Stephen Gliessman–Teaching Statement 2000-01
Alfred Heller Professor of Agroecology, Environmental Studies

My philosophy of teaching is grounded in the belief that learning best occurs when a student can personally make the link between knowledge and experience, between information and action, and between inquiry and learning. I also believe that this most often happens when students are having fun while learning, can make personal connections to the material, and feel that they can do something with what they learn to help make a better world. Teaching for me is also as much sharing knowledge with my students as it is learning new things together with them. By exploring the world together and asking questions about what we are seeing, we all have the opportunity to learn. I am not interested in my students going through a process that just shows me what I know. I want them to take the ideas, the concepts, the knowledge, and the years of experience I have, and make it all their own, in their own ways, and then go new places and directions that I know I can't or won't have the opportunity to go. There is too much to do in today's world. We need more committed, motivated, and prepared people grappling with the world's problems in new, creative, integrative, and collaborative ways. Students who feel that they just need to learn what a teacher knows, and then repeat it back for the highest grade, are not the learners of tomorrow that we really need.

The content of my teaching revolves around the development of an understanding of how nature works and how cultures around the world have used this knowledge to develop a wide array of natural resource management systems. I feel that this content is learned best when students are immersed in and connected to the very systems they are studying. It is important to me that students learn the foundations of how nature is organized and functions, which is the focus of my teaching in ecology and natural history. I want them to be able to describe what is meant by "nature's balance," as well as what the values are of the "environmental services" that nature provides. Ideally this means spending time with organisms in their own habitats after having discussed them in class, learning not just who the organism is, but where it occurs, what its ecological history is, and what the major issues that impact its future are. Then, through my teaching in agroecology, ethnobotany, and organic gardening, I want students to apply this ecological framework to understanding how to design and manage sustainable agroecosystems and other land use management systems. I want them to be able to identify, measure, and monitor the components of sustainable systems. Then I want them to be advocates for change towards sustainability. This ultimately requires developing an interdisciplinary approach to solving problems at the interface between culture and environment. Hence, basic ecology becomes as important as social aspects such as fair trade, social justice, and the value of small family farms and their communities. Interconnectedness, after all, is an important integrating element of environmental studies.

In order to make my teaching effective, I constantly integrate the presentation of content with application. I build on the experiences I have accumulated in natural and managed ecosystems around the world, drawing upon what is now a very extensive slide collection for systems we obviously cannot directly visit ourselves during class and using every opportunity possible to combine field work with classroom study. From our small organic garden at College Eight, to classes at the Farm, to study at natural areas around the state, I am a strong proponent of hands-on field teaching when at all possible, and I willingly invest the time needed to do it. Spring Natural History Field Quarter is an excellent example. This three-course, ten-week field experience spends more than two-thirds of the quarter living in the field at several UC Natural Reserve System sites, learning natural history observation and interpretation, plant taxonomy, vegetation analysis, animal study and identification, and geology. We also learn the cultural history of each region, the issues that managers face in protecting these areas, and ways we can become involved to help the Reserves in the future. Another example is the use of the Mesoamerican companion crop of corn, beans, and squash, planted at the Farm as a living laboratory in which students can learn how to carry out an agroecological analysis of a cropping system. They also get to eat part of the results at the end of the experiment! I also strongly encourage students to follow their own ideas, questions, and dreams by sponsoring as many internships, independent studies, thesis projects, and independent majors as I can. These "outside of the classroom" activities are very important ways for students to build confidence in their own abilities to find ways to apply what they are learning to solving problems and finding new answers and solutions.

It is difficult to evaluate learning that is interdisciplinary, based on experience, and focused on issues as complex as the sustainability of human cultures in relationship with the environment. It is wonderful how our students take passionate stands on the many issues that we face, but it is also important for them to develop the tools that promote the changes needed to move society towards sustainability. I look for ways to evaluate what students have learned in my courses that integrate both content and application. Assignments ask for detail, but wherever possible I ask for this detail in the context of issues or alternatives that might promote sustainability. I strive to give feedback by making written comments in exams, papers, and narratives that go beyond being mere corrections or scores, and instead enter into exchange and dialogue. The personal field journals that students keep during Field Quarter are a good example. After every visit to a Reserve, and even sometimes during a visit, I read the journals in detail and give feedback on content, accuracy, interpretation, and writing style. By sharing the experience of learning with the student, I am looking for far more than if names are correct. I examine both what the student has learned, as well as the particular style of learning the student is developing. This has become more difficult to do as enrollments increase, but is something that students can use to evaluate what as well as how they are learning. I value both what students know and what they want to do with what they know.

I have great fun teaching, and I want my students to feel this same sense of excitement and joy while they are learning. I find that some of my most enjoyable classes are when students question what I am saying in ways that tell me they are not just accepting what I am telling them, but are showing that they are curious and looking for their own ways to use the information. When this questioning ignites curiosity and the sense of inquiry that we all treasure, I feel that I have accomplished my goals as a teacher. At such times we share in the quest for answers and understanding, knowing that there is so much new to learn at every turn. In the field, on the mountainside, helping a crop grow, searching for the hidden flower parts, or reaching the top of the sand dunes together are just some of the experiences packed with the joy of learning. Seeing students learn how to believe in themselves and the importance of what they can do, for the world as well as for themselves, is a wonderful reward. When students believe in themselves and in what they are learning, amazing things can happen. I hope my teaching helps them open up to these opportunities.