Global Ecology and Conservation 7 (2016) 174182

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Global Ecology and Conservation

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/gecco

Review paper

Teaching ecology at universityInspiration for change

Lina Mtwana Nordlund
Department of Ecology, Environment and Plant Sciences, Stockholm University, SE-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden

highlights
Inspiration for change for researchers teaching ecology at university.
Holistic scope and aims to present an overview of suggestions.
Ideas and suggestions based on several different teaching philosophies and methods.
Teach students how to think and act like a professional ecologist.

article info abstract

Article history: How do you, as a university lecturer, change from teacher-centered teaching to a more
Received 26 April 2016 student-centered, active teaching? This paper aims to inspire you to make a change, big or
Received in revised form 28 June 2016 small, to increase your students engagement and learning, by presenting suggestions on
Accepted 29 June 2016
what you can do. The ideas and suggestions synthesized here are based on several different
Available online 19 July 2016
teaching philosophies and methods, which are well tested and shown to be effective in the
right setting. The selection of suggestions is believed to be specifically suitable for ecology.
Keywords:
Active learning
The paper includes suggestions on how to plan a course or a lecture by setting a good
Ideas for change learning environment. Both pre-lecture activities and during lecture activities are included,
Education with a focus on activities to engage students and encourage increased discussion and
Student-centred teaching reflections, as well as what to think about when choosing learning activities and how
Learning activities and why it is important to teach students to think and act like professionals in ecology.
Higher education While changing teaching methods takes investment of time, time that is limited for many
researchers, even small changes in your teaching can make big differences in learning, and
the investment will hopefully pay back by making teaching more fun and rewarding. The
suggestions presented are understandable without being be conversant in the education
literature, but will provide you with a vocabulary of teaching activities that will be useful
if you are inspired to find more information and learn more about teaching.
2016 The Author. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC
BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Contents

1. Introduction............................................................................................................................................................................................. 175
2. Context..................................................................................................................................................................................................... 175
3. A good learning environment ................................................................................................................................................................ 176
3.1. Intended learning outcome ........................................................................................................................................................ 176
3.2. Assessments ................................................................................................................................................................................ 176
3.3. Learning activities....................................................................................................................................................................... 177
3.3.1. Pre-lecture activities ................................................................................................................................................... 179
3.3.2. During-lecture activities ............................................................................................................................................. 180

E-mail address: Lina.Mtwana.Nordlund@su.se.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.gecco.2016.06.008
2351-9894/ 2016 The Author. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/
licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
 L.M. Nordlund / Global Ecology and Conservation 7 (2016) 174182 175

3.3.3. What to think about when choosing learning activities? ......................................................................................... 180
4. Learning to think like a professional...................................................................................................................................................... 180
5. Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................................................................... 181
Acknowledgments .................................................................................................................................................................................. 181
References................................................................................................................................................................................................ 181

1. Introduction

Science education is transforming, and a large shift in pedagogical approach has taken place during the last 30 years.
The traditional model, in which the teacher lectures, the students listens and takes notes, with little time to reflect or seek
clarification, is outdated, and in contrast with current knowledge of effective science teaching. Research shows that the
change to more engaged scientific teaching techniques which involve active-learning strategies to engage students in the
process of science, and use teaching methods demonstrated to reach different students, is a widely-accepted reform, but
adoption is slow (Handelsman et al., 2004). This needed shift in teaching practice from students just learning a knowledge-
base of scientific facts to developing deeper understandings of major concepts within a scientific discipline (Tanner and
Allen, 2005), brings many challenges, not least for the individual lecturer. Many universities also retain lectures as their
central instructional method, maybe because it is economically effective, tradition, the design of the university, or that
lectures can be good (Lom, 2012). Thus, traditional lectures are the way most of us teach, have taught, or were taught when
we attended university.
This paper is especially focused on researchers teaching ecology at university. Many researchers that are teaching have
had only a few weeks of pedagogical training, if any, which adds to the challenges of advancing and developing ones
scientific teaching. I think many recognize what Patricia Prez-Cornejo is saying in her recent Science article; My later
scientific training left me well equipped to work in a lab. . . . But it never prepared me for another responsibility that is
now part of my job as a professor: teaching. or I wondered how I could teach them anything valuable (Prez-Cornejo,
2016). She had the opportunity to work with a mentor, a researcher in education, to develop her teaching skills. These
types of collaboration between researchers teaching ecology and researchers in University teaching should be encouraged
and facilitated as a means to improve University teaching, and make teaching more rewarding. In many cases funding for
teaching is mostly for undergraduate teaching, even in many research-focused universities. Further, many ecologists that
are engaged in higher-level teaching have little exposure to research on teaching and learning (DAvanzo, 2003) and the
amount of institutional support and access to literature to improve teaching and learning varies greatly across the globe.
These might be reasons why many researchers are unaware of new teaching strategies and methods, while others might
feel intimidated or insecure on how to change (Handelsman et al., 2004). It takes time to deepen the knowledge in teaching
(DAvanzo, 2003), therefore time constraint is another factor that may affect the ability to change and use new teaching
strategies and methods. Further, many faculty do not teach students how to use scientific/ecological principles and to think
like practicing biologists/ecologists, likely because this is automated thinking among researchers or assumed to be already
understood by the students (DAvanzo et al., 2008). Most students in biological sciences are required to attend at least one
ecology class; teaching ecology at university therefore ranges from large introductory classes, with sometimes up to 300
students, to very specific topics with very few students. The most effective teaching takes class size into account and is
tailored to the situation.
So, are there ways to shift to a more active, student-centered teaching just as one individual even if there is little
support from the department or the university?
This paper has a holistic scope and aims to present an overview of suggestions, big and small, high- and low-tech, which
can increase students engagement and learning, ranging from changing small elements to how to plan a whole course or
lecture. These suggestions may be useful for both junior and more senior lecturers interested in change. Maybe the change
is to insert one new element in your presentation or to include many new ideas and techniques. This change or interest
in change may hopefully also stimulate teachers to think and learn more deeply about teaching and learning ecology.

2. Context

Active, student-centered learning and teaching have been shown in multiple research lines to be more effective than
traditional lectures (Bransford, 2000; Freeman et al., 2014; Handelsman et al., 2004). It also seems that more extensively
student-centered teaching with many active-learning pedagogies, consistent formative assessment, and cooperative groups
improves learning compared to more moderate student-centered teaching in biology (Connell et al., 2016).
This paper is by no means an original description of active student-centered learning and teaching, as the ideas and
suggestions gathered here are well-tested and described in the literature, see e.g. Handelsman et al. (2004) and Dirks (2011),
but these suggestions are chosen to be included in this paper for their potential relevance and value while teaching ecology.
The amount of available literature in biology and ecology education in higher education is steadily increasing (DeHaan,
2010; Introductory Biology Project ). There are plenty of general resources for improved teaching at university available,
see for example the book Teaching for Quality Learning at University: What the Student Does by Biggs and Tang (2011).
Other suggested literature especially focused on biology and ecology are: the book by Pickett et al. (2007) about ecological
176 L.M. Nordlund / Global Ecology and Conservation 7 (2016) 174182

understanding; a review of education research in the biological sciences by DeHaan (2010); a paper about 50 key biology
education terms by Miller and Tanner (2015). Knapp and DAvanzo (2010) present seven Pedagogical Principles of Ecology.
To increase the knowledge about learning theories and their application to teaching, DAvanzo (2003), provides some helpful
introductory references, and provides good and well-tried examples of how to recognize and change misconceptions among
students in ecology.
Many papers about teaching in ecology and science in general, not surprisingly, describe education theories or research
on learning, without mentioning how to do it in practice, or with very narrow research focus. This paper focuses on what
you can do rather than the theories behind. Many educators want to make their students more active during the learning
process, but they do not know what to do and where to start, and wants to be inspired.
This paper can hopefully help to fill this need, i.e. provide a wide variety of practical ideas how to inspire and renew
the way of teaching. It is recommended to start small, and gradually change the way you teach (Tachibana, 2015). This is
especially the case if you do not want the teaching to take too much time away from the research. Despond not, small changes
can also be very effective and make a big difference in both teaching and learning. The rapid technological development we
are experiencing is really expanding the possibilities of teaching and we should take of advantage of that.

3. A good learning environment

A good start when planning a course or a lecture is to ensure constructive alignment between the intended learning goals,
the assessments, and the learning activities to provide a good learning environment (Biggs and Tang, 2011). An effective way
to do so is to use the principle of backward course design (Hodges, 2012; Wiggins and McTighe, 2005). This backward course
design suggests, in short, to start with articulating the intended learning goals; the next step is to determine how students
will demonstrate what they learnt (how to assess what they have achieved) and lastly decide class format and activities
to facilitate students to achieve the goals, i.e. aligning the learning goals, assessments, and activities. These suggestions are
applicable if you are designing a whole course, parts of a course, but also for single lectures (Table 1). So, before the lecture or
course: set up the intended learning goals, what is it that you want your students to learn, decide how they will be assessed
(the more authentic the better) or ask the course leader how they will be assessed and then plan the activities to help the
students learn (Fig. 1). This will likely save you time when preparing the learning activities and help outline what to include
in your lecture or course.

3.1. Intended learning outcome

The first step in backward course design is to decide the intended learning outcome for the students: I suggest they
should reflect the ways of thinking and practicing in ecology. For example: foundational knowledge; experimental and
other practical skills; learning in the field; higher level thinking and understanding (i.e. analyzing, evaluating and creating);
and higher level skills like arguing a case (Anderson and Hounsell, 2007; McCune and Hounsell, 2005). I tend to set up
many detailed intended learning outcomes, as it may facilitate the choice of assessment methods and learning activities
and what material to include when teaching. For example, in a lecture about marine protected area governance, some of
the intended learning outcome could be; define and explain Marine Protected Area (MPA), define and explain governance
and management, apply different types of governance on MPAs, analyze and evaluate how well different types of MPA
governance work in different settings and create or imagine a well governed MPA in a specific setting. These intended
learning outcomes, including both lower level thinking (i.e. remembering, understanding, and applying) and higher level
thinking (i.e. analyzing, evaluating and creating), makes sure all thinking behaviors which underlie learning are included
Bloom revised taxonomy by Anderson and Krathwohl, 2001 (in Krathwohl, 2002). These thinking behaviors are also
fundamental skills to become an expert in the subject, i.e. ecology. Depending on the level you teach, among early year
students the variation in knowledge is probably the biggest, and the groups larger than in more advanced classes. Regardless
of level at the university I suggest that the intended learning outcomes should include simple to more complex and
challenging types of thinking. For more examples of intended learning outcomes see Table 1.

3.2. Assessments

The second step when creating a good learning environment is to decide how to assess what the students have learned.
The idea is to make the assessment methods varied, as authentic as possible, and that the questions reflect what you want
the students to learn. Additionally, it is a good idea to investigate how the students are picturing the exams and reflect if it
is the right examination method (personal communication Stefan Ekecrantz). It is advisable to use several assessments
methods to assess conceptual understanding, e.g. only essay exams might not reveal common student misconceptions
(Kober, 2015). Variation of assessment techniques is also good to avoid that some have learned how to study for a specific
assessment method (and not to learn). Examples of activities that could be used for assessment are oral presentations,
writing assignments, review others writing, discussion seminars, posters, writing own questions, answer other students
questions and role-play. Peer review, where students review each others writing, can have many benefits for the students.
For example, they learn how to review, and end up with improved quality of their final draft (Simpson and Clifton, 2016).
 L.M. Nordlund / Global Ecology and Conservation 7 (2016) 174182 177

Fig. 1. Backward course design, step 1 intended learning outcome, step 2 assessment and step 3 learning activities. Each step has a set of suggestions that
could be useful when planning and prepare courses and lectures in ecology. There is large diversity among students, try to account for that when planning
and preparing lectures. Consider feedback, both self-evaluation and student evaluations to make your course or lecture even better next time.

There are also many types of Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATS; Angelo and Cross, 1993), which are typically used as
ungraded activities conducted in the classroom setting and as a tool for the teacher to get feedback for improved teaching.
I think CATS could also be graded and used towards final grades. Morgan et al. (2004) have written a student assessment
handbook that could be useful for further reading.
Continuing with the example of MPA governance, potential assessment techniques could be an oral presentation of a
specific MPA (different for each student, if many students divide them into groups where each student have one MPA)
where students present the governance mode of their MPA, point out and discuss pros and cons and provide suggestions
of improvement for more efficient protection. Another suggestion is a panel discussion (with role-play) where students
argue for their park, e.g. why they should receive funding for their park.

3.3. Learning activities

The third step in the backward course design is to prepare your learning activities, and this is where you can get the
students to actively engage in the subject in its various shapes and learn to master the skills, strategies and conventions in
the field of ecology (Martin et al., 2009). One strategy for active learning is to connect what the students already know with
what we want them to learn. This also improves the students ability to apply their knowledge in novel situations (Bransford,
2000; Handelsman et al., 2004). One example is to start the lecture with something from a current newspaper or relate to
significant previous events (e.g. Fukushima nuclear disaster). Hoskinson et al. (2014), present three recommendations to
increase your chances of success in student-centered courses. (1) Focus on big ideas and competencies, instead of what
topics to cover. (2) Cultivate productive interactions (for this to work there might be a need to explicitly teach collaboration
skills, and structure class activities that promote collaboration). (3) Let the students think about thinking (metacognition
mental skill knowing what we know and what we do not know), as this helps developing habits of planning, monitoring,
and evaluating their own learning (metacognitionTanner, 2012).
178 L.M. Nordlund / Global Ecology and Conservation 7 (2016) 174182

Table 1
Three examples of backward lecture design, of varying level and number of students. These examples are fairly detailed to provide an overview of how
lesson planning can be done, the focus is on intended learning outcomes and activities.

Course: Ecology (with min. requirement of 60 weeks of relevant study), Level: Course: Management of Aquatic Resources in the Tropics, Level:
Bachelor program Master program
Background: The students are already divided into working groups, there are Background: The students are already divided into working
about 75 students in this class. There are lectures, seminars, one large field groups, there are about 25 students in this class. Every Monday
project, several computer labs for statistics and computer simulations. and Friday the course leader lectures, Tuesday to Thursday guest
lectures are invited. This is a guest lecture.
Lecture: Fish ecology, 2 h (100 min) + group work with presentations Lecture: The intertidal zone, 2 h (effective teaching time
(100 min). 100 min) + a seminar on the intertidal zone, 50 min.
Intended learning outcomes (ILO) (where possible include both lower level Intended learning outcomes (ILO) Define the intertidal zone;
thinking, i.e. remembering, understanding, and applying and higher level Understand the basic processes of the intertidal system incl.
thinking, i.e. analyzing, evaluating and creating): Define and describe a fish, the tides; Ecological and social processes in the intertidal zone, incl.
structure and function of aquatic systems, and fish habitat. Understand present ecosystems; typical species; typical human activities;
fish-habitat interactions, ways to study fish ecology and what fish ecologists do. threats; research; monitoring; management; discuss and
Basic understanding of how to manage, conserve and restore fish. Apply evaluate potential management approaches. Compare different
knowledge of fish ecology to real situations; analyze and evaluate different intertidal systems.
fish-habitat interactions; create food webs with different types of fish in
different habitats.
Assessment (where possible as authentic as possible): The course use the Assessment: The course use the following methods to assess the
following methods to assess the students; written exam, 4 oral presentations. students; written exam, a 45 pages report, seminars where they
The oral presentation in fish ecology is graded per group. No formal assessment discuss scientific papers and an oral presentation. There might be
will be done during the lecture; attendance is noted for the presentation. a possibility to write one question for the large exam, and a
possibility to write about the intertidal zone as a topic in the
report. No formal assessment will be done during the lecture;
attendance is noted for the seminar.
Learning activities (where possible be varied, try to choose activities that help Learning activities: Days before the lecture, distribute two
the students to meet the ILOs; do things that work for you): Digital scientific papers that should be read before the seminar, task: to
presentation, introduce the ILOs. Explain parts of fish. Show video of fish mark a passage that is particularly interesting, that may be read
dissection. Students to draw fish. Video and picture of different aquatic systems out loud. Digital presentation (as a base for the whole lecture);
and habitats. Concept mapsgraphically organize zones of the ocean. Show start with striking images; Recall of experience (has anyone seen
interesting ongoing research and explain what fish ecologist can do. Open the a tropical intertidal zone); lecture definitions of intertidal,
floor for ideas how to manage, conserve and restore, follow up with beehive, beehive, video of intertidal and tidal range; explain about tides;
present some efficient and less efficient examples. Let students prepare for the think-pair-share about tide chartshow they work; discuss
presentation: create food webs in a specific habitat. Different groups get pictures of typical ecosystems and use of intertidal, threats
different habitats (e.g. seagrass; deep sea: damaged coral reef) and fish of digital wall everyone posts likely threats follow up with land
different trophic levels in the food web they must include. Each group present and ocean based threats. Introduce some current intertidal
one slide and describe briefly. Each group also get a set of questions they should research and monitoring. Brainstorm about interesting research
answer during the presentation (that includes analyze and evaluate their that could be done (depending on how it goes include beehive).
fish-habitat interaction, e.g. effect of trawling; reducing top predators; restoring Compare tropical intertidal systems as well as non-tropical, let
the habitat). Wrap up with summarizing the presentations, let each student students help in the comparison. Lecture about management,
write down what they found most interesting, if anyone wants to share, let post question potential constraints minute paper, talk about
them. constraints, talk about potential solutions articulate reasoning
to aloud explain how they think about solutions. Wrap up with
asking what was too simple and the most interesting part of the
lecture. Seminar: Let students choose which paper to start with,
ask someone to read an interesting passage, let everyone
comment on it. Post 3 questions, think-pair-share. In groups
discuss how the research in the papers could have been done
better, and what was good.
Course: Ecology, Level: Introductory
Background: 250 students, large lecture hall. Chosen by many as easy route.
Lecture: Ecological Theory: Island Biogeography (IB), 2 h (100 min)
Intended learning outcomes: Basic understanding of IB. Understand and define important related vocabulary. Apply IB to conservation.
Improved graphical literacy. Basic skills of comparing, analyzing and evaluating real examples of IB.
Assessment: The course use the following methods to assess the students; written final exam and 5 short tests.
Learning activities: Digital presentation, show video that introduces the concept, show important vocabulary, introduce the ILOs. Beehive,
what you already know about IB. In groups use clickers (mobile phone or laptop is enough if no clickers available) post statements discuss why
they choose which. Define IB. Examples, historic and cool. Beehive in groups. Post clicker questions. Muddiest point. Some history and
background of IB. Show few examples and model of IB. With guidance compare, analyze and evaluate a few examples (of different quality) in
groups/neighbors. Use clickers to check that they are following. Relate to conservation. End with short overview video of IB. One minute paper,
why is this important to learn about? Few people to share.

There are many and various learning activities that can be used at university, of which some are more common than
others (one reason for this might be tradition; this is how we have always done it). The purpose here is to briefly introduce
several activities, demonstrate the wide variety, and when equipped with the name of these activities, to facilitate further
research on how to conduct them. Instructions for most activities are easy to find online: even though it is rare to find
examples of how to apply them in university ecology teaching, the descriptions provide an excellent base.
Typical common learning activities are lectures, essay writing, group work, labs, and student and group presentations.
Maybe less common are for example: case studies; role-play; beehive (discuss in pairs or groups); peer review;
 L.M. Nordlund / Global Ecology and Conservation 7 (2016) 174182 179

muddiest point (student writes down what was most difficult); classroom assessment and feedback; debates; interactive
demonstrations; charting (create figures/graphs); concept maps (graphically organize information); field excursions;
authentic projects; and articulate reasoning (thinking aloud how to solve a problem). Other potentially useful activities
to engage students are minute papers (students write response to a question in 12 min), short quiz, jigsaw (several groups
solutions needed to complete the task/puzzle), round table (each student adds relevant info to the paper being passes
around), think-pair-share (think alone, discuss in pairs, then in class), and readers theater (students read relevant text
out loud). The last six examples are well described by Lom (2012). More learning activities are included in Fig. 1.
Here are some examples of how these activities can be used. A jigsaw activity in a large class: first, each group reviews
one management approach (e.g. natural resource; single species; traditional; ecosystem; or active adaptive management),
then new groups are formed with at least one member from each of the previous groups, so all management approaches are
represented, then possible pros and cons of the different approaches are discussed for a specific park. Depending on the time
available and the goal, the activity could end with a discussion, a report or a presentation. A classic example of role-play is
where the class is divided and assigned to be pro or con climate change, they read up and then discuss and debate as the
whole class or in groups depending on the number of students. During a seminar, a readers theater activity could be that a
student identifies a passage they found interesting (e.g. some interesting conclusion, or a spectacular finding) and reads it
out loud to the group, who then have to comment on it. This could be done to break the dominance of the teacher talking, or
to start engaging students, or just to shift focus. For more details or examples of learning activities see for example Oblinger
and Oblinger (2005) and Martin et al. (2009). More ideas how activities can be used are presented in Table 1.
Further, there are many interesting ways of teaching; some examples are Problem Based Learning (PBL) and authentic
inquiry or adaptations of them. The idea behind PBL is that students, while working in groups, learn about a subject through
the experience of solving an open-ended problem. The tutor facilitates learning by supporting, guiding, and monitoring the
learning process while students identify what they already know, what they need to know, and how and where to access
new information that may lead to the resolution of the problem (Savery and Duffy, 1995; Schmidt et al., 2011). Authentic
inquiry focuses on connecting the learner to the real world: it begins with the learners interest and experience, and the
questions/problemsthe process to solve the problems, as well as the results, should be authentic. The teacher provides
opportunities for students to construct their own knowledge, while the student learns through e.g. problem solving, critical
thinking, and reflections (Gasper and Gardner, 2013).
To enable reflection and discussions during lectures, not only feeding the students with information, it is crucial to include
activities that allow for that. Often, the amount of time you have with the students is limited. In addition to the examples
above, one approach to deal with this dilemma is to have the students prepared (knowledge-wise) when they come to the
lecture, and for even better results also ask them questions before the lecture. This type of teaching is often called flipped
classroom or Just in Time Teaching (JiTT). Research has shown that this type of teaching improves the students learning (see
e.g. Bergmann and Sams, 2012; Braseby, 2014; Estes et al., 2014; Gross et al., 2015; Mazur, 2009). The main thing is to get
the students engaged before the lecture, to allow for more discussion and reflection in class (not to be confused with online
distance learning). You could say that they should do the home work before the lecture and not after. This type of teaching
opens up for planning and preparing for pre-lecture activities.

3.3.1. Pre-lecture activities

There are many pre-lecture activities to engage students in learning before class; see Fig. 1 for examples. It is not
necessary, nor always useful, to do all the learning of facts before the lecture, but it can be very helpful to ensure that
all students have the same a priori knowledge base.
When trying this fairly new concept of engaging the students in learning before the lecture, it is possible to start (and
forever continue) on a small scale. For example, a pre-lecture activity could be providing the students with material showing
one 5 min video clip (e.g. from YouTube about ecosystem services) and three questions that need to be answered before the
lecture.
Depending on how much time you have for preparation of your lecture (including pre-lecture) and the intended learning
outcome, the work the students should do before the lecture can vary, but should include questions that they need to answer
or reflect about before the lecture to make the learning more effective according to the literature. The questions and answers
can then be used to identify any difficulties that students may have, to understand what needs to be explained further in
class. To succeed with these pre-lecture activities it is very important to clearly explain to the students the importance of
going through the material and answering the questions before the lecture. It might be new to the students and it can take a
while for the students to get used to it. If the course organizer will not allow such pre-lecture activities, you can still prepare
your lecture to be more student-active, by for example include beehives and one-minute papers.
Having the students conduct pre-lecture activities (that are provided by the teacher) allows them to learn facts at their
own pace, rewind where needed, take breaks, go through the material again, listen to the online lecture again, get time
to reflect and so forth. If a student drifts off in class there is not much room to repeat the last five minutes of lecture. The
learning of facts before class enables more time in class to be used for activities that aid deeper thinking and reflection where
a teacher is present and can guide them. So, instead of the students sitting alone after class trying to reflect about what they
learned during the lecture or when reading the book, they now do the fact intake before class and discuss and reflect when
the teacher is present.
180 L.M. Nordlund / Global Ecology and Conservation 7 (2016) 174182

Using our example of MPA governance, you could compile a few short YouTube videos defining governance and MPAs,
present a few written definitions, provide links to relevant papers or chapters in a book and ask a few questions about the
topic. This material could be made or compiled in e.g. a digital presentation or google form (free and very user-friendly and
you get a summary of the replies) that is shared with the students. If access to internet is limited, papers with definitions,
text with authentic examples of MPA governance and questions on the material could be distributed to the students before
the next lecture.

3.3.2. During-lecture activities

Take the opportunity during the lecture to actively engage students and allow them to discuss while they are surrounded
by their peers and have a teacher to guide them. During a lecture there are many ways to engage students actively, for
example through roleplay, debate, one-minute paper, think-pair-share, concept maps (for more examples see Fig. 1).
There are also many teaching-friendly technologies available, which can be very helpful to get the students more active
and engaged (see e.g. Brewer, 2004). One example is a common digital wall where you and students can post information in
real time (see e.g. https://padlet.com/; AnswerGarden). These types of digital wall have many possible usages, for example
during lecture gather information that students finds, or during group work to share findings and easily make it visible to
all. In low-tech environments the black board or regular papers could be used. Another example is clickers that can be useful
in the right setting (see e.g. Crossgrove and Curran, 2008; Mazur, 2009). Clickers (classroom response system) are similar
to a remote control that students use to respond to questions. These clickers can be used for different purposes, e.g. testing
if students understand; introducing a new idea; making sure everyone grasps a concept (personal communication Sren
Holst). Clickers are possible to buy, but there are also several free software that can be used on mobile or computer devices
(see for example webclicker.org; socrative; mentimeter; NetClick). Clickers are especially useful in large classes, both to
engage students and get a better understanding of the learning situation. Other low-tech solutions could be for students to
write on small notes that get compiled on the black board, or raise hands for yes/no.
Potential learning activities during the lecture could be to start with a short recap of what they should have done before
class, look at the questions together, and discuss them. Then introduce some more advanced information and include
relevant videos, show a picture and discuss it, and use e.g. clickers or a digital wall to check that the students understand.
A muddiest point (highlight what was most difficult) towards the end could be useful, and thereafter discuss and explain
the most difficult things that they encountered during the lecture. Further reading with advice on lecturing (including more
traditional lecturing) are for example Adsit (2012), Brown and Manogue (2001) and Wilson and Hampton (2004).

3.3.3. What to think about when choosing learning activities?

Learning takes time, especially when knowledge is troublesome, therefore, it is important to allow it to take time, to be
discussed and as a teacher provide guidance and tutoring to overcome the problems. We as teachers should try to tune our
teaching to target the difficulties and thus help students understand the difficulties (Hill, 2010; Perkins, 2006).
The students ability to learn differs and is likely related to their motivational factors; prior knowledge; epistemological
beliefs; values and attitudes; learning strategies and cognitive engagement; reasoning abilities; and social factors. In
a constructivist view it is important to connect students prior knowledge to the new content to be taught (Limn,
2001; Antony Burden personal communication), as talking about something that they have no experience of will be very
challenging. To make students more interested, and help them relate to things they already know, it is advisable to try to
connect what you are teaching to the real world, interesting events, their prior knowledge (if you are aware) or something
else, so the students can recall background knowledge applicable to the topic (Chamany et al., 2008).

4. Learning to think like a professional

If we want our students to become professional ecologists, we need to teach them to think and act like professionals, and
for the students to do so they need to learn, practice and be guided through the process. One way of teaching students how
to think like a professional is to share your methods and ways of thinking. Sharing the answers the following questions with
your students will take you a good step of the way: How do I (we) do it as an expert? How do I think? What do I do? Which
metacognitive operations do I use? What fruitful metaphors do I use? (Pace and Middendorf, 2004; personal communication
Lotta Jons). Maybe it is a cartoon in your mind that organizes the information or a dynamic movie, or that you look for a
YouTube clip when trying to understand something (Zolan et al., 2004).
If we want our students to possess skills that you need as a professional ecologist, for example collaboration,
interdisciplinary thinking, and strong communication skills, they need to practice those skills (see e.g. Bestelmeyer et al.,
2015). The choice of learning activities can be very helpful in this process. Thinking like a professional can help students to
move beyond the memorization of facts to a deeper understanding of biological processes, described in the decoding the
disciplines approach (Zolan et al., 2004). Further, I think Gordon Uno has a very valid point when he suggests to move beyond
simply teaching facts that are known, to using that information to illustrate and teach broader principles that help students
learn and understand in different contexts which is not yet known (Roehr, 2012). This definitely increases the pressure on
the teacher, but if done the students will be well prepared for the field.
 L.M. Nordlund / Global Ecology and Conservation 7 (2016) 174182 181

One example why it is important to teach the students to think like a professional is that there might be one or many
obstacles that will not allow them to move further in the learning, and we therefore need to share our knowledge of how
this obstacle can be removed. For example, a student does not understand (or misunderstands) what governance means,
in such a situation it would be useful for the student to know how to overcome this problem, so if the lecturer describes
what a professional would do to learn what governance means the student is provided with examples of how to tackle the
problem instead of just getting an explanation of what it is.

5. Conclusion

In conclusion, there is large diversity among students, both in knowledge and interest in learning, and to be able to reach
more students variation is important: varied learning activities and varied assessments. It seems to be most important to
have students actively engage with activities that deepen conceptual understanding, no matter where they do it (in or out of
class) for higher learning gains (Jensen et al., 2015). To create a positive learning environment, constructive alignment is very
helpful when planning lectures and courses, i.e. align intended learning goals, the assessments, and the learning activities.
This is effectively done with the principle of backward course design. If we want our students to become professionals
within our subject we need to teach them how to think and act like a professional. We need to use authentic examples
and assignments to prepare them better for the real world. I hope this paper can inspire you to try something new in your
teaching, maybe to include a two-minute beehive during your next lecture, test clickers, or a more substantial change, but
do a change that works for you and that you think will benefit your students.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to Lotta Jons, Anthony Burden, Nodi Dehvari, Natalia Kupferschmidt, Bodil Karlsson and Niclas Kolm for fruitful
discussions about teaching. Thanks to Anthony Burden and Regina Lindborg for comments on an earlier version of this
manuscript. Special thanks to Nell Hamilton for all constructive feedback. This research did not receive any specific grant
from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

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