Giving students a voice on sustainability
Giving students a voice on sustainability is at the heart of new research project, led by Dr Whitney Bevan, lecturer in Construction Management at the Scott Sutherland School of Architecture and Built Environment. The project has received funding from the Council of Heads of Built Environment (CHOBE) and shows the need for a 鈥榖ottom up鈥� approach to learning, that empowers students.
Over the past year, Dr Bevan has carried out a series of focus groups to develop an understanding of student perceptions and attitudes towards sustainability. Most importantly, her research has explored how best to engage students with sustainability.
As the course lead for the course, Dr Bevan is passionate about raising awareness and developing knowledge to help students gain knowledge, skills and attributes to take informed, responsible actions. She leads a module on sustainable construction practices and set out to explore how best to engage students about sustainability in construction.
Dr Bevan explains more: 鈥淚鈥檓 fully supportive of the University鈥檚 ambitions to embed sustainability across 亚博体育官网鈥檚 curricula through its 亚博体育官网+ project and strategy, that will ensure students work with environmental integrity. By doing this, we can help students and support their learning so that they come up with economically, viable and innovative solutions to contribute to a just society.
鈥淢y research found that whilst students primarily link sustainability to environmental areas such as waste management and recycling, they had less understanding about the social side of sustainability.
鈥淪ome students said they 鈥榳ished they鈥檇 known more about sustainability at school鈥�, whilst others highlighted that 鈥榳hilst they knew the theory, they did not know how to apply it in the job.鈥�
鈥淭he student focus groups showed that students have an appetite to learn more. On a personal level, they want to learn about sustainable design. They also want to adopt practices that support their employment prospects and equip them with the skills to effectively come up with sustainable actions.
鈥淭here also needs to be a 鈥榖ottom up鈥� approach to success, so that students are active players in their learning. We need to give students a voice. Whether this be through debates in the classroom or online forums, or by establishing student sustainability ambassadors, who can represent the views of their peers.
鈥淭here needs to be more visibility of sustainability in practice. By using real-world examples in teaching or assessments, we can encourage 鈥榓ctive learners鈥� so that teaching can be linked to 鈥榮omething concrete鈥�, to enable students to envisage and connect what they鈥檙e doing with reality.
鈥淲e鈥檙e looking to develop projects with 亚博体育官网's Estates department and to involve students in sustainability projects at the University, so that they can analyse actions and give recommendations. There could also be scope to work with other departments at 亚博体育官网, perhaps an energy team to assess the University鈥檚 energy consumption, so that students can work on 鈥榬eal life鈥� projects.
鈥淲e also want to ensure that students are given time to interact with the community and so that they work on projects that enhance sustainability in the local area. There needs to be an understanding about how universities, communities and local authorities can work together. The University鈥檚 involvement in the CityStudio project, is a great example of this and demonstrates a clear way to empower students so that they feel part of the community.
鈥淲hat鈥檚 clear is that with approximately 42% of carbon emissions in the UK resulting from the construction sector*, and the growing concern of the impacts of climate change, as highlighted through the UN鈥檚 Sustainable Development Goals and corresponding international and national targets, we need to ensure that we are effectively engaging and educating students about sustainable development. By building on the findings from my research, we can foster real-world learning on campus and encourage student debate and opinions in the classroom.鈥�
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Image shows Dr Whitney Bevan with students from the Scott Sutherland School of Architecture Construction Project Management course.
