George Oliver Rogers

Teaching


Current

Fall:

URPN 460 -- Sustainable Community UH 3:55 - 5:10 PM {Syllabus} {Reading List}

URSC 681 -- Graduate Seminar W 5:00 - 6:00 PM {Syllabus}

Spring:

URPN 460 -- Sustainable Community UH 3:55 - 5:10 PM {Syllabus} {Reading List}{1, 2}

LAND 640 -- Research Methods in Landscape Architecture UH 11:10 - 12:30 PM {Syllabus} {Projects}

URSC 682 -- Graduate Seminar W 4:10 - 5:00 PM {Syllabus}

Philosophy

   My general philosophy of teaching seeks ways to stimulate an active learning environment among students. I have found a participatory approach is both warranted and rewarding for the graduate students most often in my classes.   While a dialogue is one of the preferred teaching mechanisms for this kind of active participation in one's own learning, it is facilitated by the establishment and reinforcement of a knowledge foundation from which to engage in the active learning process.   Moreover, a meaningful dialogue is best illuminated in terms of some selected examples that help students understand both the parameters around the subject matter and the specific implications of the knowledge communicated.   Graduate students in particular are in transition from knowledge consumers to knowledge producers.   This means that the foci of my teaching effort are to help students understand basic principles, theoretical models, and existing knowledge that can become the cornerstones for contributing to their given field.   While teaching is always part entertainment, entertainment alone will not stimulate the kind of involvement and depth required for graduate students to become knowledge contributors.   Making the material entertaining is fun and appropriate, but focusing on the entertainment tends to be like giving hungry children candy when they need substantial food, or better yet need to know how to grow nutritionally sound foods.   Graduate students seem to learn best when they have a reinforced foundation of shared knowledge, some examples of its application to real life situations, and a problem or puzzle to be solved.   This kind of direct active involvement in their own education process seems to bring the best out of students in the graduate environment. 

Experience

Graduate           

Undergraduate