I follow a blog written by palontologist Dr. Scott Sampson. Earlier this month he wrote an article about transforming education, emphasizing the need to teach ecoliteracy and evoliteracy for the sake of protecting civilization (big claim...but I agree). Here is my comment on transforming education based on personal experience:
"I agree and want to extend your point to other disciplines outside of biology in order to make the argument that educators must enable pupils to 1) experience their subject and to 2) understand the function or purpose of what's behind the thing they are learning. I recall many of my history lessons being compilations of dates and random people - I was memorizing out of context and without an ability to relate to my subject matter. I think the reason why I gravitated towards biology was because I innately connect with that subject through my experiences hiking and exploring. Also, oftentimes in math, I never understood the function or relevancy of what I was learning given my practice sets. As soon as I realized the function of statistics, however, learning became 'second nature' (whereas before it was a topic I avoided entirely).
Once we can experience our subject, we can engage with it and are compelled to learn.
Visual representations of our subjects can help us experience our subject matter, and we are fortunate to enter an age where graphic design is advanced enough to reenact many topics that were originally only able to be described schematically. Take animations of the living cell, for example, or reenactments of famous battle scenes or dinosaur interactions (like the ones seen on the Discovery channel) - by bringing to life what otherwise could not be visualized, students become engaged and learning occurs automatically.
Also, if only educators could teach topics from a functional perspective, I feel that students would be able to look at challenges and problem-solve more efficiently. Teaching organismal biology, for example, from a functional perspective helps people understand why biodiversity exists (as opposed to organizing life via complexity). Likewise, if math could be taught to include relevant examples, students could understand the function of why one would need math in everyday challenges. For example, the purpose of quadratic equations could be explained showing an example where non-linear regression was needed to determine statistical significance of a particular data set (so important in real life).
Ecoliteracy and evoliteracy are HUGE topics that need more attention. By getting students to experience nature and the process of evolution as well as to put ecology and evolution into a functional perspective (ie ecosystem services and natural selection), educators will enable young people to connect their textbook knowledge with conservation and sustainability (merge knowledge/memorized facts with relevancy)."
Once we can experience our subject, we can engage with it and are compelled to learn.
Visual representations of our subjects can help us experience our subject matter, and we are fortunate to enter an age where graphic design is advanced enough to reenact many topics that were originally only able to be described schematically. Take animations of the living cell, for example, or reenactments of famous battle scenes or dinosaur interactions (like the ones seen on the Discovery channel) - by bringing to life what otherwise could not be visualized, students become engaged and learning occurs automatically.
Also, if only educators could teach topics from a functional perspective, I feel that students would be able to look at challenges and problem-solve more efficiently. Teaching organismal biology, for example, from a functional perspective helps people understand why biodiversity exists (as opposed to organizing life via complexity). Likewise, if math could be taught to include relevant examples, students could understand the function of why one would need math in everyday challenges. For example, the purpose of quadratic equations could be explained showing an example where non-linear regression was needed to determine statistical significance of a particular data set (so important in real life).
Ecoliteracy and evoliteracy are HUGE topics that need more attention. By getting students to experience nature and the process of evolution as well as to put ecology and evolution into a functional perspective (ie ecosystem services and natural selection), educators will enable young people to connect their textbook knowledge with conservation and sustainability (merge knowledge/memorized facts with relevancy)."
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