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Journal for Education in the Built Environment, Vol. 7, Issue 2, December 2012 pp. 63-83 (21)
ISSN: 1747-4205 (Online)
63
Copyright © 2012 CEBE
Education for Climate Change Adaptation – Enhancing
the Contemporary Relevance of Planning Education for a
Range of Wicked Problems
Julie Davidson
University of Tasmania, Australia
Anna Lyth
University of Tasmania, Australia; and University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia
Abstract
Planning education involves engaging students in many ‘wicked’ planning problems of which
climate change is a particularly testing example. This paper demonstrates that by thinking
about climate change problems for urban and regional places, educators are reminded about
the importance of some more generic but essential capabilities required of planners in
dealing with a range of challenging problems. Based on the experience of reviewing and
‘renovating’ the University of Tasmania’s planning programme to embed education for
climate change adaptation, this paper: (i) reflects on such a process; (ii) describes the
application of specific pedagogical values and approaches to the education of planners for
climate change adaptation in the university’s planning programme; and (iii) demonstrates
how their application can facilitate improvement in education for other core planning
capabilities. Among the pedagogical approaches embraced are: problem-based learning,
adaptive learning and self-reflection, networked learning, critical thinking, linkage of theory
and practice, and adaptation planning skills. Ultimately, the application of these approaches
has not only addressed the need to incorporate education for climate change adaptation, but
has also improved the capacity of the planning course to develop competencies relevant to
planning for a range of challenging contemporary problems.
Keywords: Climate Change Education, Climate Change Adaptation, Planning Education,
Planning Skills, Planning Pedagogy
J. Davidson & A. Lyth: Education for Climate Change Adaptation – Enhancing the Contemporary
Relevance of Planning Education for a Range of Wicked Problems
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Journal for Education in the Built Environment, Vol. 7, Issue 2, December 2012
Copyright © 2012 CEBE
Introduction
Efforts to incorporate climate change considerations into planning coursework represent an
opportunity to more generally reconsider planning education, specifically its content,
approaches and the essential capabilities required of planners. Planners are obliged to deal
with a range of challenging or ‘wicked’ problems, climate change being just one example of
these, albeit that it has been described as a ‘super wicked’ problem (Levin et al., 2012,
p.124), and may therefore make extraordinary demands on planners. While the focus on
planning education around this issue has long concentrated on the mitigation of carbon
emissions from human activities, it has only been in recent years that planning education has
begun to recognise the significance of planning for the management of climate change
impacts and facilitation of adaptation at the local and regional scales (Ruth, 2006).
The term ‘wicked problems’ was formerly pronounced in the 1970s (Rittel and Webber, 1973)
to describe the difficult social problems challenging urban planners and public policy makers
at the time. The problems were described as ill-formulated ones, confusing or complex, or
arising from situations where there were many stakeholders with conflicting values. The term
is relevant today with a number of public policy and planning problems demonstrating
challenging and complex contexts, such as: planning for an aged society, population change
and migration, food security, sustainability and climate change. These examples are marked
by ambiguous problem definition, scientific uncertainties, and multi-dimensional solutions in
which planners have a part to play in consort with other professions. Indeed many of these
planning problems also overlap in relation to each other, requiring both multi-beneficial and
interlinked problem solving (Figure 1).
Figure 1 Examples of contemporary, interlinked, and often ‘wicked’ planning problems
J. Davidson & A. Lyth: Education for Climate Change Adaptation – Enhancing the Contemporary
Relevance of Planning Education for a Range of Wicked Problems
65
Journal for Education in the Built Environment, Vol. 7, Issue 2, December 2012
Copyright © 2012 CEBE
This paper: (i) reflects on the experience of the University of Tasmania in renovating its
planning programme to embed climate change adaptation education in the context of its
complex problem setting; (ii) describes the application of specific pedagogical values and
approaches to the education of planners for climate change adaptation in the University’s
planning programme; and (iii) demonstrates how their application also facilitates
improvement in education for other core planning capabilities and contemporary planning
issues.
Evolving Planning Competencies in Planning Education for Climate
Change
In thinking about human-induced climate change and its ramifications and relevance to
planning, the wicked problem can be described in terms of: its global nature, its local
ramifications across different temporal scales, the complexity and interrelatedness of the
impacts and their solutions, and the various degrees of knowledge and certainty around the
science of global to local ecological, social and economic implications.
Planning for climate change invariably requires dealing with uncertainty and evolving
complex systems. Society and adaptation policy and planning settings face continuous
evolution on a number of fronts, including adaptation technologies, strategies, networks and
structures (Rammel and van den Bergh, 2003). Innovative strategies to cope with emerging
anticipated, unexpected, indirect, non-linear, and cumulative climate change implications will
be required. Indeed in the context of weakening prospects of prompt mitigation and an
enhanced likelihood that the world will experience 4°C and more of global warming (rather
than 2°C), Stafford-Smith et al. (2011, p.204) alert us to the increasing possibility that
planners will be required to consider pathways to quite radical change, such as the need to
consider the long-term viability of some settlements, transport routes and infrastructure sites,
planning for either their defence or ordered abandonment and the social implications of
these. They argue that this will likely mean that the practice of incremental planning will be
insufficient and that transformations via developing deliberate adaptive pathways will be
necessary. This will also require planners to develop their capacity for adaptive learning.
Education for climate change adaptation is therefore concerned with: (i) the development of
adaptive capacity or increasing the ability of individuals, groups or organisations to adapt to
climate change and (ii) implementation of adaptation decisions (Adger et al., 2005). As
professionals, planners will be required to contribute to:
• reducing the sensitivity of built and natural environments and their communities to
climate change;
• changing the exposure of built and natural environments and their communities to
climate change; and
• increasing resilience of built and natural environments, communities and planning
systems to cope with, adapt to, and transform, in response to impacts and changes
associated with climate change (Lyth et al., 2007).
In support of this context and requirements, planners will need a specific knowledge and
skillset, including having a minimum grasp of climate change science, developing skills to
J. Davidson & A. Lyth: Education for Climate Change Adaptation – Enhancing the Contemporary
Relevance of Planning Education for a Range of Wicked Problems
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Journal for Education in the Built Environment, Vol. 7, Issue 2, December 2012
Copyright © 2012 CEBE
understand the complexities and uncertainties of climate change, and acquiring an
appreciation of systems thinking.
Among the generic competencies for a range of built environment professions noted by Lyth
et al. (2007) are increased foresight and futures thinking, critical thinking and reflection,
systemic thinking, and participative decision-making. Planners will need to be able to think
laterally and engage with creative ideas outside practice norms. This implies being able to
work in cross-disciplinary teams in order to understand and collectively solve problems
related to climate change. From a professional practice perspective, planners should be able
to apply a range of specialist practical skills related to risk and vulnerability assessment, and
tools to assist futures and strategic planning, for example (or at least have a sufficient
appreciation of these skills to know when to recruit practitioners with relevant expertise and
can interpret their results).
As a consequence of these new demands, there will necessarily be changes to form and
content of planning education as well as to the thinking skills and work practices that
curriculum must foster in students. It will not be sufficient to deliver courses that are full of
information dissemination and knowledge development material and there is unlikely to be
room for the breadth of information ideally required in planning courses. Consequently, the
pedagogies used to implement curriculum and coursework delivery methods may need to be
rethought, while planning educators will be asked to establish learning environments that
model the necessary perspectives, thinking and practical skills, and work practices that are
consistent with new pedagogies.
Evolving Planning Courses
As Hamnett (1999, p.6) points out, changes to programmes of planning education are
inextricably linked to changes occurring in the world of planning practice and reflect to a
considerable extent the continuing efforts of the planning profession to remain relevant.
Frank (2006) likewise refers to the continual need for planning educators to reflect on the
relevance of planning programmes based on societal needs and ideas, while Lyth et al.
(2007) consider the responsibility of planning educators to review and develop their
programmes (and thus new generations of planners) in anticipation of emerging and future
issues.
Sustainability, social equity and climate change have been recognised by the United Nations
Human Settlements Programme (2009, p.185) as three global challenges that planning
schools around the world need to ensure they discuss effectively. According to the same
report only one third of planning schools globally addressed climate change in their planning
education courses (United Nations Human Settlements Programme, 2009, p.191). However,
the report does not say what elements of climate change tend to be addressed in these
courses and how extensive and relevant the education is to the development of planning
competencies. Indeed there is very limited research available about pedagogical guidance
for climate change adaptation planning education.
As the Australian planning profession began to acknowledge the significance of climate
change education for planners and the growing need for skills and improved knowledge in
J. Davidson & A. Lyth: Education for Climate Change Adaptation – Enhancing the Contemporary
Relevance of Planning Education for a Range of Wicked Problems
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Journal for Education in the Built Environment, Vol. 7, Issue 2, December 2012
Copyright © 2012 CEBE
the field (Planning Institute of Australia Queensland Division, 2002; Lyth, 2006; Lyth and de
Chastel, 2007), a few university planning programmes were also beginning to enhance their
inclusion of education for and about climate change (Lyth et al., 2007). As one of the early
movers, the University of Tasmania (UTAS), acknowledged the need for increased attention
to be paid to education for both climate change mitigation and adaptation through the
periodical review process of its environmental planning coursework programme. A
government grant from the Australian Greenhouse Office (now the Department of Climate
Change and Energy Efficiency) under its inaugural Climate Change Adaptation Skills for
Professionals Programme enabled the formalisation of curriculum review and development in
the area.
Approach
Specifically, the Climate Change Adaptation Skills for Professionals Programme grant was
awarded for the purpose of developing curriculum materials for climate change adaptation
planning and to trial integration or mainstreaming of the materials into the University’s
environmental planning programme. The trial occurred in Semesters 1 and 2, 2009 and
involved students studying environmental planning and management masters programmes.
In line with the teaching and learning philosophy informing the project, the trial incorporated
problem-based learning exercises, with the aim of introducing students to adaptation
planning skills and competencies.
In this paper, we critically reflect on our experience of mainstreaming climate change
adaptation into planning education and canvass the relative merits of several approaches to
such integration. We also explain the relevance of a range of pedagogies – problem-based
learning, adaptive learning and self-reflection, networked learning, critical thinking, and
linkage of theory to practice – in equipping planners with the skills and capacities required to
operate not only in climate change contexts but also in other situations characterised by
change, complexity and uncertainty.
Our reflection is ‘critical’ (Fisher, 2003, p.314) in the sense that it is located in a wider
planning context related to a range of emerging and complex planning challenges as well as
global sustainability. And it is critical from the perspective that a main aim of the paper is to
promote a planning education paradigm that endorses pedagogies and associated learning
attitudes and capabilities appropriate to the demands of messy and wicked problems.
Mainstreaming Climate Change Adaptation into Existing Coursework
About the University of Tasmania’s planning coursework programme
The University of Tasmania’s postgraduate Environmental Planning courses (Graduate
Diploma and Masters) have been offered since 2003 and are professionally accredited by the
Planning Institute of Australia. The Diploma and Degree programmes are offered by the
School of Geography and Environmental Studies in either full or part-time mode and are
available in both on-campus and distance education modes. Since their introduction, an
average of 44 students has enrolled annually. These include international students as well
as students from a range of Australian jurisdictions including local students from Tasmania.
J. Davidson & A. Lyth: Education for Climate Change Adaptation – Enhancing the Contemporary
Relevance of Planning Education for a Range of Wicked Problems
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Journal for Education in the Built Environment, Vol. 7, Issue 2, December 2012
Copyright © 2012 CEBE
Tasmania is an island state of Australia and UTAS its only university. As a consequence the
course is considered important in delivering planning education and building planning
capacity within the state. An essential consideration for the development of the planning
course was that delivery by distance mode had increased considerably since 2003, as shown
in Figure 2.
The Master of Environmental Planning addresses the central role of environmental planning
in achieving environmental, social and economic sustainability. Essential planning theory is
integrated with understandings drawn from biophysical, social, cultural, legal and public
policy disciplines. Urban, regional and rural environments are considered, and emphasis is
given to planning across all land tenures at catchment and landscape scales. Extensive use
of case studies and guest lecturers with practical experiences provide students with practical
examples of major environmental planning issues. Students undertake an industry placement
that provides opportunities to incorporate the knowledge gained in the course into planning
practice. Masters students undertake a planning project or thesis in addition to their
coursework (UTAS, 2012).
Figure 2 Increase in the proportion of enrolled distance education environmental planning
students, 2003-2012, UTAS (Source: School of Geography & Environmental Studies, UTAS, 2012)
The process of review and development
The development of the climate change adaptation planning curriculum at UTAS was
informed by an Expert Reference Group, whose members agreed that the coursework
offerings needed to ‘walk the talk’ of adaptation so that students could be afforded the
opportunity to rehearse the skills, competencies and attitudes they would need in their
professional lives. This sense guided the teaching and learning approaches that were
adopted. The curriculum package comprised:
• core modules containing knowledge about climate change relevant topics – climate
science and scenarios, climate impacts, mitigation, adaptation, relationships between
mitigation and adaptation, the relationships between sustainable development and
climate change, and the implications of climate change for governance;
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
Proportion of distance
education students
J. Davidson & A. Lyth: Education for Climate Change Adaptation – Enhancing the Contemporary
Relevance of Planning Education for a Range of Wicked Problems
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Journal for Education in the Built Environment, Vol. 7, Issue 2, December 2012
Copyright © 2012 CEBE
• a set of case-based content modules for urban, coastal, water management,
biodiversity conservation, and bushfire planning and management contexts;
• practical exercises for adaptation planning competencies; and
• material on the pedagogies informing the curriculum.
Among the pedagogical guides supporting the teaching and learning philosophy behind the
coursework are:
• problem-based learning (PBL) or learning through facilitated problem-solving (Hmelo-
Silver, 2004);
• adaptive learning and self-reflection defined as any individual or social change of
paradigms, world views or mental models that builds adaptive capacity;
• networked learning or learning in which information and communication technology is
used to promote connections within a learning community (adapted from Jones,
2004); and
• linkage of theory and practice or enhancement of planning practice in rapidly
changing conditions through being kept informed of emerging theoretical
developments.
While the School’s postgraduate courses are largely founded on PBL as a way of equipping
students for professional practice, there had not been any conscious attention to this or the
other three pedagogies for their value in building students’ skills in planning for situations of
complexity resulting from emergence and rapid change. In this respect, these pedagogies
are more advanced than those used elsewhere in the School.
The learning environment established sought to foster critical, reflective and lateral thinking
skills, foresighting and futures thinking, and an appreciation of systems thinking and
complexity. Problem-and team-based exercises reinforced the relevance of cross-disciplinary
investigation, collaborative and cooperative learning, networked learning, self-evaluation and
reflection, and the linkage of theory to practice. These practical exercises afforded students
with opportunities not only to experience team-based problem-solving but also to practice
core adaptation planning competencies. Since this project, other Australian planning
research has also acknowledged the relevance of these competencies, particularly the
application of inter-disciplinary approaches, problem solving, and team work through a
survey of planning employer needs (George et al., 2010).
Subsequently, the materials were used as the basis for development of a standalone unit into
which further core and content materials and practical skills exercises were incorporated.
These additions helped position the unit to be attractive to students of both environmental
management and environmental planning while development of the unit as a standalone unit
enabled inclusion of more of the core competencies that planners may need in planning for
climate change and its impacts. The unit was further augmented by the inclusion of a WIKI-
based platform for case study delivery. WIKI, a software platform that allows users to create
and edit Web content, has excellent applicability in support of interactive, problem-based
learning especially for distance study mode.
J. Davidson & A. Lyth: Education for Climate Change Adaptation – Enhancing the Contemporary
Relevance of Planning Education for a Range of Wicked Problems
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Journal for Education in the Built Environment, Vol. 7, Issue 2, December 2012
Copyright © 2012 CEBE
Approaches to embedding climate change education in the University of
Tasmania’s planning course
Embed within existing coursework units or standalone?
While the most straight-forward approach to incorporating climate change educational
materials into existing curriculum is to develop standalone coursework units, the risk is that
climate change adaptation will be treated as an optional extra rather than being perceived as
integral to all aspects of planning and management. Expert opinion stresses the importance
of integrating materials into existing coursework rather than siloing them as separate units
(Lyth et al., 2007). The advantages and disadvantages of the two approaches are
summarised in Table 1.
Table 1 Comparison of embedded and standalone approaches to integrating climate
change adaptation into planning coursework
Embedded approach Standalone approach
Advantages Disadvantages Advantages Disadvantages
• Climate change is
more likely to be
perceived as integral
to all planning and
management aspects
• May not achieve
intended learning
outcomes
• Students have time to
make the most of the
curriculum
• Potential for the
importance of the
curriculum to be
downgraded and to
be treated as an
elective
• Limitations on time
available for
discussion to unpack
complexities of
climate change
• More time available
for discussion and
interaction
• Important content
may be omitted from
host units to
accommodate climate
change content
• Ensures all relevant
content can be
included
• Requires flexibility in
negotiating which new
materials and
practical exercises to
include
• More flexibility in
decisions about which
materials/exercises to
include
• Can compromise the
objectives of PBL by
retarding group co-
evolution and
dynamics
• Group-based work is
more successful
where group
collaboration has
continuity
Option 1: Embedding within existing coursework units
There are two ways to overcome the risk of climate change adaptation being perceived as an
elective. One method is to replace sub-components of existing coursework units with climate
change modules and the other is to ensure that climate change is at least mentioned in
existing planning coursework but with reference to a standalone unit, which would be
mandatory. The approach that UTAS originally trialled in renovating its planning offerings
was to deliver a core module containing a range of basic climate change related material to
all students taking four 25% coursework units offered to postgraduate planning students as
J. Davidson & A. Lyth: Education for Climate Change Adaptation – Enhancing the Contemporary
Relevance of Planning Education for a Range of Wicked Problems
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Journal for Education in the Built Environment, Vol. 7, Issue 2, December 2012
Copyright © 2012 CEBE
part of a Master of Environmental Planning or Master of Environmental Management (column
1 of Table 2). A relevant content module (column 3 of Table 2) was also delivered to each of
the four coursework units (column 2 of Table 2).
Table 2 Core module topics, coursework units, and content modules
Core module topics Coursework units Content modules
Planning, Theory, Process
and Applications Integrated coastal planning for
climate change adaptation
Planning for Sustainable
Land Use Outcomes Urban systems adapting to
climate change
Protected Area Management Biodiversity, protected areas
and climate change
1. Climate change: science,
impacts & scenarios
2. Systems approaches & climate
change
3. Mitigation and adaptation
relationships
4. Principles and concepts of
adaptation
5. Climate change, sustainable
development and governance Sustainable Environmental
Management Incorporating climate change
adaptation into water
management
While it is logistically possible to incorporate modules or sub-modules into existing
coursework units, there are a number of challenges to meet and trade offs to be considered.
The UTAS trial experience suggests the amount of basic climate change adaptation material
to which students need to be exposed may be too great for the ready integration of this core
material into existing coursework.
One issue that might arise is whether the mainstreaming approach used in the trial results in
important content being omitted in order to include the climate change content. The
experience of the UTAS trial suggests that unit coordinators are generally willing to
accommodate new materials and practical exercises they perceive would enhance existing
coursework. Therefore, there has to be a degree of flexibility in the negotiations that
determine which components and practical exercises are incorporated. For example,
vulnerability indicators were selected for the vulnerability assessment exercise in the
integrated coastal planning module (see Table 2), in part because the unit coordinator was
keen for students to gain experience in the use and development of planning and
assessment indicators.
Another issue is that incorporating climate change modules into an existing programme can
also have an effect on problem-based learning founded on small group work because of
impacts on the co-evolution and dynamics of groups. Although it was not possible to
definitively confirm these claims during the trial, informal observation suggests that group-
based work is more successful where group members’ collaborations have some continuity.
Group coherence and properly functioning group dynamics take time to develop.
Option 2: Development of a standalone unit
From the perspective of group dynamics, a standalone unit may be preferable in order to
achieve the benefits that ongoing collaboration and co-evolution bring to group dynamics and
adaptive learning – that is, the need for the group to behave as a complex adaptive system
(Mennin, 2007). For this the members have to develop an appreciation of their
interdependence and have a high level of interaction and trust. These qualities provide the
J. Davidson & A. Lyth: Education for Climate Change Adaptation – Enhancing the Contemporary
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Journal for Education in the Built Environment, Vol. 7, Issue 2, December 2012
Copyright © 2012 CEBE
basis for the discussion, exchange of ideas, dialogue, debate and sharing of information that
lead to new collective and individual understandings, new insights, creativity, and possibilities
for change (or self-organisation, in resilience language). According to complexity theory, a
group that is creative is said to be working at the edge of chaos or in the zone of complexity
(Stacey, 2002), the zone where learning occurs (Mennin, 2007).
A standalone unit may also be preferable from the perspective of doing the materials justice
and ensuring that students are able to make the most of the curriculum. To achieve the same
outcomes using the integrated approach would require innovative and flexible coursework
structures.
In sum, while the benefits of mainstreaming may be theoretically attractive and logistically
possible, on balance, for broader aspirations to be satisfied, a standalone unit may be
preferable. However, to avoid the unit being interpreted as an elective, it must either be
mandatory or at the very least cross-referenced with other units in a programme.
Pedagogies for climate change education
Pedagogy (the correct use of instructive strategies) was taken seriously in the design and
development of the course unit in recognition that teaching for and about climate change
adaptation is not just about imparting knowledge about theory and best practice but is also
about the development of practical competencies, as well as the encouragement of essential
learning attitudes and capabilities, such as adaptive learning and networked learning. The
capacity for such learning attitudes is particularly relevant to climate change adaptation
where there is changing and uncertain information, and complex problems to manage.
The following summarises a sample of pedagogies that were seen to be particularly relevant
to education for climate change adaptation and demonstrates how they were applied.
Problem-based learning
Problem-based learning was the pedagogical foundation for the UTAS climate change
adaptation coursework materials and in turn facilitated the application of other important
pedagogical strategies, especially networked learning and adaptive learning. PBL is a
learner-centred approach to instruction that uses problem-solving as the starting point for
learning and for development of problem-solving and team skills (Bligh, 1995). Learning
occurs in small groups with teachers as facilitators and new information is acquired by self-
directed learning (Barrows, 1984, 1996). Thus, PBL ‘empowers learners to conduct research,
integrate theory and practice, and apply knowledge and skills to develop a viable solution’ to
real-world problems (Savery, 2006, p.9). In this paper we focus on PBL as involving student-
centred, team-focused learning activities that are concentrated around specific problems
associated with planning for climate change.
Relevance to education for climate change adaptation
As Savin-Baden (2000) points out, the objectives of PBL can be varied as defined in the
following five different models: (i) attainment of knowledge; (ii) PBL for professional work; (iii)
PBL for interdisciplinary comprehension; (iv) PBL for cross-discipline learning; and (v) PBL
for critical competence. In the case of education for climate change planning, we argue that
J. Davidson & A. Lyth: Education for Climate Change Adaptation – Enhancing the Contemporary
Relevance of Planning Education for a Range of Wicked Problems
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Journal for Education in the Built Environment, Vol. 7, Issue 2, December 2012
Copyright © 2012 CEBE
all these models and learning intentions are relevant and important. Because of its focus on
group-based problem-solving, PBL provides an appropriate format for learning and skills
development relevant to complex problems. In addition, the goals of PBL of helping students
to develop flexible knowledge, effective problem-solving skills, self-directed learning skills,
effective collaboration skills, and intrinsic motivation, make it extremely attractive.
More specifically, as climate change is at the intersection of a range of physical and social
sciences, there is a requirement for a learning environment that is compatible with
interdisciplinary investigation. Secondly, PBL requires students to apply critical reflective
thinking abilities thereby helping to prepare them to deal with high levels of uncertainty and
complexity.
Thirdly, PBL encourages students to become active participants in their own learning which
is an important quality in the climate change area where no student can be expected to learn
all they need to know in the class-room and where knowledge about climate change science
and problems is still evolving. This active learning approach has been shown to increase
student interest and motivation and to build students’ critical thinking, problem solving and
social skills (Hanson and Moser, 2003).
Lastly, PBL relies on a culture of collaboration and cooperation, which is particularly suitable
for students entering the climate change field where the breadth and complexity of the
subject matter necessitates contributions from a wide variety of perspectives and disciplines.
Reliance on collaboration constitutes recognition that no one person or organisation has the
resources to address the complexities of wicked problems.
How we facilitated problem-based learning
In PBL, the problem is the starting-point of the learning process. Usually problems are based
on real-life problems or scenarios selected to meet educational objectives and criteria,
although they can also be hypothetical problems (especially important where there are few
examples of good practice, or where problems are only emerging or in early evolution). As
explained by de Graaf and Kolmos (2003), it is crucial that the problem is the basis for the
learning process, because this determines the direction of the learning process and places
emphasis on the formulation of a question rather than on the answer. This also allows the
learning content to be related to the context, which promotes student motivation and
comprehension.
All group-based work was underpinned by the principles of PBL. Group-based activities and
assessment tasks were designed to allow students opportunities to ‘try’, ‘rehearse’ and
‘develop’ a range of educational skills and capacities relevant to climate change adaptation
planning and management. Integrated into the approach was the opportunity for students to
practice real planning techniques (such as a charrette process, risk assessment, vulnerability
assessment, and scenario development), as well as considering a variety of stakeholder
positions including via the application of role play. Some of the PBL learning activities and
assessment tasks are summarised in Table 3.
J. Davidson & A. Lyth: Education for Climate Change Adaptation – Enhancing the Contemporary Relevance of Planning Education for a Range of Wicked
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Journal for Education in the Built Environment, Vol. 7, Issue 2, December 2012
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Table 3 Problem-based learning activities and assessment tasks
Problem Activity and Assessment task Skills/capacities development
1. A Tasmanian municipality with perceived vulnerabilities to
sea-level rise and associated climate change impacts.
How to assess current vulnerability and track future
vulnerability to sea level rise and coastal storm events?
Vulnerability assessment:
Group A: Undertake a vulnerability assessment by developing a
set of current vulnerability indicators.
Group B: Prepare a set of future vulnerability indicators using a
range of data – risk assessments, and social, demographic and
economic studies.
• Reinforced the relevance of interdisciplinary investigation,
collaborative and cooperative learning, and self-evaluation.
• Gave students practice at indicator development and elements
of vulnerability assessment.
2. A hypothetical proposal for a tourist and holiday
development on a rural property located near the
entrance to an estuary to demonstrate the complexities of
integrated coastal planning. There was a range of social,
economic, environmental and climate change issues to
be considered (sea-level rise, storm surge, protection of
endangered species, international agreements for the
protection of migratory birds, low rainfall and unreliable
water supply, the importance of an aquaculture industry
to the local economy, potential water quality impacts).
Role play:
The exercise required students to take on various roles in making
submissions to a state planning authority and then to take up
roles in either of two policy advisory committees. They were
tasked to:
(i) Consider the lessons for Integrated Coastal Planning
emerging from stakeholder representations and associated
discussions.
(ii) Formulate recommendations on integrating climate change
into coastal planning.
Students:
• Considered and integrated a range of relevant planning and
environmental management legislation.
• Adopted an interdisciplinary approach and explored
complexities of integrated planning.
• Undertook critical evaluation of submissions.
• Collaborated via group-based work and undertook networked
learning.
• Role play enhanced students’ skills in argument, advocacy,
communication, and negotiation.
3. Developing skills to deal with the high level of uncertainty
associated with climate change and assist foresighting. Scenario development:
Group A: Generate scenarios relating to climate change impacts
on the Australian Snowy Mountains alpine ecosystems.
Group B: Develop scenarios relating to climate change impacts
on Great Barrier Reef coral reef ecosystems.
Both groups were asked to discuss and prepare a set of leading
indicators to monitor the unfolding of scenarios and suggest
appropriate planning or management responses.
• Exposed importance of strategic planning.
• Practiced scenario development which enables planners to
envision a range of plausible futures and together with
indicators to monitor the unfolding of scenarios.
• Provided exposure to monitoring methods which are essential
to support adaptive learning and adaptive planning.
4. Securing water supplies for a drought-prone city in
southern Australia with the aim of making the city resilient
to climate change and climate variability.
Charrette:
Groups undertook a charrette exercise to develop competing
consultant tenders for the coordination, implementation, and
evaluation of an integrated adaptive water management strategy
for the city. Consultants were required to present their concept
plan to a panel of expert judges.
• Experience in collaborative and interdisciplinary approaches.
• Recognised diversity in student expertise, skills and knowledge.
• Linked theory to practice - application of integrated and
adaptive management approaches to a real-life problem.
• Critical analysis and self evaluation of individual contributions
and the groups’ approaches supported adaptive learning.
• Topic complexity and organisational demands of the exercise
obliged groups to network and work collaboratively.
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Adaptive learning and self-reflection
The PBL approach also helped to develop qualities which are important for the development
of adaptive learning capabilities. Adaptive learning is defined variously as learning to cope
with and modify stressful situations (Rohrkemper and Corno, 1988); any improvement or
development of paradigms, world-views, or mental models (Chiva et al., 2010); or learning
that builds adaptive capacity for increasing the resilience of social-ecological systems
(Davidson-Hunt and Berkes, 2003). Adaptive learning is essential for complex adaptive
systems to adapt to changes in the environment without endangering their essential structure
and function (Chiva et al., 2010; Krasny and Tidball, 2009).
Under conditions of rapid and enduring change in complex adaptive systems, planners must
engage the principle critical self-reflection to be able to examine emergent situations and to
reflect upon and interpret the data gathered about them. Critical thinking combined with self-
reflection therefore becomes essential to successful adaptation (Emison, 2010). Critical self-
reflection has also been identified as a component of triple loop learning that occurs when
collectives reassess norms, institutions and paradigms as a prelude to undertaking
governance change (Folke et al., 2009).
Relevance of adaptive learning to education for climate change adaptation
Adaptive learning is needed for planned adaptation because it involves processes of
experimentation, self-reflection and self-evaluation that lead to improvements on previous
actions. Therefore it was felt that practice in these skills, which are useful throughout a
professional lifetime, was important in this coursework.
There is also a need to recognise that while many problems may be similar in a broad
context, diversity between places (whether by differences in governance or planning
frameworks, stakeholder positions and values, financial resources, or the availability of
informative data) requires a capability to adapt previous knowledge, experiences and
approaches accordingly. Consequently, planning for climate change requires adaptive
flexibility and an appreciation of the evolutionary nature of the places that are being planned
and managed. In turn, this necessitates a continuous process of adaptive learning informing
planning competencies, such as: ways of understanding problems; collecting, interpreting
and conveying information; and developing, trying and evaluating response options.
As Rammel (2003) explains, adaptive, process-based learning is supportive of flexible policy
responses that will be required in an environment of dynamically evolving situations, and to
deal with the inevitable surprises of the interactions of complex social-ecological systems.
How we facilitated adaptive learning
The course unit incorporated the opportunity for students to develop adaptive learning
attitudes through the establishment of case studies and practical problem-based learning
activities which framed climate change adaptation problems in the above context. More
traditional instruction on the theoretical concepts around adaptation, adaptation planning and
adaptive environmental management also served to underpin both the understanding of
adaptive principles and the critical assessment of their application.
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Probably the most hands-on facilitation of adaptive learning, however, occurred through the
WIKI assessment project, which centred on a case study of planning and managing for
increased fire risk in peri-urban bushland areas (Stack and Davidson, 2011). This case study
was offered in the second iteration of the coursework as a standalone unit. The WIKI project
was initially spread over three weeks (but subsequently extended to six weeks to allow for
adequate reflective thinking and networking) and involved creation of a multi-media
interactive online learning environment, the key elements of which included:
• a challenge for student groups to develop a framework for a planning or management
strategy, that would help to build social-ecological resilience to bushfire in peri-urban
bushland localities;
• the case study which involved a comprehensive ‘environmental scoping’ of a suburb
of Hobart (Tasmania) that had a history of bushfire risk, with interviews of
stakeholders as well as documentation;
• resources based on eight key perspectives relevant to bushfire management,
students being required to become ‘expert’ in two of these perspectives;
• a structured approach for teams to investigate the case study including individual
team online workspaces;
• a navigation guide which included an introduction to the WIKI, how to navigate it, and
indications of the types of thinking and group processes required; and
• opportunities to discuss and ask questions with two industry stakeholders in a forum.
One key objective of the task was to have students challenge the assumptions underpinning
existing approaches to bushfire management and planning and to contemplate different ways
of thinking and operating that might be suggested by applying adaptive management and
resilience lenses to strategy development.
To scaffold students through the task, it was broken into four sequential sections. In section 1,
student teams were asked to analyse critically existing planning and management strategies
from their chosen expert perspectives and to identify the key issues emerging from their
analysis. In section 2, building on this knowledge, they identified potential criteria for their
strategy, these being criteria that others could use to assess strategic plans in other peri-
urban communities. In section 3, they conducted a gap analysis to determine the gaps in
existing strategies. Based on the accumulated learning from the first three sections, in
section 4, groups were asked to scope out a detailed framework for a planning or
management strategy, including justification of its components and their likely content.
Each group had its own working page with suggestions as to how to manage the task and
how to structure each section. The group pages were designed so that students could add
or edit content and engage in discussion. They could also add further content from their own
research to help build the resource pages. Students had a number of opportunities to reflect
on their learning and adapt to new understandings: (i) at strategic points, the task designers
asked questions about students’ experiences of specific tasks; (ii) students were invited to
reflect on why they thought their selected criteria were important; and (iii) they were asked to
comment on the relevance of their strategy components to adaptive management and
resilience. Students were also given the opportunity to evaluate the task on its completion.
J. Davidson & A. Lyth: Education for Climate Change Adaptation – Enhancing the Contemporary
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Networked learning
Networked learning offers a meaningful response to the most complex challenges of our
time. Human interaction, whether synchronously or asynchronously, is central to networked
learning while there is a strong consensus about the value to learning of cooperation,
collaboration, dialogue and community (Goodyear et al., 2004). The University of Lancaster’s
Centre for Studies in Advanced Learning Technology (2001) points to the enhanced
possibilities for networked learning through the application of communication and information
technology (C&IT) which can serve to promote connections among learners; between
learners and tutors; and between a learning community and its learning resources.
Relevance of networked learning to education for climate change adaptation
Networks are self-organising structures, which operate on the border of chaos and order (in
Stacey’s (2002) zone of complexity referred to earlier) and the zone where learning occurs.
They also provide an interdisciplinary framework for understanding a wide variety of
phenomena (Jones, 2004). Networked learning is therefore an essential skill for planners
dealing with complex challenges.
Networked learning presents a promising technology for supporting participative and
collaborative approaches to learning (Hodgson and Reynolds, 2005) and it is important in
developing learner autonomy and the skills for life-long learning (Zenios et al., 2004). The
dialogue component of networked learning is useful in helping practitioners to recognise,
critique and move beyond their taken-for-granted assumptions about the world, and about
their professional practice and learning (Goodyear et al., 2004). These aspects of networked
learning are all relevant in coping with messy and complex problems such as planning for
low carbon settlements where consideration needs to be given to energy supplies, transport
modes, building design and placement, local food production or greening the urban
environment.
Students need practice at networked learning so that they can develop and maintain
connections with people and information and so support one another's learning. This ability is
critical in the context of rapid change and uncertainty about the future and where
understanding about specific problems around climate change is emergent. In addition,
planners will need mutual support to take risks associated with adaptive learning and
management. Supportive and informative networks of people and information (communities
of practice) will become increasingly important for this purpose.
How we facilitated networked learning
The UTAS course unit applies opportunities for networked learning via C&IT in addition to
more traditional face-to-face opportunities to engage in workshop activities and team based
assignments. The course unit was able to assist development of networked learning through
the application of on-line learning tools where information resources were posted and links to
other information, networks and practical case studies were provided. Opportunities to work
together in teams to develop networked learning skills were also offered through use of the
WIKI tool mentioned in the previous section. The WIKI facilitated networked learning by
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providing an online platform for interactions among team members and between lecturers
and students.
Linkage of theory and practice
Among the objectives of the UTAS course was the aim to provide students with opportunities
to apply their new conceptual understandings to planning practice through the skills
development elements of the course. It was also intended that practice at these skills would
develop in students a greater understanding of the key concepts and theoretical approaches
underpinning the course.
Relevance of linking theory to practice in education for climate change adaptation
Linking theory to practice in professional development coursework has been shown to be
advantageous for students (Smith et al., 2007). However, in the context of equipping
planners to cope with wicked problems, it becomes an essential educational element.
Because climate change is beset by complexity, many uncertainties about outcomes, and
many of its more consequential impacts are predicted to be felt in the longer-term, planning
practitioners need to be able to apply new conceptual perspectives to planning tasks as they
evolve. They therefore need to have the skills to learn about new knowledge and information
in an ongoing fashion. In addressing complex problems, planners will need to practice their
craft as practitioner-researchers. Planning practice will be informed by applying high level (as
well as everyday) thinking to the novel challenges confronting them, supported by a level of
reflection and critique to promote learning.
How we facilitated linkage of theory to practice
The coursework is underpinned by a combination of experiential and enquiry-based learning
with the links between conceptual content (complex adaptive systems, resilience thinking,
and adaptation theory) and planning practice being made in several ways and facilitated by
problem-based learning approaches:
1. Generally, where prior to each of the practical exercises, students are introduced to
their practical and theoretical origins and their importance as components of
developing adaptation strategies;
2. For specific skills, where, for example, the need for long-term planning is captured in
the opportunity to prepare a planning strategy in the bushfire case study exercise
mentioned above, in practice at visioning techniques (i.e. scenario development
through a backcasting technique) and insights from resilience theory and the adaptive
management concept are secured through practice at monitoring methods (i.e.
indicators to monitor current and future coastal risks) and through the use of
collaborative, group-based techniques; and
3. To build the self-reflection capacities that will enable them to apply novel concepts to
planning practice, students are asked to consciously make the links between theory
and practice as in the previously mentioned case study of bushfire planning and
management, where they are invited to explain how they are applying the theory of
adaptive management and resilience in developing a strategic planning or
management framework.
J. Davidson & A. Lyth: Education for Climate Change Adaptation – Enhancing the Contemporary
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Lessons for Planning Education
As planners have to deal with an array of challenges at any given time, the emergence of a
new challenge, such as climate change adaptation, on the planning agenda and the adaptive
learning that planners are required to undertake to build their capacity to respond, is not a
particularly new phenomenon for the planning community (Lyth, 2006). Although, because of
the uncertainties associated with climate change impacts at the regional and local scale and
the likely multifaceted implications for places and society (some of these insidious and
hidden), the climate adaptation challenge is especially difficult and may be particularly
daunting for these reasons. This does not mean that it is particularly difficult to build the
capacity of planners to face climate change adaptation problems in a commendable way. As
has been demonstrated in this paper many of the practice skills, planning tools and learning
competencies tried and developed through the UTAS course unit are just as relevant to other
difficult if not ‘wicked’ challenges facing regions, cities and communities in the immediate to
medium term (presented conceptually in Figure 1).
In fact most of the approaches and tools have been developed through other planning
problems or tried in other disciplines. In this regard, we found that the development of the
course unit and students’ evaluative feedback on the group-based practical skills component
reinforced the value of various planning approaches, tools and skills and as a consequence
reinforced the importance of planning, particularly strategic and integrated planning. For
example, the development of skills in undertaking vulnerability assessment is useful in a
range of contexts including planning for an escalation in transport fuel costs (whether due to
peak oil or other forces), while systems thinking is an important approach to understanding a
range of problems that have interrelated components and facilitates necessary analytical and
critical thought by planners. Similarly, development of understanding about sustainable urban
and landscape design is relevant not only to planning for a future under climate change, but
also to facilitating low carbon societies, communities less dependent on car use, and
planning for the needs of an increasingly aged population. The importance of effective
planning communication will become increasingly relevant in facilitating understanding about
the need to adapt or transition to new ways of doing, living or decision making; while
integrated impact assessment and integrated strategic planning that appropriately guides
operational planning, statutory planning and decision making processes will remain essential
for responding successfully and comprehensively to the many integrated and interwoven
planning problems we currently face.
In addition to this, reinforcement of the value of various planning approaches, tools and skills
is the value of education for climate change adaptation itself in building stronger capacity
within the planning community generally to do ‘good’ planning and strengthen fundamental
competencies in graduate planners. By incorporating education for climate change
adaptation into the core of planning programmes, planning students are likely to be engaged
in some of the most difficult contemporary planning problems. Moreover, if the pedagogy
facilitates their hands-on involvement in problem solving and develops their capacity in, and
appreciation of, adaptive and networked learning in addition to more traditional planning
J. Davidson & A. Lyth: Education for Climate Change Adaptation – Enhancing the Contemporary
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education, such as building theoretical foundations and linking these to practice, then
planning education should serve future planners well.
The UTAS experiences described in embedding education for and about climate change
adaptation into the planning course have assisted reflection on, and careful thinking about,
relevant pedagogies, their application and wider relevance to a range of other complex
contemporary and emerging planning issues. The standalone climate change adaptation
planning unit is approaching its time for review and update in order to maintain its relevance.
Evaluation of the usefulness and effectiveness of the unit in terms of developing specialised
and generic planning capabilities for responding to complex problems is intended.
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank: the funders of this project, the Australian Greenhouse Office (now
the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency) Climate Change Adaptation Skills
for Professionals Programme; members of the project’s Expert Reference Group, Michael
Lockwood, Aidan Davison, Anna Lyth, Kristin Warr, Rosemary Sandford, Gerry Kregor,
Elaine Stratford and Neil Holbrook; and the two anonymous reviewers who provided valuable
suggestions for improvements of this paper.
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