Creative teaching approaches

Roddy Fox, Rhodes University, South Africa. R.Fox@ru.ac.za

International Training ProgrammeESD in Higher Education

Creative Teaching Approaches

Rhodes University 8 November 2012

http://simulations4africa.wordpress.com/

Thursday 15 November 12

Boyer, E.L. 1990: Scholarship Reconsidered. Priorities of the Professoriate. Jossey Bass: San Francisco.

Preliminary Ideas

Behaviourist Cognitivist HumanistSocial andSituational

Learning theories

Simulations in the Curriculum

‘Simpler’ games

‘Complex’ games 1

‘Complex’ games 2

Location of Games 1990-2010

Curriculum context: Honours (level 4) 5 week module

Educational theory context: experiential learning

Feeling, creative emotional

Thinking, logical

African Catchment GameSwampfire

African Development GameKat Role Play

RiskmapKatAware

Reflection ExerciseFeedback and Free Writing

Concept MappingEssays

Reconnecting to literature

What students learnt

What students learnt I had always assumed that the challenge for a rural person was to uplift themselves and progress forwards. After this game I now understand that for many people the challenge is survival, successfully supporting oneself and family. I realise that (not recognizing) this paradigm shift from upliftment to survival is one of the major stumbling blocks of aid policies.

The game highlighted the need for alternative options in order to tackle land degradation..…If land is to be left to fallow so that it can recover from use, then there has to be other income generating activities available for people to take part in.

In our case, as refugees we only had two plots of land and this had to be used to feed ourselves. To survive, soil erosion preventative measures were not always adopted and this led to our land steadily declining from high to low productivity levels.

I think risk aversion is the single most important concept that I have gained from this course, that is why I believe the catchment game is a vital teaching tool

What this (game) highlighted in terms of rural development was that local communities are dynamic and internally differentiated, and their environmental priorities and natural resource claims are positioned differently and governed by varying institutional dynamics, as well as differing and sometimes conflicting power relations.

It made me think about how we as environmental professionals even begin to address the problems of rural development and land degradation when we are dealing with such a myriad of problems. Where do priorities lie when addressing the problems related to rural development and land degradation? This is a question that I definitely cannot answer.

To return …

and so …

Nested Approach

Simulations and Complex Adaptive Systems

• Since Chapman developed his first Green Revolution Game our knowledge of systems and complexity has developed.

• African Catchment Game can be understood as a Complex Adaptive System– Simplification of reality with all elements of a

CAS–CAS used by our own senior students to

understand ACG, gives different understanding of space

Wikimedia Commons 2010 Complex Adaptive Systems [Online] http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Complex-adaptive-system.jpg [Available: 25/10/2010]

Roddy Fox, Rhodes University, South Africa. R.Fox@ru.ac.zaThursday 15 November 12

• Two game runs of Swampfire – models multiple concurrent partnerships in HIV/AIDs diffusion• 2, 7, 12, 17, 22, 27, 32, 37 start with AIDS• 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, 24, 28, 32, 36 start with gloves/condoms• Players shake hands, collect autographs 1, 2 or 3 times• Some are told they may ignore instructions• Different patterns are emergent

Simulations and Futures Studies

RESEARCH

FUTURES RESEARCH

Forecasting the future• Consensus (eg Delphi).• Trend extrapolation.• Historical analysis and analogy.• Systematic generation of alternative paths to the future.• Simulation games are different, they allow you a safe space in which

to play out alternative forecast or backcast futures.

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