Pedagogical Principles
While the Evergreen educational experience is different for every student and every faculty member, there are five pedagogical principles (known as the Five Foci of an Evergreen Education) that help structure our teaching and learning. These Five Foci are interdisciplinary study, personal engagement in learning, cooperative learning, the connection of theoretical perspectives to practice, and learning across significant differences. They should guide our thinking as we create both our overall curriculum and our program and course syllabi. The following is an overview of the nature and rationale for these principles.
Interdisciplinary Study. Evergreen has always identified itself and been identified with providing an interdisciplinary learning environment. Interdisciplinary study can have several meanings, all of which are used at Evergreen. The first involves studies that move among or between several conventional academic disciplines: the fields of inquiry represented are those of conventional departments at other colleges. A second involves studies that draw upon several conventional academic disciplines and combine their information and techniques to solve complex problems or to undertake projects that require the collaboration of disciplines. A third involves studies that go beyond conventional disciplines and open new fields of inquiry, either not yet treated by conventional academic sub-units or not effectively explored via the traditional mechanism of disciplines.Interdisciplinary work has been central to Evergreen’s pedagogy for several reasons. First, it integrates learning from several academic perspectives so students can work on the skills of analysis and synthesis. Interdisciplinary inquiry can also help students to move beyond a single position of truth or falsehood and learn how to contextualize their work on an issue or problem. Finally, we stress interdisciplinary work because it empowers students. Understanding and analysis of complex social and natural issues in the real world can include discovery of steps toward responsible personal and collective action.
Interdisciplinary study is not necessarily the same as team-teaching or collaborative work. Team teaching may or may not involve a variety of different disciplines. Two faculty members in English teaching a joint program on Chaucer and Shakespeare may not constitute an interdisciplinary study. Conversely, interdisciplinary work does not always require team teaching. A single faculty member may draw upon training, materials, or background from a variety of disciplines to illuminate an issue or theme in his or her teaching.
Personal Engagement in Learning. This principle addresses a range of issues surrounding the relation of a student to his or her work at Evergreen. A primary goal is student empowerment—enabling students to develop a capacity to judge, speak and act on the basis of their own reasoned beliefs, understandings and commitments. Students at Evergreen are required to make their own choices about their educational objectives and their courses of study. We don’t have credit distribution requirements for graduation, seminars are a primary learning activity, and our narrative evaluation system enables students and faculty to judge and be judged on the basis of their unique experience and accomplishments. The intensity demanded by the structure of Evergreen programs creates a learning environment where students feel responsibly engaged with their faculty and peers. These learning communities also enable community experiences to be incorporated into the academic discourse. We try to create an arena within which students are compelled to engage in active creation, expression and development of their ideas—both individually and collectively. Evergreen faculty work hard to develop and maintain learning environments that reinforce student engagement because it is understood that such engagement is central to creative and socially responsible learning and action.
Linking Theoretical Perspectives with Practice. Linking theory and practice is a central piece of Evergreen’s rhetoric and method. In its most general sense, this focus refers to opportunities for students to formulate theoretical understandings through applied problem solving. More specifically, this is often accomplished through small group assignments, community-based projects or internships. For some fields of study, exploration of how knowledge is used in the world is related to the study of its theory. For example, a science program may include both the development of a scientific principle and its ethical and political ramifications. This connection of theory to practice also reflects Evergreen’s fundamental commitment to a vision of education that emphasizes effective participation in citizenship. As John Dewey, Paulo Freire and others have shown us, engaging in dialectic between theory and practice provides students choices in understanding the world and in finding personal and collective strategies of responsible action. Like interdisciplinary study, the linking of theory and practice helps students place their growing knowledge in a more complex and realistic context.
Collaborative/Cooperative Work. A capacity for creating and sharing work within a context of respect for individuals and their diversity of perspectives, abilities and experiences is a central motif in all Evergreen studies. The emphasis on cooperation within the context of community is pervasive at the college. We try to model collaborative problem solving and work skills in our governance structures and in our team-teaching. In our programs and courses, using seminars and group discussions as our primary learning environments supports these goals. Beyond the seminar, most programs also use one or more of the following activities: collaborative group projects, shared critiques of writing and artistic work, the use of innovative laboratory experiences, and the use of workshop learning structures which require small-group writing and discussion.
At Evergreen we believe that cooperative and collaborative inquiry is more conducive to the creation and acquisition of knowledge than is competition. We recognize that a significant proportion of what people learn in college is learned in the process of explaining, discussion and creating understandings with others. Individualized narrative evaluations enable us to address each student’s accomplishments and progress without comparing them to others. Thus, the community, the teaching philosophy, the classroom experiences and the evaluation process are all designed to support collaborative work.
Teaching Across Significant Differences. Evergreen is committed to diversity, because we believe strongly that our students’ educational experiences are enhanced and their lives enriched in a multicultural environment. Within academic programs and outside them, Evergreen faculty and staff work with students to create a welcoming environment, one that embraces differences, fosters tolerance and understanding, and celebrates a commitment to democracy and fairness. By diversity, we mean those differences that carry social and historical significance in the modern world.
We believe that the attitudes, behaviors and skills needed to overcome intolerance and to create healthy individuals, communities and nations begin when people engage in dialogues that cut across differences in ethnicity and race, culture, social class, gender, age, and sexual orientation and identity. Seminars, collaborative projects, individualized evaluation of students’ progress and opportunities to work, both on campus and off, with people who have different world views, ethnic or class backgrounds, and life experiences are the foundations of teaching and learning at Evergreen—and all promote what we call “teaching and learning across differences.”
We put our ideas about diversity into practice in many ways. There is a wide variety of student organizations working on issues of justice and cultural expression and a diverse faculty and staff. Primary texts and guest lectures by scholars and activities from different backgrounds and identities can be used, and field trips and community projects can engage students and faculty in dialogue with diverse segments of our communities. Internships with social change organizations, support services for students of color and study abroad opportunities that include immersion in local culture, and reciprocity of learning and service, further our commitment.