Hi Ecologgers,
Responses are invited to the following thoughts, especially from
experienced teachers:
I teach a 2nd year course in basic Ecology at an undergraduate
university. After four years of teaching this course, I am being
drawn to the following conclusions:
[1] ? The textbook is awful. Not only that, but all the textbooks I have
looked at that are aimed at teaching an overview of Ecology seem to be
chronically faulted:
* There is simply too much stuff in them. My course is one semester
long, but
even if it were a full year course, I could probably cover less than 50% of
this book.
** The books are grossly overpriced. Some students are unable to afford them,
and since the publisher is constantly coming out with slightly
altered ?new?
editions, the resale price is low.
*** The material they cover and their overall emphasis, appears to be poorly
selected and framed given the tenor of current public discourse on ecology
and environment.
**** Finally, I believe that I can do this stuff better myself.
Although there
are commonalities among all universities, the sociocultural
backgrounds of
students and the bioregional contexts in which we work differ greatly.
How can a mass-produced textbook ever hope to capture that?
[2] ? Students today are different. Numerous research studies and even more
anecdotal evidence suggest that numerical skills, basic literacy, the
ability to organize information into coherent arguments, and engagement
with the natural world are all worse than they were (even) a decade ago.
And yet textbooks speak to students as though they know how to read a
graph, as though they are sophisticated reasoners, and perhaps most
importantly, as though they already understand the difference between
salamanders and lizards, spiders and insects. NEWSFLASH ? THEY DON?T.
[3] Because of [1] and [2], I conclude that I need to take a radically
different approach to teaching this basic course:
* The course needs to be longer, probably split into ?Basic? and ?Advanced?
Semesters
** A module on the basic variety of life needs to be built into the course.
*** The course has to contain materials relevant to modern environmental
discourse. For example, discussions of energy transfer and primary
productivity cannot really be taught without reference to the human
appropriation of primary productivity.
**** At the same time, the traditional technical basis for teaching ecology
cannot be abandoned. the question is, how to make it as
engaging as some
of the more sexy, issue-based stuff.
***** Finally I believe that I may throw away the textbook, along
with most of
the powerpoints, the WEB-CT site and a lot of the other technological
paraphernalia that often seems to distract as much as it informs.
I WOULD LIKE TO GET SOME RESPONSE TO THESE THOUGHTS FROM TEACHERS. IN
PARTICULAR:
* Have any of you decided to chuck the required text and simply use handouts
and readings?
** Have you changed the ways that you teach, either to reflect our current
environmental crisis, or to reflect the preparedness of students.
*** What, in your opinion, are the ESSENTIAL things that we have to teach in
basic Ecology courses.
Sincerely,
Andy Park (Biology Department, University of Winnipeg)
