Abstract
The ASEAN Sustainability Leadership Program conducted in Siem Reap, Cambodia, involved researchers from various disciplines of higher education institutions (HEIs) in the region and the local community. The program provided a platform for experiential and transformative learning and used an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approach to promoting sustainability. Learning for Change (L4C) was adopted as a colearning method to facilitate collaboration, analysis, and the synthesis of learning from past experiences, allowing participants to connect their learning with expectations for further improvement. L4C was also used to promote collaborative learning, knowledge cocreation, and project assessment. The skills learned from the L4C workshop were used by participants during the stakeholder discussions that ensued amid the technical visits in an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary manner. The results were a reflection of the application of the L4C method in the program: participants were able to grasp a deep understanding of the local people’s problems, reflect on their past experiences with efficiency, and identify knowledge cocreation by connecting their local and scientific knowledge. This entails that they engaged in transformative and experiential learning through reflection activities that promoted perspective changes. The participants came up with six main thematic areas that can support sustainable development research, which in turn may improve the teaching, learning, research, and community development for sustainable development in Malaysian HEIs and the studied region.
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Acknowledgment
This study was funded by AKEPT, Leadership Academy, Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia for Program SD103: ASEAN Sustainability Leadership Programme, Siam Reap, Cambodia, in 2015. The program is co-organized with the Centre for Innovative Planning and Development (CIPD), Institute Sultan Iskandar, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) Regional Science Bureau for Asia and the Pacific, Jakarta Office, GAP (Global Action Plan) International, Sweden, and Royal University of Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
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Zen, I.S., Mehlmann, M., Titisari, P.W. (2024). Learning for Change as an Experiential and Transformative Learning Method for Sustainable Development Planning in Siam Reap, Cambodia. In: Fujii, H., Lee, SK. (eds) Science Education for Sustainable Development in Asia. Education Innovation Series. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-8711-5_15
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