Designing For The Nurturing of New Norms of Social Responsibility With The Socially Responsible Behaviour Through Embodied Thinking (SORBET) Project

Abstract

This paper describes the translation of a pedagogical approach origi-nally developed in response to the changing contexts of learning as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Socially Responsible Behaviour through Embodied Thinking (SORBET) project aimed to develop a virtual learning environment that could be used across various disciplinary domains to nurture socially responsible behaviour through embodied cognition. The authorial team successfully devel-oped and trialled the SORBET pedagogy using an open-source immersive envi-ronment which was scalable and had low network infrastructure requirements. The study reported in this paper sought to ensure currency and relevance of the SORBET approach in an evolving social context in 2021 – 2023, cognizant of a nationwide vaccination programme in Singapore that took place in the latter half of 2021. This project expanded the SORBET platform by developing a new mo-bile-compatible version. The result was a tool that teachers were able to imple-ment and adapt across different grade levels and disciplinary concepts. This per-mitted opportunities for teachers to connect student learning to real-world sce-narios. The qualitative feedback from students highlighted the engaging nature of the SORBET environment and its potential to support collaborative learning and problem-solving skills.