Education for Climate Change Adaptation — Enhancing the Contemporary Relevance of Planning Education for a Range of Wicked Problems

Planning education involves engaging students in many wicked planning problems of whichclimate change is a particularly testing example. This paper demonstrates that by thinkingabout climate change problems for urban and regional places, educators are reminded aboutthe importance of some more generic but essential capabilities required of planners indealing with a range of challenging problems. Based on the experience of reviewing andrenovating the University of Tasmanias planning programme to embed education forclimate change adaptation, this paper: (i) reflects on such a process; (ii) describes theapplication of specific pedagogical values and approaches to the education of planners forclimate change adaptation in the universitys planning programme; and (iii) demonstrateshow their application can facilitate improvement in education for other core planningcapabilities. Among the pedagogical approaches embraced are: problem-based learning,adaptive learning and self-reflection, networked learning, critical thinking, linkage of theoryand practice, and adaptation planning skills. Ultimately, the application of these approacheshas not only addressed the need to incorporate education for climate change adaptation, buthas also improved the capacity of the planning course to develop competencies relevant toplanning for a range of challenging contemporary problems.