Fall 2003

Teaching Innovations

Classroom discussions, readings, group projects and a community service component to classwork all enhance the learning environment at HWS. But many faculty members take that learning experience to new heights.

by Kathy Marshall

What do pre-dawn gatherings at Taughannock Falls, strolls through New York City’s South Bronx borough and banquets in which 55 percent of those in attendance sit on the floor and eat rice have in common? 

"On the Ropes" in Professor Jack Harris' Sociology of Community class.

Yes, they are all required elements of course syllabi at HWS, but they were all also purposefully developed by professors as significant teaching tools.

Professor of History Susanne McNally started teaching about food more than two decades ago, but it’s only been a few years that she’s taught the “History of the World Food Systems” in the manner in which she does now. These days she opens the course with a banquet in which students, by drawn lots, dine in a fashion representative of the way wealth and food is distributed around the world; later she sends the students out to “hunt and gather” edible foods in their environs so they realize the knowledge necessary in feeding oneself in some situations.
“Both the subject and these pedagogical devices are concrete demonstrations of connections between their liberal arts educations and their lives,” explains McNally. “These mechanisms make the point that what you learn matters in regard to real life decisions.”

Having taken students on travel abroad, Sociology Professor Jim Spates and Economics Professor Pat McGuire knew the transformative affect of such experiential learning. They eventually joined forces to teach the bidisciplinary course “Two Cities,” which includes not only classroom work and outside readings, but two trips, each of several days in length, to visit the cities of New York and Toronto. The readings and other class requirements are interesting, but a review of the trip itineraries makes it clear to students that the trip will be among the grandest experiences of their lifetimes.

“What could be more satisfying, with more educational benefit, than reading Jonathan Kozol’s Amazing Grace and then walking through the South Bronx to see where it was set and to meet Rev. Martha Overall, the main character in the [true] story?” asked Spates. “Or viewing Return to Regent Park and then traveling to Toronto to more clearly see the cultural differences identified in the story?”

“This gives the students a ‘street-level’ view,” added McGuire, “and that’s a fabulous teaching tool.”

As it happens, students in the “Two Cities” course benefit on several levels, say the professors. They are not only introduced to two cities, but cities in two countries, viewed through two disciplines—and taught by two professors of quite distinct and varied beliefs. “Jim and I are real friends and have a genuine respect for one another in the classroom,” said McGuire, “but we disagree in many sociological and economic areas, and we set those disagreements free in front of the students so that they see that tension and better understand, we hope, how differing perspectives develop and must be tolerated within society.”

In “Sociology of Community,” Sociology Professor Jack Harris sets out not only to teach his students about what “community” means, but to also have them actually develop their own community. Groups design their own utopias, complete with a mission, governing principles, costumes, dances and songs.

“It’s important, if we are to take the sociological concepts of community to the level of personal relevance, that the students engage in this class in deep and multiple ways,” said Harris.
Students first sign a member agreement, with such stipulations as “we will be respectful of other members and agree to give trust to and receive trust from other members,” “we will agree to use a consensus model in decision-making,” and “we will make every effort to use ‘I statements’ and to avoid putting other people in a defensive posture.”

Students watch the world become light at Taughannock Falls, challenge themselves on a ropes course, camp together, do community service projects in the area, and dine at potluck dinners which allow students to express themselves through their food contributions.

“We all learn so much about what it means to be a member of a community through these activities,” said Harris. “Reading the books is a good start, but experiencing community in these very real ways makes the subject more meaningful to all of us.”

Hosted by Trustee James Spira ’64, students take a tour of American Greetings headquarters in Cleveland, Ohio.

What these professors do to enhance the educational experience of their students is both creative and demanding, but McNally, McGuire, Spates and Harris are not unique. Approximately 60 percent of the HWS faculty now use Blackboard technology, which allows them to offer their classes a 24/7 experience – readings, e-mails, discussion groups, and audio and visual supplements are all online and available any time a student wants to log on. Harris uses Blackboard for all his classes. In his “Sociology of Vietnam” course, which is a live video class shared with students at Union College, he is able to make the sights and sounds of Vietnam come alive for students whenever they want to work on class projects.

Professor of Women’s Studies Margaret Weitekamp teaches students about the power of personal histories by helping them take oral histories from William Smith alumnae. Math and computer science professor John Vaughn leads a first-year seminar titled “The Hand-Made Tale,” in which students actually build working models of original inventions while exploring the connections between certain influential inventions and the consequences these inventions have had on the world. Wes Perkins from the sociology department and David Craig from the chemistry department join forces to teach students about the chemical and the sociological aspects of alcohol consumption. Science faculty like Professor of Environmental Sciences John Halfman and Professor of Chemistry Carol Parish directly involve students in their own research to help illustrate the relevance of their course material, and as reported in this issue’s story about the Finger Lakes Institute, students actually develop proposals for real projects on campus.

The bottom line: professors at Hobart and William Smith are fully engaged in their mission to teach a liberal arts curriculum in ways that contextualize students’ learning experience within the larger framework of their world.