Stimulating college students to consider sustainability issues through the peer review method

Abstract

It is important for people in technical fields to be familiar with sustainability issues because public awareness of environmental and social concerns related to technologies has been growing. Also in pharmacy education, a deep understanding of sustainability issues is required so that the future pharmacists will make a positive impact on the environment. This study examines whether Japanese university students can identify problems in an illogical essay and it evaluates the effectiveness of the problem checklist when revising the text on the sustainability of drugs. We also investigate how much knowledge the participants have about the term “sustainability.” The results of the present experiment suggest that the prior peer review training is beneficial in highlighting the problems in the essay and making revisions. The results also reveal that the problem checklist is very effective. Furthermore, the activity of reading and revising the text on “sustainability” using the peer review method as well as answering the questions about the knowledge of the term stimulate them to consider the sustainability issues. In order to spread the concept of sustainability in Japan, the topic of sustainability should be widely covered in college education.