Environmental Studies Jobs in Education and Academics: Working Conditions: Traditional Settings
The term traditional setting as used in this section refers to schools that offer formal classroom training via courses or programs of study. In this section we will address the three traditional settings where an educator can expect to teach courses in environmental studies. Those settings include middle schools, high schools, and colleges and universities.
Let’s begin by examining tasks and duties that environmental educators share, regardless of the level at which they teach.
Developing a Teaching Plan
A teaching plan, whether it be for a two-week unit, a thirteen-week marking period, the semester, or an entire academic year can be a formidable task for a beginning teacher, no matter what the school level. It is best to start with an overall, broad list of the objectives of the course or unit and break the task down into manageable parts. Then it is relatively easy to carve out day-to-day lectures, presentations, activities, assignments, and discussions. Try for variety in your presentations. You can sometimes have a lecture-oriented class but sprinkle in educational video clips, in-class readings, group work, and discussion. Or try the Socratic approach in which you draw the information from the students instead of lecturing at them.
Developing Meaningful Assignments
Another skill that teachers learn is the development of meaningful assignments. Students, with too much frequency, speak of assignments in other classes where their instructor said, “Give me a twenty-five-page term paper on , and it is due on the last day of class.” You fill in the topic, any topic. Such general assignments lack direction and purpose. Assignments should improve students’ research, organizational, writings and critical- thinking skills. They shouldn’t be assigned just for the purpose of giving students something to do. Reading a thirty-page paper for content, clarity, mechanics, and grammar is a daunting task, let alone reading, perhaps, thirty of them! For a paper to help the student learn, there must be timely and effective feedback. You cannot simply read the paper and slap a C+ on it. There must be commentary, suggestions for improvement, and encouragement. The assignment of thirty-page papers will likely prevent you from making effective comments. A ten-page (or shorter) paper, when returned quickly, with solid criticism, where the student has the opportunity to improve his or her work is often superior to a “minibook” of thirty pages. In addition, having the paper due at the end of the semester will prevent the student from reviewing the paper and making improvements. There may not even be an opportunity for the student to receive any feedback at all!
Evaluating Student Progress
Perhaps one of the most difficult skills that a new educator must acquire is the ability to evaluate a student’s progress. This skill does not come automatically or even easily. It requires effort, practice, experimentation, and trial and error. Fair, objective, and timely grading policies are essential. Sometimes assignments reinforce the notion that the students did not distill the amount of knowledge that you had planned or that they’d missed the point of the presentation or demonstration. You thought it was clear; maybe it wasn’t. Yet grading assignments, essays, and exams can also be rewarding. When you read a clearly expressed thought that shows the student has synthesized information, you are filled with a sense that you have successfully imparted knowledge. Those are the exciting moments that make teaching so worthwhile!
Accommodating Different Learning Styles
One of the skills that an educator must develop is that of accommodating different learning styles. Most people would likely teach in the way that they learn best. Some people learn from a lecture very easily while others need to be able to see flow diagrams, photographs, schematics, and maps, and rely on connections between verbal examples and concrete materials. Still other students must have a participatory experience in order to fully grasp concepts. Educators develop techniques that are aimed toward a variety of these learning styles so that all students can benefit from a presentation. Perhaps you will incorporate a number of teaching styles in a single class meeting, or perhaps over the course of a few weeks you will present it in different ways.
Now let’s compare and contrast several factors as they relate to the two settings we’ve been discussing, middle and high school versus college.
Typical Workday Responsibilities. Comparing the middle and high school work environment to that of the college setting is difficult because, even though teachers work in all three levels of education, their duties, responsibilities, and schedules are quite different. For example, many college professors don’t take attendance in their classes and some don’t even require it. The middle and high school teacher, on the other hand, must be careful to account for each and every student, each and every hour. Middle and high school teachers meet frequently with parents to discuss student progress or other issues. College professors seldom, if ever, have such meetings.
College professors have significant freedom to teach what they believe to be the truth; sometimes such issues are controversial, but owing to the maturity of the audience, subjects can be covered that could not be broached with younger students. The teaching schedule for the middle and high school teacher is often quite rigid with little flexibility, while at the college level, there is sometimes the opportunity to cancel a class, reschedule for another hour, or hold a meeting outside the prescribed time frame for the course. Teachers at the middle and high school levels frequently have five to seven class meetings per day. They often have a free period when they can regroup, work on assignments, grade papers, prepare for the next class, or have a peaceful lunch. College professors, on the other hand, have classes that meet with much less frequency. Typically, professors at institutions where the primary focus is on teaching might be assigned three to four classes per semester that each meet two to three times per week for a total of nine to twelve hours. At large research institutions, professors are often responsible for one to two classes per semester in addition to their research and writing, Of course, there are lots of other duties and expectations for the college professor, including committee work and office hours.
Student Behavior. Another significant difference between the middle and high school setting and the college setting has to do with student behavior. Discipline is not a problem for the majority of college and university professors. Most college-age students do not disrupt classes. They have chosen to pay a sum of money to be in attendance. College students want to learn. There are exceptional cases where a student behaves inappropriately, but these are few and far between. At the middle and high school levels, however, dealing with student behavioral problems is a daily part of the teacher’s job. Additionally, most colleges a universities don’t enforce dress code, while very strict dress codes are in place at many middle and high schools.
Classroom Management. If you have prepared for a teaching career in the middle or high school classroom setting, you most likely have taken a number of education courses where you first observed a classroom, then learned how to develop lesson plans, and finally learned to manage a classroom. You likely became aware very quickly that classroom management can be challenging. Students in middle and high schools are not there necessarily because they wish to be. There often is lots of resistance to learning, and many adolescents try to impress their friends and classmates, often with disruptive behavior. Classroom management is a skill that can be learned. Over time most teachers develop a very good set of techniques to handle various situations, and you will too.
College and university professors, surprisingly enough, usually have had no formal training in this area. As mentioned earlier, this is not often a problem at this level. But classroom management is not confined merely to disciplinary matters. Timing and pace are critical. Did I deliver this material effectively? Did the students follow the material? Was my presentation well organized? Did I allow enough time for questions? Was the pace too slow or did I dwell on a single point too long? All of these are management issues that you will learn to deal with as your experience grows.
Supervision. College and university professors receive much less direct supervision compared to middle and high school teachers. For example, college professors may go weeks without hearing from their department chair outside of department meetings, while principals are much more attentive to supervisory responsibilities.
Scope and Depth of Environmentally Related Courses
Middle school and high school teachers will primarily teach individual courses that include environmentally related subjects, while college and university teachers focus their attention on specific kinds of environmental subjects. A note is appropriate here on environmental education at the middle and high school levels. Few public schools have distinct courses that focus on the environment. A new teacher would most likely be able to include units that emphasize the environment in an earth science, chemistry, or biology class, but it is less likely that the teacher would be given the opportunity to deliver a course with a primary focus on environmental issues. Higher education has many more opportunities to focus solely on environmental issues. The remaining four paths—environmental policy, planning, and management; environmental sciences; environmental technology; and environmental engineering—are all areas in which the college or university environmental studies professor might specialize.
Academic Freedom
Creativity and content at the middle and high school levels are limited by local and state standards. Certain topics must be thoroughly addressed. You have some input into the material covered, but you are governed by external forces such as local school boards and state boards of education. It is likely that course textbooks will be selected by someone other than you. They may not be the latest editions, and the material could be out of date. It is your job to use the best material from these texts and add in more current information of your own from other sources. There are ways, then, that you can be creative even when you find yourself in a restrictive environment.
The college or university setting is very different from middle or high school. The level of freedom and creativity is not remotely comparable. A committee of the discipline responsible for the course usually governs course content for introductory classes. But the development of upper-level classes is usually at the discretion of the faculty member offering the course. This is where creativity enters the profession, because the topics covered are those that you regard as important or interesting. Not a committee, not a school board, nor a state or federal mandate.
Other Duties
You can expect lots of other duties aside from teaching science classes. Often, middle and high school teachers are expected to monitor study halls, take a turn at lunchroom duty, and act as chaperones for various activities. There are department and schoolwide meetings to attend and parent-teacher conferences to prepare for. Some teachers are asked by their students to act as advisers for clubs or the yearbook. Some serve as a coach for an athletic team or a club sport. None of these activities are to be regarded as exceptional; they are merely part of a typical day. Attendance records; evaluations; grading of quizzes, exams, and essays; and preparation of report cards will consume your time. Most of this work is accomplished outside of school hours. Planning for classroom presentations, creating meaningful activities, designing assignments, and preparing lectures demand a great deal of time and energy. But preparation of these sorts of materials and activities is fun!
Teaching in Traditional Settings
Here are some final notes to consider.
All That Time Off! You might have noticed that we didn’t mention the amount of time away from the responsibilities of the classroom. Sure, educators at all levels do enjoy long breaks. But those breaks are simply from classroom meeting time. Most educators will spend much of their break time working. There is an endless parade of meetings, planning sessions, curriculum development workshops, reading, lecture writing, course revision, professional development, research, travel to professional meetings, and committee meetings. But even with all of these demands, you still have considerable flexibility during your time off. You have a large measure of control over when, where, and how you focus your time and effort.
The Reality of Teaching. Some aspects of a teaching career in middle and high schools are not all positive, and you are likely already aware of many of these. Student behavioral problems are principal among these. Lack of sup port from both parents and administrators is often cited by veteran teachers as an issue. Declining budgets resulting in a lack of resources have been suggested as problems for decades. And dealing with an uncooperative school board is a difficulty encountered by teachers in some districts.
Those interested in teaching in higher education also need to be aware of several kinds of situations. It can be very difficult to get tenure, and some candidates do not get a decision until well into their service period at the school. In addition, some universities face the budget challenges often found at the middle and high school levels. This can result in facility degradation, old equipment, and inadequate library holdings.