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K. Emblen-Perry
9 Impacts and Implications of Drawing Sustainability
The activity of drawing sustainability is designed for two purposes. Firstly, to promote
learning recognition through students’ reflection on their own knowledge in order
to know what they know and to recognise what they don’t know through peerreview and reflecting on what colleagues say when they present their drawing to
the class. Secondly drawing sustainability is designed to enable the tutor to benchmark students’ knowledge to pitch lecture content correctly and recognise students’
progress. Drawing sustainability may therefore contribute to the innovative learning
and teaching practice that Navarro (2008), Boron et al. (2017), Molthan-Hill (2017),
UNESCO (2017) and Franco et al. (2018) suggest is required to equip students with
the skills, values and attitudes needed to promote sustainable futures for society,
industry and organisations and contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable
Development Goals.
The research findings presented above suggest that drawing sustainability may
offer an innovative learning and teaching practice that can provide a knowledge
benchmark for tutors and promote students’ recognition of learning. Recognition
of learning has become increasingly important over the last three decades and it is
now recognised that judging self-knowledge can enhance the quality of an individuals’ education (Kurnaz and Cimer 2010) and boost academic achievement (Webb
2020). This may be achieved in three ways through drawing sustainability. Firstly, by
students’ developing an understanding of what they know through reflecting on their
knowledge to create a visual representation of sustainability. Secondly, by understanding how their knowledge is different to what others know through reflection
on other classmates’ drawings, and thirdly by appreciating what they still need to
know through tutor-to-peer and peer-to-peer feedback and in-class discussions. This
activity may therefore be of interest those seeking teaching tools that provide a
knowledge benchmark and a platform from which to introduce additional sustainability challenges, interconnections, and contexts to help students know what they
know.
Although the drawings in this study are not subject to formal content analysis,
the development of drawings shown in Figs. 4a, b and students’ reflections on the
activity of drawing suggest that learning has taken place and that students recognise
it. The difference in students’ drawings between the first and last lectures of both
second and third year modules over the three years of the study and the comments
in students’ post activity reflections suggest that the processes within the activity of
drawing sustainability may encourage students to reflect upon their development of
knowledge to enable them to know what they know.
In addition, the different styles of the drawings and substance within them suggests
drawing sustainability is sufficiently flexible to enable students to create their own
visual representations of social, environmental and economic sustainability, which
may challenge the students to elaborate their knowledge, imagine new relationships in
their drawings and test their ideas as advocated by Vygotsky (1978) to make thinking
visible. As students are not always able to evaluate whether they have understood
K. Emblen-Perry
9 Impacts and Implications of Drawing Sustainability
The activity of drawing sustainability is designed for two purposes. Firstly, to promote
learning recognition through students’ reflection on their own knowledge in order
to know what they know and to recognise what they don’t know through peerreview and reflecting on what colleagues say when they present their drawing to
the class. Secondly drawing sustainability is designed to enable the tutor to benchmark students’ knowledge to pitch lecture content correctly and recognise students’
progress. Drawing sustainability may therefore contribute to the innovative learning
and teaching practice that Navarro (2008), Boron et al. (2017), Molthan-Hill (2017),
UNESCO (2017) and Franco et al. (2018) suggest is required to equip students with
the skills, values and attitudes needed to promote sustainable futures for society,
industry and organisations and contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable
Development Goals.
The research findings presented above suggest that drawing sustainability may
offer an innovative learning and teaching practice that can provide a knowledge
benchmark for tutors and promote students’ recognition of learning. Recognition
of learning has become increasingly important over the last three decades and it is
now recognised that judging self-knowledge can enhance the quality of an individuals’ education (Kurnaz and Cimer 2010) and boost academic achievement (Webb
2020). This may be achieved in three ways through drawing sustainability. Firstly, by
students’ developing an understanding of what they know through reflecting on their
knowledge to create a visual representation of sustainability. Secondly, by understanding how their knowledge is different to what others know through reflection
on other classmates’ drawings, and thirdly by appreciating what they still need to
know through tutor-to-peer and peer-to-peer feedback and in-class discussions. This
activity may therefore be of interest those seeking teaching tools that provide a
knowledge benchmark and a platform from which to introduce additional sustainability challenges, interconnections, and contexts to help students know what they
know.
Although the drawings in this study are not subject to formal content analysis,
the development of drawings shown in Figs. 4a, b and students’ reflections on the
activity of drawing suggest that learning has taken place and that students recognise
it. The difference in students’ drawings between the first and last lectures of both
second and third year modules over the three years of the study and the comments
in students’ post activity reflections suggest that the processes within the activity of
drawing sustainability may encourage students to reflect upon their development of
knowledge to enable them to know what they know.
In addition, the different styles of the drawings and substance within them suggests
drawing sustainability is sufficiently flexible to enable students to create their own
visual representations of social, environmental and economic sustainability, which
may challenge the students to elaborate their knowledge, imagine new relationships in
their drawings and test their ideas as advocated by Vygotsky (1978) to make thinking
visible. As students are not always able to evaluate whether they have understood