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Take a sociologist, a geographer and a forester and you have what sounds like the first line of a bad joke. In fact three experts in these fields have joined forces to devise an award-winning course that is redefining how first-year university students are taught.
Sociologist Dr Alastair Greig (below, right); geographer Dr Richard Baker (below, left); and forester Professor Peter Kanowski devised SRES1001: Resources, Environment and Society — which in December 2003 won the Australian Award for University Teaching in the category of Innovative Team Taught First-Year Teaching. Dr Greig is the only academic to have won the nation’s highest university teaching honour twice.
SRES1001 embodies the pedagogic zeitgeist: it is interdisciplinary, interactive and research-based; it promotes independent learning; it brings experts from the public and private sectors into the lecture theatre; and students are required to compile a ‘webography’ of online resources they use in their research. It also meets a defined need among first year students, who might otherwise be lost in the chasm between school and university, by teaching them how to learn in a tertiary environment.
The course presents the scientific side to the sustainable management of Earth’s resources in a way that Arts students can comprehend, while giving scientists a rounded understanding by teaching social sciences in a way that is accessible to them. The result is students with the breadth of understanding that is essential to deal with complex environmental questions that straddle the conventional boundaries of art and science — and a new class of students better equipped to collaborate on interdisciplinary solutions which are essential to corporate and governmental success.
“Environmental problems are also social and political problems and students learn that dealing with environmental problems means dealing with people — the way they live and the way they think and the way they interact and organise themselves,” explains Dr Greig.
Interdisciplinarity is just part of what makes SRES1001 so unique. It also teaches students how to learn.
“Research is showing that a lot of students will have never had to ask questions, never had to use PowerPoint, never had to use the web critically,” Dr Baker explains.
“The course has a strong skills development focus with the aim of giving students both the research and communication skills required to successfully complete later year courses.”
The course is constantly evolving, with regular student feedback shaping how it is delivered. Independent facilitators meet with students to gather their views, while regular conventional ‘box-ticking’ surveys add quantitative data to the mix.
“The best suggestions come from the students, which is not surprising,” explains Dr Baker.
In its first two years, students from every faculty in the University took SRES1001, which has brought 55 outside experts into the classroom. Professor Kanowski and his colleagues say they are particularly pleased with collaboration between the Faculties of Arts and Science which made SRES1001 possible.
“It’s an exemplar of the benefits of interdisciplinary partnership,” Professor Kanowski says.
More
http://sres.anu.edu.au
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