Environmental Education in the 21st Century

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Environmental Education in the 21st Century
Pfirman et al., Chronicle Feb 11, 2005

• Background material for CEDD Session
• May 21, 2009
• Stephanie Pfirman, Barnard College

2
Educational trends
3
LEAP Proportion of employers who say colleges
and universities should place more emphasis than
they do today on
http//www.aacu.org/LEAP/index.cfm
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Pedagogy for the 21st Century

• Learner at the center
• Multiple learning styles
• Adapts education to learning needs of each
  individual
• Repertoire of teaching strategies and skills
• Traditional education systems fostered the
  obedience demanded of the manufacturing workforce
• Future education must nurture creative and
  collaborative skills. Knowledge available at the
  click of a mouse -- learning to apply it requires
  teachers who instruct, facilitate, guide, and
  support

Equipping Every Learner for the 21st Century,
2008Developed by the Centre for Strategic
Education, Cisco Systems, Inc., and McKinsey
Company
5
Pedagogy for the 21st Century, continued

• 3. Interdisciplinary and project-based work
• In complex areas, learn how to draw on multiple
  disciplines and recognize interdependence
• Working in teams, link between 21st century
  skills and the pedagogy used to impart them
• 4. Authenticity
• Appeal to existing interests
• Integrate real-life experiences into lessons
  students do not just make an architectural
  drawing, they actually build a structure on the
  school lawn.
• Learning that extends beyond the classroom into
  the community, the wilderness, the workplace, and
  the virtual world

Equipping Every Learner for the 21st Century,
2008Developed by the Centre for Strategic
Education, Cisco Systems, Inc., and McKinsey
Company
6
Pedagogy for the 21st Century, continued

• 3. Interdisciplinary and project-based work
• In complex areas, learn how to draw on multiple
  disciplines and recognize interdependence
• Working in teams, link between 21st century
  skills and the pedagogy used to impart them
• 4. Authenticity
• Appeal to existing interests
• Integrate real-life experiences into lessons
  students do not just make an architectural
  drawing, they actually build a structure on the
  school lawn.
• Learning that extends beyond the classroom into
  the community, the wilderness, the workplace, and
  the virtual world

Equipping Every Learner for the 21st Century,
2008Developed by the Centre for Strategic
Education, Cisco Systems, Inc., and McKinsey
Company
7
Environment Moving Beyond Earth Systems
Science
Presented by Tim Killeen, NSF AD for Geoscience,
CEDD winter meeting, 2008
8
Growth in Environment/Sustainability/
Sustainable Development How has environmental
student enrollment changed over the past five
years?Vincent and Focht (CEDD Curriculum Study,
in prep.)
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Potential for New Environmental Masters Degrees
Shukla and Freeman
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Environmental Alumni

• Results from Harvard/CEDD Pilot Survey

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When did you decide to pursue an Environmental /
Natural Resources degree?
Shukla and Freeman The Alumni Career Survey
--National Bureau of Economic Research, Harvard
Science and Engineering Workforce Project
(http//www.nber.org/sewp/), Council of
Environmental Deans and Directors. Phase I of
survey administered by 15 schools to their alumni
from the class of 2005, 157 responses, Response
rate 27
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What was the primary reason you decided to enter
an Environmental / Natural Resources program in
college?
www.sierraclub.org/grassroots/stories/00025.asp
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Employment
Shukla and Freeman
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Career Choice
Shukla and Freeman
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In college, who gave you the most VALUABLE
advice about potential career options?
New Green Economy NCSE January 2010
Shukla and Freeman, CEDD/Harvard Alumni Pilot
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Interdisciplinary Student Advising

• Students in interdisciplinary programs tend to be
  less well served than students in departments
• Advisors with dual affiliations are more
  comfortable advising about courses and careers in
  their own disciplines
• This is especially unfortunate given that women
  and minorities appear to be disproportionately
  attracted to these programs (Jill Schneiderman,
  Vassar)
• Institutions have a responsibility to provide
  them with more advising and career services than
  is standard for other departments, and to support
  that advising through increased staffing (Hempel
  and Pfirman, program review)

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Curricular Content

• CEDD Curricula Survey

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CEDD Survey of U.S. Environmental Programs
Curriculum Models and Core Competency Areas

• Identified 840 programs at 652 institutions
  awarding 1183 degrees
• Response rate 31 - 260 programs at 238
  institutions awarding 343 degrees
• 73 baccalaureate
• 20 masters
• 7 doctoral
• Sample representative in Carnegie Class, census
  region/division, program type (level, name)

Distribution of Institutions with Environmental
Programs
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CEDD Curriculum SurveyVincent and Focht (2009)

• Cluster analysis discovered three clusters for
  both undergraduate programs and graduate
  programs
• 1) a natural science focused cluster
• 2) a social science and humanities focused
  cluster
• 3) an interdisciplinary, problem-solver cluster
• These undergraduate programs had higher
  percentage of growth than those in the natural
  science focused cluster

A total of 260 program leaders at 238
institutions participated in the survey for a
response rate of 31. They provided information
on 343 degree programs (69 named Environmental
Sciences or Environmental Studies).
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Vincent and Focht (2009) Ranked Consensus
Factors for Undergraduate Degree Programs

• Knowledge
• social sciences and humanities,
• (2) sustainability, applied sciences and
  management,
• (3) interdisciplinary understanding
• (4) life sciences
• (5) physical sciences

• Skills
• (1) management skills
• (2) technical research and communication skills
• (3) cognitive skills
• (4) social research and communication skills
• (5) decision-making skills

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CEDD Environmental Curriculum Study Survey
Findings Relevant to Sustainability Shirley
Vincent and Will Focht

• ca. 30 of all ID environmental degree programs
  consider sustainability a core principle in their
  curricula
• gt 50 include sustainability concepts in required
  coursework
• -----
• 86 rate the importance of sustainability in
  program curricula as modest to high

Vincent, S, and Focht, W. (2009) US Higher
Education Environmental Program Managers
Perspectives on Curriculum Design and Core
Competencies Implications for Sustainability as
a Guiding Framework, International Journal of
Sustainability in Higher Education (in press).
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Sustainability/Climate

• November 2007, 6,000 students traveled across the
  country to participate in the three day Power
  Shift Conference outside Washington, DC, to learn
  about global warming and to lobby Congress
• 10,000 are expected in 2009

• Undergraduate environmental programs that include
  sustainability report higher rates of growth over
  the past 5 years (ca. 238 institutions)
• Vincent and Focht (CEDD Curriculum Survey)

http//sierraclub.typepad.com/scrapbook/2007/11/po
wer-shift-200.html
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(No Transcript)
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Academic Preparation
Shukla and Freeman
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Curricular structure
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Beyond Earth Systems Science
Presented by Tim Killeen, NSF AD for Geoscience,
CEDD winter meeting, 2008
27
(No Transcript)
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How to Develop Expertise?

• Measuring researcher interdisciplinarity
• Alan L. Porter, Alex S. Cohen, David Roessner and
  Marty Perreault, 2007, Scientometrics

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Importance of Capstone Experience

• I guess, I just wanted to see what you are up to,
  and also to thank you because as I look back to
  Barnard, one of the memories that come up in my
  mind most often is all the classes that I took
  for the Environmental Science major, and even
  writing my thesis...(which I must admit, back
  then, I could not understand the purpose of
  writing one, but now as I look back... I realize
  that a lot of the projects that I am working on
  now resemble small theses... the research, the
  timing, the developing of the ideas... the
  editing and the collection of all thoughts into
  one small project...)." January, 1999.
• This student graduated in 1997 and last we knew
  was working as a Sr. Statistical Analyst for an
  Investors Service

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Academic home
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Environmental Program AnalysisBarnard, Bates,
Bowdoin, Colby, Colgate, Colorado College, Hobart
William Smith, Lewis Clark, Middlebury, Mount
Holyoke, Whitman

• Common Directions
• Local environmental engagement and service
  learning
• Interdisciplinary student research
• Building community
• Common spaces and resources connecting via GIS
• Campus greening programming

Jill Bubier (Mt. Holyoke) and students at a
wetland research site in New Hampshire Photo by
Ralph Morang
EST May 2005 Pfirman, Hall, Tietenberg PKAL
2005 Hall, Tietenberg and Pfirman
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Common Challenges

• Staffing courses
• Cross-departmental commitments
• Team teaching
• Staffing activities
• Balancing education and scholarship
• Program management
• Service learning
• Campus greening
• Student internships

• Diversity
• Faculty
• Students
• Junior people (women) in difficult positions

EST May 2005 Pfirman, Hall, Tietenberg PKAL
2005 Hall, Tietenberg and Pfirman
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Recommendations from Mellon Review

• Institutions should take responsibility for
  interdisciplinary programs, students and faculty
• Invest in community building (on campus and off)
• Incentives and rewards for cross-departmental
  contributions
• Staff programs
• Institutionalize faculty career path

EST May 2005 Pfirman, Hall, Tietenberg PKAL
2005 Hall, Tietenberg and Pfirman
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Spectrum of Interdisciplinary Involvement
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interdisciplinary faculty
Pfirman et al., Chronicle Feb 11, 2005
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Stereotypes of Disciplinary vs. Collaborative,
Interdisciplinary Students/Scholars?

• Disciplinary
• Quantitative
• Tough
• Self-driven
• Independent
• Assertive
• Self-promoting, take credit for successes
• Careerist
• Risky science within the mainstream/consensus
  science
• Focused, task oriented
• Quick to publish, get ideas out
• Productive
• Competitive
• Command-and-control leadership (e.g. lab
  hierarchy)

• Collaborative, Interdisciplinary
• Relational, qualitative
• Friendly, nice
• Concerned about others and their welfare
• Helping
• Socially sensitive, listening
• Communal
• Less careerist
• Interdisciplinary science
• Multitasking
• Synthetic
• Not competitive
• Consensus oriented, democratic leadership

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Different Approaches to Interdisciplinary
Research and Education
Rhoten and Pfirman, 2007a,b
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Support Multiple Levels of ID Res Ed
New directions sabbaticals Course
development Multiple authors,
PIs Co-teaching Centers Joint majors, linked
courses Research practice, applications Civic
engagement
Intrapersonal Cognitive Connections
Interpersonal Collegial Connections
Inter-departmental Cross-field Connections
Stakeholder Community Connections
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Rhoten and Pfirman, 2007a,b
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Convene Around Complex ProblemsEngage faculty
through the affective as well as cognitive realm

• Seminars/Workshops
• MacGregor workshop
• One book -- Chandler-Gilbert Community
  College
• Global Learning -- Whitman
• Field experiences
• River Summer -- Pfirman, Kenna, Barnard/Lamont/
  Environmental Consortium of Hudson Valley
  Colleges and Universities

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Recognize Initiative and Reward Success

• Everyone wants to others to recognize their
  significance
• Citations, Book reviews, Fellows of Professional
  Societies
• Create campus awards for env. teaching and
  research

Who will deliver on Americas Promise The Future
Professoriate W. Plater, J. Schuster, J. Gappa,
AACU Seattle 2009
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Make Time Faster Better Teaching?

• Use the entire campus that fact that faculty
  and students are together
• Link engineering, economics, psychology, geology,
  ethics, business, policy, public health
• Align curricula with learning goals
• Minors/Concentrations/Masters
• Sustainable Development (Columbia)
• Entrepreneurship (Trinity)
• Leadership (Barnard)
• Innovative pedagogy
• Social networking as a learning tool?

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Potential of New Approaches to EducationHere
Comes EverybodyThe Power of Organizing without
Organizations Clay Shirky, 2008

• Most of the barriers to group action have
  collapsed, and without those barriers, we are
  free to explore new ways of gathering together
  and getting things done.
• When a real once-in-a-lifetime change comes
  along we with the experience are at risk of
  regarding it as a fad.
• young people are taking better advantage of
  social tools , extending their capabilities in
  ways that violate old models

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Looking ahead

• Students
• Develop student capacity to meet the needs of the
  global community adopt Pedagogy for the 21st
  Century?
• Connect to entrepreneurship?
• Agencies/business
• May be getting ahead of us?
• Faculty
• Need to catch up
• Develop the will, capacity, incentives, and
  administrative support for faculty to change and
  then take changes to scale