Learning Expedition
The workshop format ‘Learning Expedition’ promotes the transfer of results from sustainability research into practice. It particularly addresses decision-makers and experts in municipalities and municipal companies. This kind of knowledge transfer is closely linked to successful learning processes. In other words, learning through experience or newly gained insights is a process that leads to changes in behaviour based on a change of mental and emotional patterns. . The concept of ‘Learning Expedition’ aims to facilitate this learning process by using various media and offers for dialogue. The format therefore relies on an interplay of different content, changing environments, and interactions within the group. Sensory experiences are explicitly included in the ‘Learning Expedition’. An integral part of this format are also to the participants unknown, unusual or uncomfortable event sections. These sections ensure the "expeditionary character" of the format and support the learning success. Because of its modular structure, the format can be transferred to different subject areas and specific locations.
Each ‘Learning Expedition’ consists of three phases, each of which is preceded by a preliminary question round and followed by a feedback session:
A practical example
During the three-year research project MULTI-ReUse funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) the transfer format ‘Learning Expedition’ was used and tested for the first time. The starting point of the research project was the idea that innovative technologies for the reuse of treated wastewater can only develop their potential and establish themselves on the market if they are accepted by the users, tested in practice, and subsequently adapted to the needs of the users. They should furthermore be ecologically, politically and financially sustainable. The ‘Learning Expeditions’ that were carried out in the research project took place in a museum (Kaskade). The target groups included mayors from the catchment area of the project partner OOWV as well as countrywomen from the region. The aim was to inform these target groups about essential results of the research project and make them aware of the necessity of alternative concepts of (waste) water use while making the idea of alternatives acceptable for them and enabling them to communicate their insights.