I love to teach.
Teaching in the geosciences helps me more fully appreciate Earth and its environmental concerns. Hopefully my students have an admiration of the physical world in all of its amazing beauty. Understanding the dynamic interplay between humans and the environment is crucial in an era where certain resources are limited and the planet is under siege. Awareness, therefore, equips my students with the necessary skills to tackle local, regional, and global environmental issues placed in a socioeconomic and political framework.
The geosciences sometimes seem to have a proliferation of vocabulary far beyond that which is desired by my introductory students. I can’t really blame them, for geoscientists often have numerous words for the same thing. Our vocabulary alone can cause nervousness in students taking that first Earth science course. These students generally begin as my geologic concrete learners, going on a journey with me to become abstract thinkers in my discipline. However, students can be intimidated by tremendous amounts of new information thrown at them in short bursts, such as during a semester. It is my belief that while knowledge of vocabulary is important to discipline-specific discourse, one should not solely encourage the memorization of vocabulary at early learning stages. Rather, an emphasis on processes and concepts must occur for students to gain the most intellectual ground, feel empowered, and think that they are successful in a discipline – specifically my discipline of the geosciences. Processes and concepts provide the framework by which concrete learners can construct their knowledge as they evolve through thinking styles.
An array of instructional approaches must occur while stressing processes and concepts. Interactive lectures, demonstrations, laboratory exercises, discussions, etc., must all be a part of the teacher-scholar’s repertoire to increase the chances of effectiveness in the classroom. As Albert Einstein once stated: “It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.” Faculty — true teachers of their disciplines — must strive daily to be facilitators in the display of numerous methods used to promote inquiry in the classroom. I try to gauge my students, using teaching styles that most fit the focus of the class at that point in time. Do they need a directing, discussing, or delegating style during a particular day, or perhaps do they need a hybrid model to find the greatest success? The pedagogical art of instruction is to know your class and adapt your instructional modes to fit their greatest learning needs. Teaching becomes as much of an art as it does a science.
Diverse instructional approaches correspond well to the diversity obvious in every classroom, especially college classrooms where there is diversity in race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, ability, socioeconomic background, age, religious belief, and political conviction – just to name a few. Flexibility in pedagogy allows for both the encouragement of those students who may need more time on task and the promotion of activities suitable for the interests and speed of students who grasp a concept easily. Weekly, there must be an acknowledgment that a single student can easily move in-and-out of each group, depending on the course topic. Students appreciate teacher awareness of individual differences – when they “get it”, and when they might need some extra attention.
Pedagogical strategies, therefore, will work to create an atmosphere of cognitive dissonance in the classroom while at the same time help bridge the gap between my content knowledge and the students’ experiences. Although this may sound somewhat Vygotskian, I hope to capture the students, stimulate their curiosity, structure the learning environment, and finally move the students through the sphere of active learning by minimizing the fear of cognitive dissonance and maximizing divergent activity from which genuine intellectual growth can occur. Differences in the classroom should flow naturally and uninhibited in both student-student and student-teacher interactions. Dissonance should correctly be utilized as a tool to stimulate the highest forms of divergent thinking. Controversial issues within every discipline easily create a sense of dissonance in the classroom from which intellectual growth can occur. In short, I want my concrete learners to take the journey with me along the path toward abstract thinking. In doing so, student experiences are defined through structured thinking at a single level of cognitive, compatible development.
When a student exits my class at the end of the semester, I want four things to occur. First, I work to develop logical, objective, critical thinkers who understand society’s problems in the geosciences. Second, I want my students to not only understand the science, but to also foster a compassionate and empathetic awareness of regional and global concerns facing humans daily. Third, I want my students to be active, participatory individuals who care enough about issues – never to be passive onlookers at life’s global geoscience challenges. Finally, and perhaps most important, when my students leave my classroom at the end of each semester, I want every student – not just majors in our department – to know that I care about them as a person. I want them to succeed, to find happiness in their lives, and to be a lifetime learner.
I think often about the words of Winston Churchill when I am preparing for each academic year to begin:
To every man there comes in his lifetime that special moment when he is figuratively tapped on the shoulder and offered that chance to do a very special thing, unique to him and fitted to his talents. What a tragedy if that moment finds him unprepared or unqualified for that work.
I think about these words from my own perspective as an educator. I also think about these words from the perspective of my students. Of course, knowing that they first were spoken decades ago, “he” and “him” is now replaced with the diversity of pronouns found in my classroom collage. But I heed the words – or the solemn warning – in my profession. I need to bring my “A-game” for my students each day. My students deserve my pedagogical best because at some point in their lives, they may need to draw upon a simple life lesson learned in good old Scovel Hall.
I love to teach.
It brings great joy and energy to my life. A teaching philosophy — my teaching philosophy — can really be that simple.