10:30 AM - 12:00 PM
[O3-10-01] Interdisciplinary Strategies in General Education for Disaster Risk Reduction:
The Six-Year Experience by DRMAPS at the University of the Philippines
Keywords:General education, Interdisciplinary, Strategies
In panel discussion, professors from different colleges of the University of the Philippines Diliman share their experience co-pioneering the course DRMAPS (formerly DMAPS) or Disaster Risk Mitigation, Adaptation, and Preparedness Strategies, for general education of undergraduates. In open forum, ideas are solicited how DRR education may be improved.
The professors come from departments of art studies, civil engineering, educational technology, psychology, and visual communication. Students of the class also come from different disciplines.
Over six years, the course has been offered in ten semesters and taken by more than 1,000 students; with recent curricular revisions in the university, more students are expected.
Among the themes of this session are:
(a) Disaster risk reduction, rather than disaster management, is the preferred focus of general education; preemptive strategy is preferred over reactive.
(b) Interdisciplinary is the preferred character of general education, intersecting arts and humanities, social sciences and philosophy, and mathematics, science and technology.
(c) Interdisciplinary or transdisciplinary is the preferred character of disaster risk reduction strategies.
(d) Collaboration is encouraged not only among the teachers but also among the students.
(e) Risk perception and risk communication are as important as risk assessment.
(f) Understanding risk is facilitated by distinguishing such risk factors as hazard, exposure, and vulnerability; considered are multiple hazards, various exposed elements including human, and the unique vulnerabilities of each element as exposed to each particular hazard.
(g) In framing questions about risk and risk factors, equally useful are such frameworks as ecocritical, psychosocial, and sociopolitical.
(h) ICT in education must capture the imagination of today’s students, to hasten the assimilation of disaster risk reduction ideas into the households and communities.
The session panelists introduce some outcomes of their researches and creative works, while they preview the conduct of DRMAPS class and share practical lessons in teaching the class.
The professors come from departments of art studies, civil engineering, educational technology, psychology, and visual communication. Students of the class also come from different disciplines.
Over six years, the course has been offered in ten semesters and taken by more than 1,000 students; with recent curricular revisions in the university, more students are expected.
Among the themes of this session are:
(a) Disaster risk reduction, rather than disaster management, is the preferred focus of general education; preemptive strategy is preferred over reactive.
(b) Interdisciplinary is the preferred character of general education, intersecting arts and humanities, social sciences and philosophy, and mathematics, science and technology.
(c) Interdisciplinary or transdisciplinary is the preferred character of disaster risk reduction strategies.
(d) Collaboration is encouraged not only among the teachers but also among the students.
(e) Risk perception and risk communication are as important as risk assessment.
(f) Understanding risk is facilitated by distinguishing such risk factors as hazard, exposure, and vulnerability; considered are multiple hazards, various exposed elements including human, and the unique vulnerabilities of each element as exposed to each particular hazard.
(g) In framing questions about risk and risk factors, equally useful are such frameworks as ecocritical, psychosocial, and sociopolitical.
(h) ICT in education must capture the imagination of today’s students, to hasten the assimilation of disaster risk reduction ideas into the households and communities.
The session panelists introduce some outcomes of their researches and creative works, while they preview the conduct of DRMAPS class and share practical lessons in teaching the class.