USING ACTIVE-LEARNING AND GOAL-SETTING STRATEGIES TO PROMOTE HAZARD AWARENESS AND PREPAREDNESS (Invited Presentation)

“What I hear, I forget. What I see, I remember. What I do, I understand.” -Xunzi (340–245 BC)

Promoting the adoption of household preparedness to natural hazards represents a critical step toward building resilient communities. However, despite the efforts of stakeholders who provide hazard preparedness recommendations to the public, the level of disaster preparedness across the world remains low. We hypothesize that the passive way in which natural hazard and risk information is most often delivered (i.e., lecture style; pamphlets; websites) inhibits participants’ ability to connect with the materials, limiting both their attention and knowledge retention.

Our research is testing the efficacy of active-learning and goal-setting strategies to engage different audience segments in a way that helps them personalize risk and develop positive attitudes toward preparedness actions. We also demonstrate how giving the audience a voice through active-learning allows stakeholders to both recognize and resolve inaccurate risk perceptions, lack of trust in message sources, and negative attitudes toward preparing for future hazard events. Finally, we emphasize the need to provide active-learning-based outreach training to stakeholders communicating with at-risk populations.