THESIS
2017
x, 136 pages : illustrations (chiefly color) ; 30 cm
Abstract
Many discussions of sustainability nowadays note the importance of interdisciplinary work to
find and make human civilization more sustainable. However, the rapid rising complexity of
sustainability issues in the twenty-one century cannot be addressed by narrow single
disciplinary approaches. Yet, modern disciplinary fragmentation eliminates the chance to
discuss about the sustainability of humanity civilization as a whole. A pedagogy which equips
student’s interdisciplinary mindset therefore is needed desperately. A recognized framework
for such a discussion is also lacking. This handicaps communication and collaboration
between endeavors from various disciplines. In addition, we have been teaching a climate
change course since 2009. The nominal results are satisfying, but the...[
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Many discussions of sustainability nowadays note the importance of interdisciplinary work to
find and make human civilization more sustainable. However, the rapid rising complexity of
sustainability issues in the twenty-one century cannot be addressed by narrow single
disciplinary approaches. Yet, modern disciplinary fragmentation eliminates the chance to
discuss about the sustainability of humanity civilization as a whole. A pedagogy which equips
student’s interdisciplinary mindset therefore is needed desperately. A recognized framework
for such a discussion is also lacking. This handicaps communication and collaboration
between endeavors from various disciplines. In addition, we have been teaching a climate
change course since 2009. The nominal results are satisfying, but the students, our future
leaders, generally feel pessimistic towards the sustainability circumstances and do not see
themselves as agents for change.
A possible solution is Big History – a new paradigm, put forward by David Christian and
other scholars and supported by Bill Gates, attracts our attention. Big History is an example of
disciplinary consilience in constructing the whole natural history and human history into one
single thematic structure with based on the latest scientific evidence. We re-structured our
climate change course by embedding Big History as the pedagogical framework and
addressing its prospective potentials in delivering sustainability, in which, climate change is
only one of the many approaches in explaining the complexity. We analyzed the students’
performance by administrating a pre-course and post-course survey, studying student
feedbacks and their poster assignments. The students’ performance in various aspects are
encouraging, especially the perceived instrumentality. Several challenges are also discussed
for further improvements. It is hoped that this study can serve as a showcase to educators in
tertiary education on how we change the pedagogical framework for shifting the focus by
employing an entirely new and bigger narrative in delivering a sustainability course.
Keywords. Big History; Pedagogy; Education for Sustainability
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