Eunice S. Q. Ng and LIM Cheng Puay
Ridge View Residential College (RVRC)
Eunice and Cheng Puay take us through the co-academic activities in RVRC’s programmes which nurture and strengthen students’ affective responses towards sustainability-related issues.
Ng, E. S. Q., & Lim, C. P. (2025, January 10). Beyond a cognitive exercise: Nurturing learners’ affective responses in interdisciplinary sustainability education. CTLT Teaching Connections. https://blog.nus.edu.sg/teachingconnections/2025/01/10/2025-ng-lim/
Sustainability challenges are multi-faceted, complex, and entail value conflicts between different stakeholders in society (Dentoni et al., 2018). In preparing learners for such real-world challenges, educational institutions have espoused the need for interdisciplinary understanding to enable effective problem-solving for sustainability (Annan-Diab & Molinari, 2017). Yet, interdisciplinary understanding—defined as “the capacity to integrate knowledge and modes of thinking in two or more disciplines or established areas of expertise to produce a cognitive advancement” (Mansilla & Duraising, 2007, p. 219)—is focused on the learners’ cognitive understanding of sustainability issues and challenges (e.g. Di Giulio & Defila, 2017; Kim & Coonan, 2023). This overlooks learners’ affective reactivity towards sustainability, especially when disciplinary differences may result in conflicting values and interests (Cebrián & Junyent, 2015; Feng, 2012). Hence, it is vital to consider learners’ affective responses towards sustainability, such that learners are equipped with the knowledge and skills for interdisciplinary work, as well as with the relevant attitudes that facilitate an interdisciplinary understanding of sustainability (Brosch & Steg, 2021).
Learning communities, such as Ridge View Residential College (RVRC), provide the prime environment for developing learners’ interdisciplinary understanding of sustainability while fostering positive affective responses towards sustainability. Within RVRC’s living-learning programme, learners from varied disciplinary backgrounds explore sustainability ideas and topics across formal and informal learning settings (Barth et al., 2007). Transcending these disciplinary differences to cultivate learners’ fundamental connectedness to nature—defined as “individuals’ sense of oneness with, and belonging to, their natural environment” (Coughlan et al., 2022, p. 1)—is vital to holistically developing their sustainability-oriented attitudes and establishing shared values within the learning community (Maller, 2018; Nisbet & Zelenski, 2013).
To nurture learners’ connectedness to nature, RVRC organised “RV Kayak and Clean” (RVKC), which provides marine trash clean-up experiences in a kayaking format. Since 2018, RVKC has seen 539 participants collect 432 kilograms of trash around Singapore’s waterways and shores. Offered beyond the formal academic curriculum, RVKC enables students to have a common yet personal experience of being in direct contact with nature. Specifically, RVKC aims to achieve three learning outcomes:
- Learn about the biodiversity and ecosystem services in Singapore’s mangroves
- Appreciate the extent of marine pollution in Singapore, and3
- . Relate the importance of sustainable living to individuals’ lifestyles.
First, students develop a deeper appreciation of Singapore’s biodiversity by kayaking through mangroves with explanations of wildlife sightings (Figure 1). Experienced kayak guides, allowed students to discover flora and fauna native to mangrove biomes and facilitated student learning by explaining the importance of mangrove ecosystems. For example, students saw a Great Blue Heron and its nestling, a Strangler Fig Tree, and mud lobsters on a trip, leading a student to reflect on “how important it is for us to preserve and protect nature for wildlife for future generations to be able to still kayak this route”.
Second, RVKC provides students with first-hand experience in witnessing the extent of marine trash pollution, especially in hard-to-access areas around Singapore’s waterways and nearby islands. With students’ direct involvement in collecting marine debris, they obtain a visual representation of the impact of marine pollution. A trip in January 2023 saw 77kg of marine trash collected by 20 participants within half an hour (Figure 2). Trash collected would be weighed and reported to the Ocean Conservancy, which is a source of encouragement for students, as it is a tangible indicator that their clean-up has made a difference and reminds them that marine pollution is a far-reaching and ongoing problem (Figure 3).
RVKC also aims to facilitate personal appreciation and connection to the need for sustainable living. For example, students witnessed the rural, disconnected lifestyles of the remaining residents on Pulau Ubin on one of the kayak trails (Figure 4). This facilitated site observation led students to rethink their assumptions: both that their current urban way of life and consumption levels are ideal, and how they can apply sustainable practices to their lives even without modern amenities.
RVKC allowed students to experience nature while being confronted with difficult issues of addressing the presence of marine trash and personal lifestyle changes to be made for sustainability. Being in direct contact with nature has been effective in activating students’ affective response towards Singapore’s biodiversity and sustainability, transcending disciplinary backgrounds to foster their human-nature relationship instead. This is evidenced by the following quotes extracted from the from different disciplines, which students were required to complete within one week after the event as part of participating in the programme:
- A Year 2 Business Analytics student from the School of Computing (SOC) reflected on how “learning about microplastics and their impact on sea life highlighted the interconnectedness of our actions and the world around us… It was a great opportunity to disconnect from the hustle and bustle of daily life and connect with nature.”
- Another Year 1 Economics student from the Faculty of Arts and Social Science (FASS) echoed a similar ecosystem perspective as he reflected upon how “mangroves protect our already limited land from erosion to the sea, on top of being an ecosystem that supports so much life both on land and in the sea” and that the trip “allowed (him) to connect with a place of nature that could not be reached by land.”
- A Year 2 Life Science student from the Faculty of Science (FOS) shared a more existential concern that “it was jarring to see such sprawling natural beauty, especially in a country we are all accustomed to call a land-scarce and an urban jungle. This reminded (him) of the existential threat to such natural spaces in the face of constant expansion … due to the proposed redevelopment of the countryside.”
It is notable that RVKC is one of the many co-academic activities offered by RVRC to nurture students’ connectedness to nature, such as RV Intertidal Walk and Clean, and the RVRC Learning Forest tree planting and maintenance initiative. While these activities require additional time commitments from us educators as staff leads, we have observed that students develop a deeper appreciation of nature through their participation in multiple co-academic activities during their residency period. Some students have even developed a greater sense of agency towards environmental stewardship, transitioning from participants to student leaders in these activities. Providing these learning opportunities have addressed a gap in our academic curriculum by enabling students to venture beyond their comfort zones and experience positive affective responses during their time in nature.
Altogether, these informal learning activities strengthen students’ personal identification to the natural world around them and foster a collective awareness of the importance of sustainability within RVRC. This enables dialogues around sustainability to unfold within and outside the classroom from a common value of concern for nature as an important consideration for interdisciplinary work, rather than a sole focus on a cognitive understanding of disciplinary contributions. As such, this echoes similar sentiments by Di Giulio and Defila (2017) and Feng (2012) for educational institutions to consider learners’ affective reactivity towards interdisciplinary understanding of sustainability, alongside a cognitive integration of disciplinary knowledge on sustainability. In doing so, learners will be holistically prepared with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes for interdisciplinary work on sustainability.
References
Annan-Diab, F., & Molinari, C. (2017). Interdisciplinarity: Practical approach to advancing education for sustainability and for the Sustainable Development Goals. The International Journal of Management Education, 15(2), 73-83. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijme.2017.03.006
Barth, M., Godemann, J., Rieckmann, M., & Stoltenberg, U. (2007). Developing key competencies for sustainable development in higher education. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 8(4), 416-430.
Brosch, T., & Steg, L. (2021). Leveraging emotion for sustainable action. One Earth, 4(12), 1693-1703.
Cebrián, G., & Junyent, M. (2015). Competencies in Education for Sustainable Development: Exploring the Student Teachers’ Views. Sustainability, 7(3), 2768-2786. https://doi.org/10.3390/su7032768
Coughlan, A., Ross, E., Nikles, D., De Cesare, E., Tran, C., & Pensini, P. (2022). Nature guided imagery: An intervention to increase connectedness to nature. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 80, 101759.
Dentoni, D., Bitzer, V., & Schouten, G. (2018). Harnessing Wicked Problems in Multi-stakeholder Partnerships. Journal of Business Ethics, 150(2), 333-356. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-018-3858-6
Di Giulio, A., & Defila, R. (2017). Enabling university educators to equip students with inter- and transdisciplinary competencies. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 18(5), 630-647. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijshe-02-2016-0030
Feng, L. (2012). Teacher and student responses to interdisciplinary aspects of sustainability education: What do we really know? Environmental Education Research, 18(1), 31-43.
Kim, E., & Coonan, T. (2023). Advancing Sustainability Education through a Cross-Disciplinary Online Course: Sustainability and Human Rights in the Business World. Sustainability, 15(6), 4759. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15064759
Maller, C. (2018). Embracing the chaos: by transcending disciplinary boundaries researchers can reconceptualise human-nature relations. Impact of Social Sciences Blog.
Mansilla, V. B., & Duraising, E. D. (2007). Targeted assessment of students’ interdisciplinary work: An empirically grounded framework proposed. The Journal of Higher Education, 78(2), 215-237.
Nisbet, E. K., & Zelenski, J. M. (2013). The NR-6: a new brief measure of nature relatedness. Frontiers in psychology, 4. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00813
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Eunice NG joined RVRC as a Fellow in September 2021 and enjoys teaching and researching topics that lie at the intersection of business, society, and the natural environment. Her research projects encompass not only companies in the United States, but also in the contexts of Mongolia and Singapore. Eunice can be reached at e.ng@nus.edu.sg. |
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LIM Cheng Puay is a biologist by training. As a veteran educator, he has worked with different educational institutions including serving as the Head of Global Readiness at the Centre for Experiential Learning (Singapore University of Social Sciences). Cheng Puay is highly passionate in experiential and outdoor learning; he is happiest when he is out trekking in the forest or kayaking in the sea. A volunteer with the NUS Toddycats for over 20 years, he regularly engages the public as a nature guide, and helps coordinate coastal clean-ups with the International Coastal Clean-up Singapore (ICCS). Cheng Puay can be reached at chengpuay@nus.edu.sg. |
