Action research for improving the risk literacy of university students: Focusing on the effectiveness of risk communication using Crossroad game

摘要

In risk society, the necessity for each person to improve risk literacy has been increasing. This paper aims to introduce the outline of action research to improve the risk literacy of university students while collaborating with various stakeholders; university students, university co-operative association staffs, university staff, think-tank researchers, university faculty, lawyers, food company staffs, insurance company staffs, etc. since June 2015. Furthermore, the author presents the practical case of risk communication using a game called Crossroad, and considers significance and effect of this activity. Crossroad is one of the risk communication tools, used in the fields such as disaster prevention, food safety, medical safety and so on. In the game, a scenario on the trade-off state is presented, and each player selects one of the two options, and tells the other players why he/she chose it. At the workshop of this activity, hazard was set as a natural disaster. The exchange of views during this game and becoming aware of different opinions were achieved, university students realized that there are diverse ideas and values. In addition, adults were able to notice the "important things" of university students by allowing them to create their own unique crossroad scenarios.