Newswise — New ideas and approaches for better teaching are common to all who are interested in learning. The Society for Range Management seeks to address gaps between what students are learning and what employers and other stakeholders need and value. While nurturing modern rangeland professionals is the society’s focus, its objective is a dialogue about innovative teaching methods.
A special issue of Rangelands focuses on teaching and learning in the rangeland ecology and management discipline. However, it presents concepts of learning that can be applied at all levels—K-12, college and university students, and adult learners.
The authors examine how teaching and learning occur, and they discuss methods of approaching education. For example, an article addresses finding new ways to assess knowledge, skills, and abilities beyond “teaching to the test,” which teachers and students alike can find frustrating.
Best practice approaches to curriculum and course development from Rangelands Australia are introduced in another article. These include a unique graduate degree program that reaches practitioners in the field through a hybrid of online and field coursework. Additionally, new courses have been created based on how rangeland management and industries will evolve in the next 10 to 15 years.
Other authors recognize that technology must be incorporated into teaching—even about natural resources. Technology can provide useful learning tools for scientific fundamentals, core competencies, and workplace skills. It can also offer lifelong resources of reliable information, such as the online sources Global Rangelands, eXtension Rangelands, and the Range Science Information System.
The special issue also addresses adult and employee learning, including how the Bureau of Land Management approaches its workforce training and education needs. One of these aspects is how professionals and educators can best reach the general public, with its wide range of ages, cultures, and educational levels.
Full text of “Teaching to Learn and Learning to Teach: Education in Rangeland Ecology and Management” and other articles in this issue of Rangelands, Vol. 34, No. 3, May 2012, are available at http://srmjournals.org/toc/rala/34/3.
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