April 4, 2002
Oceanography teaching expert to offer innovative tips during quarterly forum
“So, How Do We Change the Way We Teach? An Answer” is the topic of the spring Quarterly Forum on Teaching and Learning, scheduled for 3:30–5 p.m. Tuesday, April 9 in the Walker Ames Room, Kane.
The forum speaker is Dean A. McManus, School of Oceanography. “For 30 years, I lectured to my classes, and then, over several quarters, I made a complete shift to cooperative learning — students learning in groups,” McManus said. “How did I make this change? What principles guided me? I had to be willing to be proactive, to take risks. And the unexpected results were fascinating.”
McManus is professor emeritus in the School of Oceanography at the UW, where he has specialized in geoscience education, geological oceanography, and continental shelf sediments. McManus changed his teaching format in 1994, then from 1995 to 1998 he was a National Association of Geoscience Teachers (NAGT) Distinguished Speaker, giving workshops on cooperative learning and seminars on using the World Wide Web for student projects and implementing recommendations from the 1996 NSF review of undergraduate science education.
During this time he also presented in the NAGT Workshop on Innovative and Effective Teaching in the Geosciences and, as a member of the American Geophysical Union Committee on Education and Human Resources, organized five special sessions at national AGU meetings. He currently is author of the ongoing column “In the Oceanography Classroom,” in Oceanography, the official magazine of The Oceanography Society.
The forum is co-sponsored by the Center for Instructional Development and Research (CIDR), The Graduate School, the Teaching Academy, the Faculty Council on Instructional Quality (FCIQ) and the School of Oceanography. To attend, RSVP by sending your name and department to: rsvp@cidr.washington.edu.
