Abstract
Professionals in the energy sector are required to understand the interactions among technology, society, and the environment to tackle complex trade-offs among policy issues. The fostering of such professionals with interdisciplinary perspectives has been recognized as a significant target for engineering education in universities. Several studies have shown that game-based learning is suitable for teaching interdisciplinary aspects of sustainability-related issues; however, only a few studies have quantitatively evaluated the percentage of participants that learn something relevant to the predetermined learning targets. This study quantitatively evaluates the effectiveness of a game-based class designed to teach energy policy issues in an engineering course. This game-based class aims to develop a perspective for overcoming the complex trade-offs among policy issues and for developing the abilities and attitudes necessary to build society-wide consensus. Content analysis was adopted as a research method; the contents of free-form reflection reports submitted by 128 students were categorized into 6 topics through careful reading and in-depth discussions, and the proportion of students who mentioned topics relevant to the learning targets was calculated. The results show that 83% of the students learned something relevant to the learning targets, and 37% of them made proposals to overcome the trade-offs among policy issues and conflicts among stakeholders. Further, some students actively deepened their understanding through voluntary surveys, presentations of other students, and by comparing the game and reality. These results suggest that game-based learning is an effective method for interdisciplinary education regarding energy policy issues.
Highlights
Energy policy issues in Japan are summarized as “3E + S,” which stands for energy security, economic efficiency, environmental protection, and safety (METI 2018)
Such motivation to study is especially important in interdisciplinary energy systems education because it is impossible to teach all the aspects of energy policy issues in the limited time available
This study evaluated the effectiveness of a game-based class for teaching energy policy issues in engineering courses
Summary
Energy policy issues in Japan are summarized as “3E + S,” which stands for energy security, economic efficiency, environmental protection, and safety (METI 2018). Handled by Masa Sugiyama, University of Tokyo, Japan As another example, the Japanese government has set a target of reducing national greenhouse gas emissions by 26% by 2030, compared to the emission levels in 2013. The Japanese government has set a target of reducing national greenhouse gas emissions by 26% by 2030, compared to the emission levels in 2013 Japanese industries regard this target as extremely ambitious, whereas others suggest that the target is insufficient with regard to limiting global warming in 2100 to 2 °C above pre-industrial levels (Keidanren 2017; Kuramochi et al 2017; Kuriyama et al 2019). Such differences in priorities often prevent consensus on the long-term targets of energy policies To understand these trade-offs among policy issues and conflicts among stakeholders, professionals in the energy sector require an interdisciplinary perspective focusing on the interactions among technology, society, and the environment. The comparative analyses of these paths are utilized to induce policy implications for transforming energy systems to avoid catastrophic climate changes (Shiraki et al 2020; Sugiyama et al 2020)
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