IntroductionParticipatory approaches to adaptation planning generate many forms of learning either as major goals or accompanying outcomes to the process design. Learning is particularly important as communities seek to engage scientists and agency representatives in developing adaptation strategies with a good local fit. We have implemented a participatory modeling process, the Vulnerability, Consequences, and Adaptation Planning Scenarios (VCAPS) process, in 14 communities to support municipal planning in the face of climate change.

Framing Learning in a Socio-Cultural ContextMuch discussion of learning in natural resource management, hazard management, and other adaptation related fields evaluates individual learning via “acquisition” for facts, concepts, or methods, where the what is learned is separated from the how of social interactions and the learning that takes place in those interactions.However, our participant feedback emphasizing the importance of learning via development of capacities that support activities of thinking and planning, rather than learning via the transfer of knowledge prompted us to consider more deeply how we design participatory modeling processes and evaluate learning in them. We emphasize learning through the dynamic process of developing the capacity to think critically, creatively, and collaboratively in support of individual and group decision-making and planning to remedy a problem of common concern.

Here we draw on a socio-cultural theory of action and a framework from developmental psychology. and reflect on reflect how these insights can inform the design of learning in participatory processes.

Fostering and Evaluating Learning in Participatory Adaptation Processes

For more information see: www.vcapsforplanning.org

• NOAA SARP– Sullivan’s Island, SC– McClellanville, SC

• MIT Sea Grant– Boston, MA– New Bedford/Fairhaven, MA– Plymouth, MA

• NOAA COCA– Beaufort, SC– South Thomaston, ME– Wellfleet, MA

• Other funding– Plymouth, NC– Beaufort, SC– Orange Beach, AL– Dauphin Island, AL

ReferencesKettle, N., Dow, K., Tuler, S., Webler, T., Whitehead, J., & Miller, K. 2014. Integrating scientific and local knowledge to inform risk-based management approaches for climate adaptation. Climate Risk Management.

Tuler, S., Dow, K., Webler, T., and Whitehead, J. forthcoming. Learning through participatory modeling: Reflections on what it means and how it is measured. IN: Michael Paolisso and Steven Gray, eds. Integrating Stakeholders in Environmental Modelling: Considerations, Methods, and Applications. Springer.

Webler, T., Tuler, S. P., Dow, K., Whitehead, J., & Kettle, N. (2014). Design and evaluation of a local analytic-deliberative process for climate adaptation planning. Local Environment: The International Journal of Justice and Sustainability, Published online 17 Jul 2014: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13549839.2014.930425

Acknowledgments We developed the VCAPS process with funding from multiple sources, including the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Sectoral Applications Research Program, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Coastal and Ocean Climate Applications Program, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sea Grant. Additional cases were funded by separate grants from the NOAA Sectoral Applications Research Program, NOAA National Sea Grant Program Coastal Communities Climate Adaptation Initiative, NOAA National Sea Grant Program Community Climate Adaptation Initiative, Mississippi and Alabama Sea Grant, and the Mobile Bay National Estuary Program. We would also like to thank Nate Kettle and Karly Miller for their role in the early stages of the development and implementation of VCAPS.

Table 1 Types of Learning Reported by VCAPS Participants

Topics that participants can learn about

Examples of cultural tools learned and used

“Comments about learning from VCAPS participants”

The system being modeled

Facts; theories; system structure and dynamics; uncertainties and knowledge gaps; implications of framing and boundary setting; implications of management actions

The societal context Values and norms held by participants; problem definitions and policy perspectives held by participants; opinions about roles of different stakeholders; relationships of different stakeholders; history of addressing problems within community; resources that may be mobilized for environmental management; legal frameworks; opportunities and barriers to making and implementing decisions

“It brought some barriers to the forefront. I don’t know that it had to do with understanding them. We kind of know what the barriers are but it did help to give me a little insight instead of looking at always from a regulatory standpoint, to look at it from the other side, and what is important to the actual homeowner or property owner as far as mitigation is concerned. And sometimes their interest in mitigation and the interest from the regulatory standpoint are totally different.”

Methods of sense making

Analytic methods and tools for representing the social-ecological system (e.g., GIS, systems dynamics modeling); analytic methods for eliciting and representing individual preferences, values, beliefs; methods for choosing among conceptual and analytical frameworks; decision making strategies; ethical and moral frameworks; use of evidence and knowledge in reasoning “When you have different departments there in the room, what seems like a good idea when you have just the infrastructure-based people in the room becomes less of a good idea when you have social service providers who are actually talking about different people with different disabilities or health conditions, and so on and so forth, then interact with that process.”

Self and identity Preferences and norms of self and others; roles and purposes of self and others; compatibility with group beliefs“The community throws things out from a different perspective that are really important that perhaps from a staff perspective we may have missed.”

Forms of expression Ability to understand and use technical terminology; ability to construct arguments (i.e., make claims, marshal evidence and theories); ability to articulate one’s own view

Ways to interact with others

How to listen; how to show empathy; skills of persuasion, negotiation, and compromise; methods for reaching closure

What is VCAPSThe VCAPS process is designed to support local vulnerability assessment and climate adaptation planning by providing a systematic approach to integrate local knowledge and scientific information through facilitated, deliberative learning-based activities using influence or causal pathway diagrams. VCAPS is implemented in three basic phases: preparing, scenario building, and reporting.

Drawing on development theory suggests participatory processes can also consider how to foster and evaluate learning by considering “differentiation (the continuum from global to specific understanding), articulation (the ability to bring concepts together), and hierarchic integration (the ability to connection information” at individual, interpersonal, and social levels. Entities at different scales can change in ways that are described as learning. For example, via participatory modeling changes may include:• Transformation of how an individual represents a social-ecological system, understands links between

components, and construes “facts” about the world (learning by individuals)• Transformation in how participants organize collaborative work to define boundaries and interactions

of a model and the emergence of new knowledge through interaction (learning by the group of participants)

• Transformation of how deliberation and analysis are integrated into participatory modeling efforts and how trade-offs should be weighed in decision making (learning on the social plane)

ImplicationsFostering this broader scope of learning outcomes is important given the challenges of climate change adaptation. Combining the socio-cultural and development perspectives opens the way for the design and evaluation of participatory processes to consider learning in the forms acquisition, mastery and appropriation and less commonly considered outcomes of participation. Based on these insights, additional questions about learning to consider include, did this participatory process influence whether and individual or group to: • Accept or reject new knowledge simply on the basis of compatibility with prior beliefs?• Assess the contextual factors that influence impacts of management actions or so they simply

assume that performance will be consistent with prior experiences?• Apply new conceptual or analytical frameworks and identify their strengths and weaknesses for a

particular problem context? • Apply new analytic frameworks/methods as authoritative or as “thinking devices”?• “Inter-animate” multiple perspectives in understanding a socio-ecological system model?• Accept information on the basis of “source” (e.g., Passive deference to “experts”)• Develop the ability to adopt different perspectives, without simply accepting one as more “correct”

than others, in contexts of uncertainty and system complexity?• Develop the capacity to identify underlying points of agreement of disagreement among

perspectives, rather than accepting or rejecting based on more global assessments?• Develop the capacity to identify problematic (to them) assumptions embedded in perspectives or

models and propose alternatives?Scenario-building • Meetings to explore and learn

about • Climate change-related• Risks• Vulnerabilities• Adaptation strategies

• Development of scenarios based on detailed diagrams

• Figure 2 shows the building blocks for the diagrams

Preparations• Identify and recruit

participants • Collect background

information relevant to past planning, hazard events, and ongoing concerns within the community

• Explore community preferences and considerations in the design for VCAPS process to meet community needs• number of meetings• best time for meetings• number of participants

Reporting• Team summarizes, re views,

and evaluates results from meetings

• Report is fit to other planning processes

• Participant checking to validate results

• Figure 3 shows a completed diagram

Figure 2

Figure 3

In contrast, a socio-cultural approach highlights the need to consider both the acquisition of new information, concepts, skills and the mastery and appropriation of socio-technical and psychological knowledge and skills, such as how to make an effective argument or evaluate a source of information, and their skilled use in social-culturally situated action. Giving more attention to how social interactions foster learning expands the types of learning we might want to consider in the design and evaluation of participatory processes. In participatory exercises people learn not only about a topic, but about the nature of groups, group interactions and skills for participation. For instance, investigators can assess how participants (including scientists, modelers, facilitators, local residents, etc.) master and appropriate cultural tools for engaging in a modeling effort characterized by complex, uncertain, and inconsistent information about a socio-ecological system, multiple perspectives of other participants (or stakeholders not present), and uncertainty about likely performance of (adaptive) management actions. Table 1 describes a variety of topics participants reported learning about through our VCAPS process.

Figure 1