Oral Communication Across the Curriculum

The Forest Engineering Program at the University of New Brunswick recently identified excellent formal oral communication as a requirement for student graduation. However it recognized that there was no formal instruction being implemented to promote learning and ensure student success. In the past, students learned effective oral communication skills through osmosis, unstructured observation of others and a few organized opportunities to make in class presentations. Feedback on their performance was given summatively and little or no formative feedback was ever provided

Finding Balance in the Educational System: A Problem-Based Learning Experience

In the early 1990s the faculty of Forestry and Environmental Management became aware of the inability of students to integrate what they had learned and their inability to apply it (Zundel et al., 1994). Industry was telling them that they required graduates that were good problem solvers. At about the same time, faculty members were reading a book entitled Educating the Reflective Practitioner, by Donald Schon. The book suggests that professionals should be engaged in a process of thoughtfully doing things or reflection-in-action. As a result the faculty became interested in problem-based learning

Outcomes Based Education, PBL and Kolb’s Learning Cycle Help Forest Engineering Students Learn Forest Operations Planning...

The ability to ‘design and analyze natural resource management plans at multiple scales while adhering to principles of sustainability’ is one of the learning outcomes of the Forest Engineering Program at the University of New Brunswick. One dimension of this outcome is the ability to design and analyze multi year operating plans. The purpose of this paper is to describe the teaching and learning approach used to help students acquire and demonstrate this ability