Abstract

Institutions of higher education play an important role in training citizens who can thoughtfully and critically make decisions that impact the sustainability of our planet. While researchers have determined competencies that students need as environmental and sustainability professionals, less is understood about how to achieve these outcomes within complex learning environments, such as experiential learning settings. We apply a learning landscape framework to conceptualize connections among curricular and programmatic features and student learning outcomes on Dartmouth College’s Environmental Studies Africa Foreign Study Program. We describe the results of 31 semi-structured interviews with alumni of the program. Results demonstrate that program design and pedagogical strategies, coupled with student activities, influence both cognitive and affective student learning outcomes, and that all learning elements are mutually influencing. Further, we identify two emergent learning outcomes, appreciation for reflection and introspection and capacity to engage with complexity, identified by considering learning at a landscape scale.

摘要

高等教育机构在培养能够深思熟虑和批判性地做出影响我们星球可持续性的决策的公民方面发挥着重要作用。虽然研究人员已经确定了学生作为环境和可持续发展专业人士所需的能力，但对如何在复杂的学习环境（例如体验式学习环境）中实现这些成果的了解较少。我们应用学习景观框架来概念化达特茅斯学院环境研究非洲外国学习计划的课程和计划特征与学生学习成果之间的联系。我们描述了与该计划的校友进行的 31 次半结构化访谈的结果。结果表明，项目设计和教学策略，加上学生活动，影响学生的认知和情感学习成果，并且所有学习元素都相互影响。此外，我们确定了两种紧急学习成果，对反思和内省的欣赏以及处理复杂性的能力，通过在景观尺度上考虑学习来确定。