3.1 Using the ‘4 Rs model’

Take any document at any level from your institution’s (or setting’s) overall statement of their mission or corporate plan and think about it in terms of sustainability. The document could be related to:

  • a faculty policy
  • programme or module outline
  • scheme of work for a year group
  • an individual session plan.

Use the model outlined below to assess, evaluate and discuss possible changes with necessary colleagues. This process is best done collaboratively, partly because collaboration is one of the cornerstones of sustainable pedagogies and partly because making changes usually has to be a collaborative process. This is not to say it cannot be completed individually if needed, as everyone has the agency to make changes. Ask yourself the following questions:

Regarding what we do now identify:

  • What practices, ways of working, resources do value that we need to keep?
  • Of those practices you have identified, are these useful, valid, up to date and relevant?
  • Retain

 

  • What practices might need modification?
  • Are they partly up-to-date and relevant but needs some updating or revision to make sustainable pedagogies more overt?
  • Revise

 

  • What practices ways of working or resources, if any, might need to be abandoned?
  • Of those practices you have identified, are they outdated or no longer relevant or valid?
  • Reject

 

  • What new ideas, concepts, principles, methodologies, working methods, pedagogies, etc. are needed to help fit the learners for a sustainable future?
  • What innovation is needed? Where must new ideas and materials be brought in?
  • Renew
(Adapted from Stirling, 2012, p. 50)

3 Making changes with sustainability in mind

3.2 Discussing making changes – four key questions