by the scientific community; consequently, ‘drawing’ is a well-established
teaching tool for science within Higher Education (HE). However, the recognition
that students can understand and communicate complex issues through drawing
(Boehm and Lees-Spalding 1993) and recognise learning in the process of drawing
(Gobert and Clement 1999; Roam 2008; Quillin and Thomas 2015) suggests that
it could also be a valuable and innovative learning and teaching approach for
students studying non-scientific subjects such as sustainability and society in business management. The simplicity of the approach and its flexibility for learners could
promote learning recognition within Education for Sustainability (EfS) within the
business curriculum so that students come to know what they know, i.e. they develop
a conscious recognition of their own knowledge and, through this acknowledgement
of self-knowledge, appreciate their personal and professional knowledge, skills and
values. Consequently, an innovative in-class activity has been adopted for Business
Management students; drawing sustainability.
The activity of drawing sustainability, incorporated within sustainability modules
for Business Management students which introduce them to social justice, environmental protection and economic legitimacy and their roles within the Sustainable
Development Goals, is designed to achieve two purposes. Firstly, to provide a simple
way for students to recognise their learning and secondly, to provide a benchmark
for tutors to recognise students’ knowledge at the start of the module and extent of
learning through the module.
K. Emblen-Perry (B)
University of Worcester Business School, Castle Street, Worcester WR1 3AS, UK
e-mail: k.emblenperry@worc.ac.uk
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
W. Leal Filho et al. (eds.), Universities, Sustainability and Society: Supporting
the Implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, World Sustainability Series,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-63399-8_15
217