Experiential Learning About Sustainable Development and The SDGs: Features, Challenges, and Experiences of A Modular Course in Business Education

Abstract

Experiential learning focuses on learners, their activities, experiences, and how they process and reflect upon them. Experiential learning about sustainable development in general and about Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in particular has to consider specific challenges of sustainable development, such as interdisciplinarity, trade-offs, conflicts of interests, ambiguities, as well as the need for critical thinking, creativity, and communication skills. Although experiential learning offers a broad range of benefits, well-documented course designs are rare, especially in business education. The purpose of this chapter, therefore, is to present a course design that we have implemented more than 50 times over the last 10 years. By providing insights into the course design, its main components, and the experiences we have gathered from it, we hope to inspire and motivate other educators to apply similar methods of experiential learning in relation to the SDGs in business education. The modular course concept consists of a kickoff meeting, three thematic trainings, three academic assignments, and two days of simulation games, role-playing, group exercises, and several rounds of reflection and evaluation. In the following sections, we describe the core elements of our course design, provide insights into success conditions and potential pitfalls, explain how the course can be adapted and replicated, and discuss the requirements for experiential learning.

Citation

Martinuzzi, A., Spörk, A. and Martinuzzi, S. (2023), "Experiential Learning About Sustainable Development and The SDGs: Features, Challenges, and Experiences of A Modular Course in Business Education", Caporarello, L., Kumar, P. and Agrawal, A. (Ed.) Higher Education for the Sustainable Development Goals: Bridging the Global North and South, Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 165-180. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80382-525-020231009