The Beginners’ Guide

Embedding Sustainability in Skills Development Sessions:

3 Faculty Linked Learning Developers

Kevin Watson:Faculty of

Humanities & Social Science

Chris Little:Faculty of Health

Jayne Eagles:Faculty of Natural Sciences

What we do…

Embedded skills development sessions (Away Days)• 3-hour sessions• Topics chosen by programme links

Away Days – Sustainability focus

Politics • 16 Students

Physiotherapy • 40 students

Chemistry • 45 Students

Politics – 20/2/14: 16 students

Initial Problem: I needed to know what I was talking about.

Sustainability Activities Included

An exercise in which students were asked to reflect on how their experience of university helped and hindered their positive contribution to the world (criticism), consideration of what the utopic university might look like (imagination) and consideration of how we might take control of our university life to make positive changes in the world (implementation).

An exercise in which students designed an environmental politics module.

What Worked

1. The session successfully combined exploration of the sustainability issues with skills development.

2. The session used examples from the world of politics.

Problems / Challenges

1. Timing – sustainability should have run through the

entire event rather than being ‘tagged on’ in the last

hour.

2. Lack of full subject embedding meant that the content

did not relate to any specific module and was rather

superficial.

3. Low turnout.

Physiotherapy 28/2/14 – 40 Students

• Plan A: Conference event with separate speakers• Plan B: Student role play

The session…30 mins 30 mins 2 hours

Presentation skills debate Stress awareness Prepare and deliver 3

presentations around NHS sustainability

Strategy to 3 different audiencesStress awareness Presentation skills

debate

Sustainable Development Unit. (2014). Sustainable, resilient, healthy people & places: A sustainable development strategy for the NHS, public health and social care system.

• Strategic needs assessment of existing provision• Health and Wellbeing Board (HWB)

Student feedback: ComparisonPrevious session 18/10/13- Time management, note making and feedback

Sustainability themed session:• 7.8% reduction in negative feedback (Grades 1/2)• 29% increase in positive feedback (Grades 4/5)

What students found most useful:

Presentations 23

Group work 5

Linked to my course 4

Stress statistics 2

Sustainability 2

Topics to be covered …• Working with others

• Dealing with difficult people

• Promoting ‘Green Chemistry’ in the workplace

Critical Success Factors …

• Subject specific materials

• Challenging and interactive learning exercise

Flash Cards

Articles & Case Material

Conclusion

Embedding sustainability into skills sessions can work but:1. It needs to draw on subject-specific content and

meet students where they are.2. The problem of vague definition needs to be

countered by specific stories, scenarios and, best of all, experiences.