tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1812431336777691886.post2890188644975475473..comments2024-02-29T03:57:00.088-05:00Comments on The Mermaid's Tale: A new curriculum for Introduction to Biological AnthropologyAnne Buchananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09212151396672651221noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1812431336777691886.post-2609045474698933112012-03-18T12:37:38.862-04:002012-03-18T12:37:38.862-04:00Thanks for getting me thinking too Rich!
P.S. For...Thanks for getting me thinking too Rich!<br /><br />P.S. For being such a gregarious person, it's remarkable how inept I am at navigating blog comment threads.Holly Dunsworthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05260104967932801186noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1812431336777691886.post-1773378112442314102012-03-18T12:17:53.570-04:002012-03-18T12:17:53.570-04:00Hi Holly, I think we are in more accord than not. ...Hi Holly, I think we are in more accord than not. I didn't intend my post to be a critique of your approach to bioanthro. Like a good creationist, I was just quote-mining your post as a launching point to a pedagogical issue that has always interested me--the difference between description and explanation. In the classroom this can translate into the difference between learning that something works versus learning <i>how</i> something works. Memorization "works" just fine if students correctly recall a particular fact (such as the Hardy-Weinberg equation) but if I spend a lecture deriving the equation step-by-step then the students learn <i>how</i> this equation works and how it is properly deployed. <br /><br />What I should have made more clear in my previous post was that I wish I could develop each topic in terms of a first-principle approach (have the students "walk in their shoes...") as it is more effective and a better way to learn. But given all that needs to be covered in an introductory course, I'm forced to cut corners. <br /><br />In any case, I enjoyed reading your thoughtful post and it got me thinking about all sorts of pedagogical approaches, one of which was what I wrote about previously.rich lawlerhttp://www.propithecus-verreauxi.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1812431336777691886.post-23950370268128365802012-03-18T10:43:11.411-04:002012-03-18T10:43:11.411-04:00Rich, Thanks for your comments. Either I didn'...Rich, Thanks for your comments. Either I didn't write my ideas clearly enough in this limited space or you didn't understand them as I intended. It's probably a little of both. I'm not against teaching fundamental facts at all and I don't advocate retreading all the steps of all the past thinkers. I also don't pretend to expect everyone to share my goals or perspective. We must pick and choose our goals in the classroom in order to achieve something! I get that. One of my biggest aims is to encourage independent thinking. I want students discover as much for themselves as they can so that they can become independent thinkers. And with a little reorganization of the presentation (not the content per se), I've found that even in a lecture-based course, they can be lead through this discovery process and explicitly address the big questions that matter to everyone who's learning about or thinking about human evolution. I guess the difference between my intro course and some others is that I'm not interested that they know what biological anthropology is or what biological anthropologists do. I'm interested that they know how to answer the big questions about human evolution and that they gain some insight into the scientific and cultural controversies within those answers.Holly Dunsworthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05260104967932801186noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1812431336777691886.post-48333293217642326852012-03-18T10:25:19.695-04:002012-03-18T10:25:19.695-04:00Thanks everyone for your feedback!Thanks everyone for your feedback!Holly Dunsworthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05260104967932801186noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1812431336777691886.post-11499069592924028972012-03-16T23:50:34.604-04:002012-03-16T23:50:34.604-04:00I couldn't agree with you more that providing ...I couldn't agree with you more that providing a solid foundation in the facts of evolution is the best thing we can provide introductory students. Many students tell me they have never seen the data behind evolution.Cynthia Bradburynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1812431336777691886.post-77639325264783264292012-03-15T12:08:38.511-04:002012-03-15T12:08:38.511-04:00"It also leaves some students feeling like th...<i>"It also leaves some students feeling like they’re just memorizing factoids with little hope as to how to bring them all together to answer larger questions..."</i><br /><br />But it is often necessary to memorize certain facts before students can put things together. In my class I warn the students about the large amounts of facts dispensed in this class. These are the nuts-and-bolts of the discipline and without keeping your facts straight (the "facts" of transmission genetics, the "facts" of selection"), you cannot possibly synthesize anything in a coherent fashion. <br /><br />Obviously, introductory Biological Anthropology shouldn't just be a laundry list of facts, but there is no escaping that at least some of the basic "facts" of science-vs-nonscience, evolution, anatomy, etc., need to be inculcated prior to having the students develop questions/hypotheses that are worth considering. (At least within a 50 or 75 minute lecture w/220 students). <br /><br />Certainly, it is possible to avoid facts (e.g., avoid memorizing that 8x8=64) by considering first principles (e.g., proving via demonstration that eight sets of eight equals sixty-four). For example, as you note, you can "walk in Darwin's shoes" to see how he assembled the "facts" of natural selection from several inferences based on Malthus, various animal breeders, etc. However, in a semester course, it is only possible to take this approach for some material, not all of it. For me, I am satisfied with stating as fact that "changes in a DNA sequence may sometimes influence the phenotype" rather than revisit the work of de Vries, Morgan, Muller, etc. <br /><br />It took Darwin about 15 years to arrive at the concept of natural selection and de Vries, Morgan, Muller and others about 25 years or more to arrive at a "theory" of mutation; given this time frame, it makes the first-principle approach difficult to establish in a 3-6 lectures. I'm content with sometimes standing on their shoulders in order to find a shortcut, rather than walking in their shoes through the forest. <br /><br />For me, the toughest challenge in intro courses is the balance between choosing when to cut corners by dispensing facts and when to follow first-principles in a manner that doesn't omit critical information. <br /><br />What I've found effective is to spend the first 1/4 of my course on evolutionary theory, following a mix of facts and first principles, but--in order to keep this section relevant--making sure I continually draw connections and expand on what I've laid out in the first part of the course in subsequent sections. Obviously, this is not a novel approach but making sure to have real-world connections between evolutionary "facts" and day-to-day problems at least shows the students how theory articulates with their reality. I guess I still use the traditional "evolution up-front as fact and theory" but I don't just present this stuff in isolation but continue to revisit it throughout the semester.rich lawlerhttp://www.propithecus-verreauxi.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1812431336777691886.post-77776528723757539772012-03-14T20:35:35.361-04:002012-03-14T20:35:35.361-04:00This is very interesting and a good approach. The...This is very interesting and a good approach. These days, with Powerpoint or other media like that, we can all teach just the way we want, picking and choosing from topics. Textbooks rarely give everything that you'd want, or the way you want, and so you are in a dilemma of what to do.<br /><br />Nowadays, many textbooks also try to present everything the author knows about or fears that if left out some reviewer will slam the book for (and hurt its sales).<br /><br />So in this sense we live in an era of pedagogical freedom.Ken Weisshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02049713123559138421noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1812431336777691886.post-73832744725346710332012-03-14T19:36:35.668-04:002012-03-14T19:36:35.668-04:00Just like you Holly, I grew weary of textbooks tha...Just like you Holly, I grew weary of textbooks that didn't fit my sequence or focus, so a few years ago I wrote my own (published by Cengage). It's in perfect lockstep with every slide and every concept that I present. My students love it because it costs half the price of a typical textbook. But I don't promote my book anywhere because it probably won't work for anyone else's course. Looking forward to the inspiration that I can gain from yours though!Marc Meyernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1812431336777691886.post-90804174378859946412012-03-14T14:57:09.670-04:002012-03-14T14:57:09.670-04:00I find it near impossible to adequately cover all ...I find it near impossible to adequately cover all the topics found in a typical introductory biological anthropology textbook (I've lately preferred Stanford, Anton, and Allen), so I've been basically forced to do much the same. I find I have expanded coverage of similarities of humans/apes and human fossil record at the expense of much of the basics of genetics. I have the students read those chapters and give an assignment, but then take it as read. I also prefer to provide a good amount of history/development of evolutionary thought as well as a strong dose of basic evolutionary theory. Just like you, I feel this is the only place they are going to get it. If they understand nothing else, they at least have that.Terry Saladhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08877509615052180001noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1812431336777691886.post-75048559000370100022012-03-14T14:56:57.490-04:002012-03-14T14:56:57.490-04:00I find it near impossible to adequately cover all ...I find it near impossible to adequately cover all the topics found in a typical introductory biological anthropology textbook (I've lately preferred Stanford, Anton, and Allen), so I've been basically forced to do much the same. I find I have expanded coverage of similarities of humans/apes and human fossil record at the expense of much of the basics of genetics. I have the students read those chapters and give an assignment, but then take it as read. I also prefer to provide a good amount of history/development of evolutionary thought as well as a strong dose of basic evolutionary theory. Just like you, I feel this is the only place they are going to get it. If they understand nothing else, they at least have that.Terry Saladhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08877509615052180001noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1812431336777691886.post-38259401519225325852012-03-14T12:58:00.073-04:002012-03-14T12:58:00.073-04:00As other people find this post, I would love to he...As other people find this post, I would love to hear if any others are doing innovative things in their intro biological anthro classes. I've totally reorganized mine as well, with a slightly different twist. I'll write that up and try to send some people to this discussion.John Hawkshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17027862713126904206noreply@blogger.com