Hmm.. it seems to me that teaching in itself is a study subject: How to tea= ch it? Does it change depending on the audience? I think we need to perform= a kind of (inter)national study on the performance of students: what are= the trends and what are the processes? Students are a very heterogeneous= group of people, changing accordig to the country and also within countri= es. Texbooks are compilations of standard knowledge assumed to be necess= ary to the new generations to achive our knowledge for improving it afterwa= rds. But standard texbooks are not necessarily usefule everywhere, perhaps = we need to calibrate textbooks. Somehow, that`s what many of you do: you as= k yourself: "what information of this (standard) textbook is useful for my = students? How do I supply the necessary information that does not appear on= the textbook? How to make such a decision non-subjective? I do not know. P= robably we need to meet in a Congress to define what is the minimum an Ecol= ogist need to know nowadays, include it in textbooks and give each Professo= r the time to introduce other concepts depending on each particular school = or even region. Just as an example, all Biology students of the world need= to know Nutrient Cycles, but just the ones living on places where floods a= re common have the priority of learning how to tackle floods and the ecolog= ical consequences of flood.
Edgardo (Uni-Goettingen, Germany, Centro de Investigaci=F3n Cient=EDfica de Yucat= =E1n, M=E9xico) > Date: Thu, 22 Nov 2007 10:14:34 -0500 > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: textbook-free classes > To: [email protected] >=20 > Bill Silvert underscores a point I was trying to make in my original post= . >=20 > Humans are not only a part of the ecosystem; they have become one of =20 > the dominant ecologicaland geological forces on the planet. >=20 > My own approach to this has been to insert humanity into the picture =20 > as case studies to illustrate mainstream ecological themes. >=20 > Examples: Talking about Biogeochemical cycling - Introduce a section =20 > on cultural eutrophication and Lake Winnipeg. Talking about different =20 > population growth models - lets apply that to the human population and =20 > discuss issues of carying capacity. >=20 > Of course, my class is supposed to be a SCIENCE class, and talking =20 > about Hamanity's role in the biosphere could threaten to bring out =20 > passionate views. But I am careful throughout to emphasize that if we =20 > want to solve environmental problems, understanding their biophysical =20 > basis is essential as a precursor to policy. >=20 > One or two other posts to this thread separated out environmental and =20 > ecological science. I do not think such a separation is real. When =20 > we are talking about environmental science, we are talking about =20 > aspects of ecology. >=20 > And there is another thing: we appear to be at a critical juncture in =20 > history. We are in the process of altering fundamental aspects of the =20 > biosphere. Numerous environmental problems (climate change, =20 > overfishing, soil erosion, peak oil, invasives etc) are reaching =20 > critical junctures. Yet ( and I challenge teachers to probe student =20 > awareness of these issues) a majority of students are only vaguely =20 > aware of these problems. For this reason, I am continually thinking =20 > about ways to overhaul my teaching to keep the fundamentals but also =20 > teach about our new and unfortunate reality. >=20 > Cheers, >=20 > Andy Park (University of Winnipeg) >=20 >=20 > Quoting William Silvert <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: >=20 > > I agree with Jeff's view that if an instructor also writes the textbook= , the > > students get a pretty narrow view of the field. There has to be an > > alternative vision. > > > > I know one university where the entire department is collaborating on a > > textbook, and that is a possible solution -- diversity of viewpoints, > > consistent with department policy, and affordable. > > > > One point that has not come up is the scope of what we call ecology. I > > attend a lot of international workshops and at the level where ecologis= ts > > are involved in policy issues it is clear that humans are port of the > > ecosystem. To what extent is this taught? I think that if we compare th= is > > discussion of textbooks with the parallel discussion of invasives we se= e > > that trying to discuss any ecological issue without taking into account > > human values as well as human intervention can be pretty futile. > > > > Bill Silvert > > > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > > From: "Jeff Jewett" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > To: <[email protected]> > > Sent: Tuesday, November 20, 2007 10:11 PM > > Subject: textbook-free classes > > > > > >> I have > >> always had a problem, however, with instructors whose only "reading > >> material" is something that they wrote themselves (whether it was a > >> coursepack or something more formal). Every student learns differently= , > >> and not all students will relate well to any particular instructor's > >> teaching style. > > _________________________________________________________________ Connect to the next generation of MSN Messenger=A0 http://imagine-msn.com/messenger/launch80/default.aspx?locale=3Den-us&sourc= e=3Dwlmailtagline=
