Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Education Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 10 of 10

Full-Text Articles in Education

Advocating For Mother Earth In The Undergraduate Classroom: Uniting Twenty-First Century Technologies, Local Resources, Art, And Activism To Explore Our Place In Nature, Christina Triezenberg, Ilse Schweitzer Vandonkelaar Nov 2015

Advocating For Mother Earth In The Undergraduate Classroom: Uniting Twenty-First Century Technologies, Local Resources, Art, And Activism To Explore Our Place In Nature, Christina Triezenberg, Ilse Schweitzer Vandonkelaar

Christina Triezenberg

Despite the growing evidence of humanity’s impact on the natural world and the urgent need to shape citizens who understand the impact that their choices and actions have on their local and global environments, colleges and universities throughout the United States have been slow to add environmental education as a core component of their undergraduate curricula. Harnessing our shared interest in environment issues and the humanities, we designed and taught an experimental course in environmental literature for the honors program at Western Michigan University that we hope will become a template of what is possible in postsecondary environmental education. Using …


A Response To John Sommerville’S 'The Decline Of The Secular University', William Vance Trollinger Aug 2015

A Response To John Sommerville’S 'The Decline Of The Secular University', William Vance Trollinger

William Vance Trollinger Jr.

Introduction to William Vance Trollinger's plenary presentation: I agree with Prof. Sommerville that in too many places the secular university has trivialized religion and religious commitment, and that it is high time for religion to be welcomed into our academic debates. I say this even while I take issue with some of the particulars in Prof. Sommerville’s book. I will give two examples related to our discipline of history. First, Prof. Sommerville decries that “secularist humanities have declared war on metanarratives because of their hegemonic power.” But I confess that I am very pleased to see the demise of metanarratives …


Engaging Students In Wicked Problems: Strategies For Inspiring And Preparing Students To Tackle Messy, Place-Based Challenges, Danielle Lake Jul 2015

Engaging Students In Wicked Problems: Strategies For Inspiring And Preparing Students To Tackle Messy, Place-Based Challenges, Danielle Lake

Danielle L Lake

The following webinar featuring Dr. Danielle Lake from Grand Valley State University – Engaging Students in Wicked Problems: Strategies for inspiring and preparing students to tackle messy, place-based challenges.How can we prepare students to tackle wicked problems? What pedagogical methods can be used to address interdependent, high-stakes systemic problems in our communities?This webinar will suggest we need to pursue an experiential, collaborative learning model: working across networks, disciplines, and institutions in order to tackle our social messes. Participants will discover strategies and explore possible methods for better preparing students to collaboratively tackle the wicked problems within their field.


Alfred Russel Wallace Notes 3: Two Early Publications, Charles H. Smith Jun 2015

Alfred Russel Wallace Notes 3: Two Early Publications, Charles H. Smith

Charles Kay Smith

No abstract provided.


Missing In Action?, Rowan Cahill, Terry Irving May 2015

Missing In Action?, Rowan Cahill, Terry Irving

Rowan Cahill

The changing character of intellectual production: how university radicals have become vassals of global billion-dollar scholarly publishing empires; the necessity for radical scholars to break from this model; and the possibility of connecting with activism outside the university as one way of doing this.


Community-Based Teaching In A Wicked World: Preparing Students For Messy Inquiry, Danielle Lake, Anna Sluka Mar 2015

Community-Based Teaching In A Wicked World: Preparing Students For Messy Inquiry, Danielle Lake, Anna Sluka

Danielle L Lake

In contrast to static, disciplinary problems, many of the issues we face in the world today can be characterized as “wicked,” dynamically complex, interdependent, high stakes issues with no simple or obvious definition (let alone any simple or obvious solution). These wicked problems confront us with high levels of uncertainty in situations where both action and inaction carry serious long-term consequences. Current top-down, siloed, and abstract pedagogical strategies do not provide students with the tools for collaboratively managing such problems.
How can we prepare students within our own fields to tackle large-scale wicked problems?
What pedagogical methods can be used …


Pedagogy For A Wicked World: The Value And Hazards Of A Transdisciplinary, Dialogue-Driven, Community Engagged Classroom Model, Danielle Lake Dec 2014

Pedagogy For A Wicked World: The Value And Hazards Of A Transdisciplinary, Dialogue-Driven, Community Engagged Classroom Model, Danielle Lake

Danielle L Lake

This presentation provides a number of strategies for instructors interested in a more participatory, transdisciplinary, and experiential educational model in order to foster real-world change around our high-stakes, complex public problems. By utilizing soft system’s thinking in addition to a feminist pragmatist methodology students can successfully collaborate with community partners and integrate across their disciplinary expertise in order to co-develop and implement action-plans with community stakeholders. Given the value of this work, but also the challenges, this session also highlights the potential pitfalls of working to prepare students for a messy, iterative process of collaboratively learning-by-doing in a “wicked” world.


Tackling Wicked Food Issues: Applying The Wicked Problems Approach In Higher Education To Promote Healthy Eating Habits In American School Children, Danielle Lake Dec 2014

Tackling Wicked Food Issues: Applying The Wicked Problems Approach In Higher Education To Promote Healthy Eating Habits In American School Children, Danielle Lake

Danielle L Lake

Life-long healthy eating habits linked with sustainable local agricultural practices, as “wicked problems” in the United States, are intractable, on-going, and high-stakes issues. An interdisciplinary university course was developed to engage students in participatory research and fieldwork on the inextricably linked dimensions of food, health, and sustainability. Students worked with community partners, stakeholders, and experts to address the specific interdisciplinary issues of diet and promotion of healthy eating habits in American school children. Using a “bottom-up” approach, students co-developed projects with stakeholders (including school children) to empower movement for change. This interactive research process created an iterative feedback loop which …


Faculty Spotlight, Danielle Lake Dec 2014

Faculty Spotlight, Danielle Lake

Danielle L Lake

GVSU Faculty Spotlight


Advocating For Mother Earth In The Undergraduate Classroom: Uniting Twenty-First Century Technologies, Local Resources, Art, And Activism To Explore Our Place In Nature, Christina Triezenberg, Ilse Schweitzer Vandonkelaar Mar 2014

Advocating For Mother Earth In The Undergraduate Classroom: Uniting Twenty-First Century Technologies, Local Resources, Art, And Activism To Explore Our Place In Nature, Christina Triezenberg, Ilse Schweitzer Vandonkelaar

Ilse A Schweitzer VanDonkelaar

Despite the growing evidence of humanity’s impact on the natural world and the urgent need to shape citizens who understand the impact that their choices and actions have on their local and global environments, colleges and universities throughout the United States have been slow to add environmental education as a core component of their undergraduate curricula. Harnessing our shared interest in environment issues and the humanities, we designed and taught an experimental course in environmental literature for the honors program at Western Michigan University that we hope will become a template of what is possible in postsecondary environmental education. Using …