{"id":333,"date":"2012-10-29T10:06:33","date_gmt":"2012-10-29T14:06:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ragastal\/?page_id=333"},"modified":"2013-02-28T09:44:39","modified_gmt":"2013-02-28T14:44:39","slug":"pedagogy","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ragastal\/pedagogy\/","title":{"rendered":"Pedagogy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"GE142<\/a>Colby College adopted the teacher-scholar model for faculty more than 20 years ago following Boyer’s (1990) paradigm-changing report<\/a> from the Carnegie Foundation.\u00a0 His vision expanded the concept of scholarship from the traditional view of primarily acquiring new knowledge and publication to include the scholarship of integration, application, and teaching.\u00a0 Boyer\u2019s (1990) scholarly functions of discovery and integration parallel the long held traditions of academia.\u00a0 As an extension of these activities, his scholarship of application utilizes newly acquired (research generated) knowledge in the capacity for civic outreach and community service, whereas the scholarship of teaching involves the transfer of these efforts with others inside and outside of the academy.\u00a0 Various approaches to the teacher-scholar model have been undertaken by departments and individual faculty at Colby.<\/p>\n

Boyer (1990) emphasized that the scholarship of integration should be focused on placing one\u2019s research, or that of others, into larger intellectual patterns to answer broader questions relevant to society.\u00a0 All such efforts should be inquiry based (hypothesis testing in the Natural Sciences).\u00a0 These efforts should be melded with the scholarship of teaching that is centered on developing knowledge, skill, intellect, character, and the abilities of others.\u00a0 Such activities stimulate \u201cactive, not passive, learning and encourage students to be critical, creative thinkers, with the capacity to go on learning\u201d (Boyer, 1990, p. 23).\u00a0 Colby\u2019s President emeritus, Bill Cotter, emphasized Colby\u2019s ability to develop the life-long learner through pedagogical approaches that, according to Boyer (1990), are well planned, continuously examined, and directly relate to the discipline under consideration.<\/p>\n

By its very nature, Earth Science is a multi- and interdisciplinary field of study that requires familiarity with the chemical, physical, and biological sciences and the application of mathematics to solving problems over various scales of time and space.\u00a0 This aspect of a geoscientist\u2019s education does not necessarily hold true for every line of inquiry in the other natural-science disciplines.\u00a0 Chemists, physicists, and biologists also problem solve but often neglect or have a poor understanding of the relationship that the planet has on their work.\u00a0 In many lines of inquiry in these disciplines, it is not imperative that they consider the contingencies imparted by Earth history, and few empirical principles in the geosciences are employed routinely in the way in which they approach their endeavors.\u00a0 Because Earth Science is an applied discipline, the pedagogical approaches taken in course work leading to independent study follow several guiding principles that are now recognized as consistent with modern educational practice.<\/p>\n

\"Hartford<\/a>The hallmark of scientific (or any) inquiry is critical and reflective engagement with subject material that promotes metacognitive development (learning about learning, thinking, reasoning, and problem solving; Angier, 2007).\u00a0 The preparation of multifaceted approaches to a given learning task, monitoring one\u2019s own comprehension, and the subsequent evaluation of progress toward completing the learning task are all metacognitive in nature.\u00a0 Such approaches enhance student-learning outcomes and increase their ability to apply critical, reflective thinking to other subjects and problems (Schwartz et al., 2003).\u00a0 But, students cannot do this alone.\u00a0 The instructor\u2019s function is to develop strategic problem-solving protocols to assist students in their learning (Cole, 1996; Daniels, 2004).\u00a0 Such strategies must be propagated by placing students in iterative learning cycles, within and between courses, that add content and complexity culminating in the student\u2019s application of the acquired skills to an original endeavor.\u00a0 In this way, the development of a student\u2019s confidence over their college career enhances their performance (Lovett, 2007) in later life; students become life-long learners.<\/p>\n

I have adopted the philosophy that science is not a body of facts, but a way of thinking (Angier, 2007).\u00a0 In too many instances, both within and outside the Liberal Arts, students are being told about science and asked to remember facts rather than learn how to think critically (Alberts, 2009).\u00a0 Although unpopular with many students because it requires their total immersion, scientific thinking can be cultivated by: (1) presenting them with the lines of reasoning; (2) creating conditions for reflective, critical engagement with the topic; and (3) encouraging their development of practices that incorporate the skillful examination of concepts across disciplines (Angier, 2007).\u00a0 All this takes considerable time and effort on both the part of the faculty member and student, but there are rewards. These include the individual\u2019s development of problem-solving strategies based on their own model, as well as the recognition of a collective framework of how others have attacked and resolved the problem.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>There may be more than one possible parsimonious answer to any line of geological inquiry, and it is often necessary to defend one\u2019s approach and resolution to the problem at hand.\u00a0 Hence, this approach can be envisioned as emulating an apprenticeship with both the instructor and peer cohort serving as models.\u00a0 There will be concepts and skills that each learner can accomplish on his\/her own, using the tools at hand and the expertise acquired to date.\u00a0 These are considered within the realm of the learners\u02bcactual developmental level. Then there are ideas, concepts, or applications that learners cannot achieve by themselves.\u00a0 These things are obtainable with strategic or guided assistance of others with a more expert understanding or skill set, or through the use of some virtual tool or environment that contains more expert knowledge or conveys how to acquire the requisite skills for successful achievement.\u00a0 By combining all of these approaches in and outside of the classroom experience, students can transfer their acquired abilities to new situations without the need for explicit prompting (Daniels, 2004).<\/p>\n

References<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n