The Importance of Experiential Learning in Sustainable Tourism and Development Education and a Creative Drama-Based Course Proposal

Introduction

Until recently, sustainable development was perceived primarily as an environmental and economic issue with regard to integrating environmental concerns into economic decision-making. Since the global economic crises experienced left permanent damage in the social sense, the interest in studies on the social dimensions of development started to increase (Lehtonen, 2004). Education is at the forefront of the problem of increasing social awareness of sustainability. This is because individuals need to have a social perspective on the subject. Awareness raising is important in the context of society's ability to act rationally and responsibly, on the one hand, and its social capability and sustainability-related role as social actor, on the other. A well-structured sustainability education should aim to create a vision of a society that lives in balance with the natural capacity of the earth. Only a well-educated society can integrate and become conscious of all dimensions of sustainable tourism and development.

Another issue is how exactly education should be. Sustainable tourism and development courses are included in the curriculum of different programs in the field of tourism. In the curricula, sustainable tourism and development issues are conveyed with theoretical knowledge. In the relevant literature, no research addresses the problem of how to teach these subjects with a focus on tourism. Considering the content of sustainable tourism and development issues, the need to learn by experience emerges. At this stage, experiential learning methods and techniques are needed to transform learned information into permanent behavior. This is because, encouraging students to think critically regarding sustainable tourism and development ideas and their underlying values, ​​and to produce solutions to achieve concrete goals in various unpredictable situations (Dale & Newman, 2005), may be possible with experiential learning methods.

Studies on education emphasize that experiential learning is an effective method. According to Arcodia and Dickson (2009), experiential learning, which is a hands-on approach, attracts and sustains students' attention toward courses. According to Ruhanen (2005), it is effective in transforming theoretical knowledge into practice and synthesizing the knowledge they have learned. Experiential learning is a method that contributes to the acquisition of skills, such as creative and critical thinking skills (Papamarcos, 2002). Experiential learning encompasses specific modalities, such as service-learning experience, fieldwork, internships, exchange programs, and out-of-class experience. The creative drama method is one of the experiential learning methods that attracts attention today (Bil, 2012; Urdal & Su Eroz, 2016; Sezerel, 2017, Sezerel & Ozogul, 2019; Ozogul et al., 2020).

‘Creative drama, taking advantage of individuals’ own life experiences, is animating a purpose and thought by using techniques such as improvisation and role-play (Adıgüzel, 2016, p. 41)’. San (1996, p. 149), on the other hand, emphasizes the process aspect of creative drama. According to the author, in creative drama, individuals rearrange their old cognitive patterns by using improvisation, role-play, and similar theater or theater techniques within group work. In addition, individuals re-interpret their experiences, observations, feelings, and lives by reviewing them. Through drama, individuals activate life and events, a thought, sometimes an abstract concept or behavior, by interpreting them. There is no need for any text or equipment in creative drama. Drama can be applied anywhere to almost any age group. A group of people/individuals, a leader or instructor with sufficient experience in the field of creative drama, a space that the group can use freely, and an idea/thought with a dramatic structure where the group can improvise constitute the basic components of creative drama (Adıgüzel, 2016, p. 40).