Teach different: The CREATE pedagogy for ecology and evolution.

Abstract

Globally, teaching has changed and innovated profoundly in the last 3 years. With novel and more seamless opportunities to use technology and more actively teach visually online or in-person and to engage in inclusive dialogue within and between groups, we can teach very differently now. An innovation proposed a number of years ago and revisited anew in a recent and novel application to ecology and evolution course offerings, and the CREATE pedagogy or Consider, Read, Elucidate the hypothesis or purpose, Analyze and interpret data or evidence, and Think of the next Experiment is an inspiring framework for unique student work and teaching. CREATE proposes that students engage in active reading through specific exercises that are both creative and heavily anchored in critical thinking when working with publications. Here, the palette of CREATE exercises is expanded further for ecology and evolution and affirms that this approach to student engagement with literature can be highly effective in many courses. Furthermore, the application of this pedagogy dramatically influences and likely enhances how one teaches in a lecture setting as an educator making the content in all modalities more engaging and active.