Unconventional teaching: through their eyes
Sean Hermann
Issue date: 10/7/09 Section: News
At Parkland, there are seemingly countless numbers of teachers, each with classes full of students. But a select few faculty members seem to differentiate themselves from one another-students seek them out. One common trait that many successful Parkland professors share is their use of unconventional methods.
Heidi Leuszler, Associate Professor of Biology, views her teaching style through a manner of adaptability and the needs of a student.
"To me, my style is my style, and I don't spend much time wondering whether or not things I do in class are conventional or not. I just do them. I spend time trying to get to
know each class of students, and 'style' the activities in class somewhat around that particular group. In that vein, my 'style' is always changing, class-by-class, and semester-by-semester. I try new things out all the time to get to know a particular group of students, but sometimes I tell the same old stories, and sometimes go with the flow
when students want to take the class in a certain direction (as long as it's class-related, but in environmental science, almost everything can be related somehow!). I guess that style, overall, is unconventional. I do want to mention that a group of about 12 faculty, staff, and community members wrote the current environmental curriculum over about three years. We worked hard to write a solid skeleton of a course that could adapt to each instructors' teaching philosophy and style and each group of students, yet maintain enough stability of objectives that we could assess student learning over many semesters.
"One main goal of the course is for students to become environmentally literate citizens, and be able to figure out what their opinion is, justify their opinions, and vote for what they value. I spend a lot of time getting the students to think about their own lives and behaviors and to reflect on those. While personally I care what their opinion is, professionally, the only thing I want is for them to make informed, educated opinions and know how to use science as a tool to form those opinions. Regardless of their opinion, if they can make a good choice, I've done my job. I think that ends up being somewhat
Heidi Leuszler, Associate Professor of Biology, views her teaching style through a manner of adaptability and the needs of a student.
"To me, my style is my style, and I don't spend much time wondering whether or not things I do in class are conventional or not. I just do them. I spend time trying to get to
know each class of students, and 'style' the activities in class somewhat around that particular group. In that vein, my 'style' is always changing, class-by-class, and semester-by-semester. I try new things out all the time to get to know a particular group of students, but sometimes I tell the same old stories, and sometimes go with the flow
when students want to take the class in a certain direction (as long as it's class-related, but in environmental science, almost everything can be related somehow!). I guess that style, overall, is unconventional. I do want to mention that a group of about 12 faculty, staff, and community members wrote the current environmental curriculum over about three years. We worked hard to write a solid skeleton of a course that could adapt to each instructors' teaching philosophy and style and each group of students, yet maintain enough stability of objectives that we could assess student learning over many semesters.
"One main goal of the course is for students to become environmentally literate citizens, and be able to figure out what their opinion is, justify their opinions, and vote for what they value. I spend a lot of time getting the students to think about their own lives and behaviors and to reflect on those. While personally I care what their opinion is, professionally, the only thing I want is for them to make informed, educated opinions and know how to use science as a tool to form those opinions. Regardless of their opinion, if they can make a good choice, I've done my job. I think that ends up being somewhat
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