Nurturing Self Critical and Intentional Citizens and Natural Resource Professionals Through Creative Approaches to Reflective Pedagogy
Location
Engel 223
Event Website
http://www.cpe.vt.edu/cuenr/index.html
Start Date
3-27-2010 3:30 PM
End Date
3-27-2010 4:00 PM
Description
Whether as future professionals, citizens, or both, students in Natural Resources curricula benefit from guided opportunities to reflect on their own way of being in and with nonhumans, places, and other dimensions of the natural environment. The daily professional and personal decisions they make, which impact that world in ways small and large, are shaped by (among other forces) their values, their past experiences, their sense of identity, their relationships, and their visions for the future; and each of these influences is complex and multi‐faceted. Well‐designed reflection can be a key pedagogical strategy, within and across Natural Resources courses, to support students in understanding these influences and, in turn, in living and working intentionally as agents in the natural world; and such reflection can take a myriad of forms, limited only by the creativity of instructors and students. Sharing their reflective thinking with one another can deepen students' understanding of different perspectives and culturally ‐ based values, build their capacity to appreciate and navigate differences in environmental values and identities, and expose them to often‐unimagined possibilities for relationships with and choices involving nonhumans and natural environments. Participating in these reflection activities as learners alongside their students can deepen instructors' own understanding of themselves, their students, and the dynamics of lifelong personal and professional development. In small groups, participants in this session will experience and critically evaluate a range of reflection mechanisms (e.g., environmental life writing, artistic productions, structured oral discussion) that have been implemented with undergraduate and graduate students in environmental studies and related curricula. They will generate a set of criteria for high quality reflection and a list of choice points underlying their design. They will apply this collaborative thinking to their own courses and curricula, sharing and critiquing their own reflective pedagogies. Participants will leave the session with several examples of reflection activities, with guidelines for designing them effectively, and with an enhanced appreciation for the role of reflection as a teaching and learning strategy in the development of self‐critical citizens and professionals.
Nurturing Self Critical and Intentional Citizens and Natural Resource Professionals Through Creative Approaches to Reflective Pedagogy
Engel 223
Whether as future professionals, citizens, or both, students in Natural Resources curricula benefit from guided opportunities to reflect on their own way of being in and with nonhumans, places, and other dimensions of the natural environment. The daily professional and personal decisions they make, which impact that world in ways small and large, are shaped by (among other forces) their values, their past experiences, their sense of identity, their relationships, and their visions for the future; and each of these influences is complex and multi‐faceted. Well‐designed reflection can be a key pedagogical strategy, within and across Natural Resources courses, to support students in understanding these influences and, in turn, in living and working intentionally as agents in the natural world; and such reflection can take a myriad of forms, limited only by the creativity of instructors and students. Sharing their reflective thinking with one another can deepen students' understanding of different perspectives and culturally ‐ based values, build their capacity to appreciate and navigate differences in environmental values and identities, and expose them to often‐unimagined possibilities for relationships with and choices involving nonhumans and natural environments. Participating in these reflection activities as learners alongside their students can deepen instructors' own understanding of themselves, their students, and the dynamics of lifelong personal and professional development. In small groups, participants in this session will experience and critically evaluate a range of reflection mechanisms (e.g., environmental life writing, artistic productions, structured oral discussion) that have been implemented with undergraduate and graduate students in environmental studies and related curricula. They will generate a set of criteria for high quality reflection and a list of choice points underlying their design. They will apply this collaborative thinking to their own courses and curricula, sharing and critiquing their own reflective pedagogies. Participants will leave the session with several examples of reflection activities, with guidelines for designing them effectively, and with an enhanced appreciation for the role of reflection as a teaching and learning strategy in the development of self‐critical citizens and professionals.
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cuenr/Sessions/Pedagogy/3
Comments
Citation: Clayton, P. 2010. Nurturing self critical and intentional citizens and natural resource professionals through creative approaches to reflective pedagogy. UENR Biennial Conference, Session Innovations in Pedagogy-General, Paper Number 3. http://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cuenr/Sessions/Pedagogy/3/.