The teacher observed that this workshop helped to change the students' initial preconceptions about microplastics. The opportunity to be confronted with actors in the field defending different solutions enabled them to envisage different perspectives and to understand that emerging solutions are not necessarily always the best ones.
She notes that for a course in this format, prior organization is essential, both in terms of preparing the students and the experts. Indeed, it's important to provide students with the necessary materials well in advance of the workshop, at least a month in advance. It's also important to ensure that all students have the same level of knowledge at the end of the workshop (in this master's program, students come from a wide range of backgrounds).
As far as experts are concerned, the teacher emphasizes the importance of including a variety of different stakeholders. It is also essential, after an initial contact, to plan one or more organizational sessions to clarify what is expected of them (a presentation or not, proposing documents or not). For this course in particular, the International Relations and Partnerships Department team facilitates, if necessary, initial contact with stakeholders from international organizations and NGOs in Geneva International. The teacher reports that feedback from experts is always very positive: not only are they enthusiastic about taking part in the next edition of the World Café, but they are also interested in offering internships to master’s students.
For support during the first edition of her world café, the teacher contacted the SEA pole (Support for Teaching and Learning) department. She notes that the advice she received was beneficial and enabled her to implement certain changes based on student feedback. She recommends this contact as a means of implementing, improving and changing innovative teaching methods.
Among other feedback, students commented that they felt the workshop was too short to go into sufficient depth in the discussions. Similarly, the 5-minute debriefing at the end of the discussions was not always enough time to prepare the final presentation. If possible, the teacher recommends a 4-hour workshop rather than a 3-hour one. Given the large number of students, she would also consider the presence of a 5th expert to increase the number of groups (which, however, implies the need for a larger space and a longer schedule). To test this format with a smaller audience, the teacher plans to offer this world café format to her Bachelor students (around twenty students).
The students also noted that it would have been interesting to have a moment of exchange between the different experts during the workshop, so that they could discuss their different points of view.
