The challenges of transformational learning at a distance: a year in the life of an Open University learning unit on the environment

The teaching of systems at the Open University has extensive experience of enabling transformative learning and provides a long history of challenging the predominantly reductionist and mechanistic teaching provision. The Open University has been providing courses in systems thinking and practice since its inception and the course Understanding Systems: making sense of complexity (T214) is the latest offering for level 2 students. This course was presented for the first time in 2008 and is taught from February to October (eight months of part-time study at a distance). This case study focuses on the second study unit (Block 2) of T214 – titled Understanding the Environment: natural systems – which involves eight weeks of study and the submission of two tutor marked assignments (TMAs). The primary aim of this unit is to encourage the shift away from reductionist anthropocentrism towards a holistic and eco-centric worldview. The transformational learning that is sought is primarily about expanding students’ values and consciousness beyond role specialisation, short-termism, the confines of socio-economic systems and the perception of a limitless capacity for economic growth