Hear from Agriculture Prof. Mike Kaller

Transcript

So formally in my courses there's feedback provided, usually written feedback with every formal assignment that goes to the process. So, whether it be the proposal documents, the web pages, the inset collections that they carry. But there's also a lot of informal feedback that goes on in these courses when we have discussions of let's say discussions of images. I show the human dimensions of people engaged in natural resource activities hiking and hunting and fishing and camping. We have a lot of discussions about those images and how they relate to the different theories of decision making regarding natural resources. And during those discussions, when people make an exceptionally good point I always try to stop and have the class kind of digest which has happened and analyze what just happened. It's somewhat embarrassing; sometimes the students all you've talked about your class and thank them for being a good sport and in pretty engaging, but I do warn them throughout the semester, this is going to happen. So I will. We’ll stop them, we’ll break down a response and we'll analyze-- What were the strengths of that response? What were the weaknesses? Were they effective in that response? Did they advance the discussion--that's a point I like to make is does a response advance the discussion and get us deeper in the critical thinking and analysis of the situation, or does it detract? You know and sometimes we have to acknowledge when things detract and discuss that, yeah that statement was made, but it didn't help anything it didn't advance our discussion.