Presenting an Interdisciplinary Teaching Approach to Involve …
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parliament. Sometimes, they wished for more breaks or even more opportunities to
get involved.
Since the students taking part in the course came from different study programs,
different requirements had to be met so that the course could be put on their record.
Some only needed a certificate of attendance (fewer credit points), while others were
required to hand in a term paper, in which they further elaborate the bill they were
working on and evaluate the group working process. In the assessment that students
made in those term papers, one complaint occurred more frequently, namely the
varying motivation among the students to contribute to the group work due to the
different requirements in their study programs. Students who did not require a graded
record seemed to hold back and left the majority of the work to the other students
who needed to prepare a term paper in the end.
4 Conclusions
In this paper, an example is given how Education for Sustainable Development can
be implemented in higher education. The described course for university students
from different study programs focuses on climate change adaptation. The special
requirements of this multidimensional topic were taken into account by trying out
an unconventional teaching format, precisely a political simulation game working
on real problems, which emphasizes interdisciplinarity and also nourishes skills for
sustainable development in students like creativity, cooperation and problem-solving.
Due to the realistic approach of the political simulation game, the learning locations outside the university (state parliament, ministry of social affairs, etc.), a
humorous approach, and a collegial cooperation between teaching staff and students,
(most) students were highly motivated and committed. They took their roles in the
political simulation game seriously. This resulted in very concrete and realistic bills,
which were also favored by the workshops that were very implementation-oriented
and geared to the concrete tasks and current priorities of the ministries and the administration. Large, visionary drafts outside the box looking far into the future, which
the authors were also hoping for, were not included.
Limitations. In general, it can be said that the concept for the course worked.
Students taking part in the course were interested and gave positive feedback in the
end. The authors were very happy with the outcome. However, to assess the students’
learning progress more thoroughly, a scientific evaluation needs to follow.
It would be insightful to see exactly what learning achievements and knowledge
gains have remained after the course has been completed, as the course covers a great
deal of content within one semester. Simplifications to reduce the students’ workload
have already been implemented, especially in the political simulation game.
Most of the background knowledge was offered in the workshops. However,
students were required to attend only two workshops, yet were free to do more.
The quality of the workshops depends on the experts invited and their ability to
present their topic. Another side effect of the dependence on experts is that funding
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parliament. Sometimes, they wished for more breaks or even more opportunities to
get involved.
Since the students taking part in the course came from different study programs,
different requirements had to be met so that the course could be put on their record.
Some only needed a certificate of attendance (fewer credit points), while others were
required to hand in a term paper, in which they further elaborate the bill they were
working on and evaluate the group working process. In the assessment that students
made in those term papers, one complaint occurred more frequently, namely the
varying motivation among the students to contribute to the group work due to the
different requirements in their study programs. Students who did not require a graded
record seemed to hold back and left the majority of the work to the other students
who needed to prepare a term paper in the end.
4 Conclusions
In this paper, an example is given how Education for Sustainable Development can
be implemented in higher education. The described course for university students
from different study programs focuses on climate change adaptation. The special
requirements of this multidimensional topic were taken into account by trying out
an unconventional teaching format, precisely a political simulation game working
on real problems, which emphasizes interdisciplinarity and also nourishes skills for
sustainable development in students like creativity, cooperation and problem-solving.
Due to the realistic approach of the political simulation game, the learning locations outside the university (state parliament, ministry of social affairs, etc.), a
humorous approach, and a collegial cooperation between teaching staff and students,
(most) students were highly motivated and committed. They took their roles in the
political simulation game seriously. This resulted in very concrete and realistic bills,
which were also favored by the workshops that were very implementation-oriented
and geared to the concrete tasks and current priorities of the ministries and the administration. Large, visionary drafts outside the box looking far into the future, which
the authors were also hoping for, were not included.
Limitations. In general, it can be said that the concept for the course worked.
Students taking part in the course were interested and gave positive feedback in the
end. The authors were very happy with the outcome. However, to assess the students’
learning progress more thoroughly, a scientific evaluation needs to follow.
It would be insightful to see exactly what learning achievements and knowledge
gains have remained after the course has been completed, as the course covers a great
deal of content within one semester. Simplifications to reduce the students’ workload
have already been implemented, especially in the political simulation game.
Most of the background knowledge was offered in the workshops. However,
students were required to attend only two workshops, yet were free to do more.
The quality of the workshops depends on the experts invited and their ability to
present their topic. Another side effect of the dependence on experts is that funding