Teaching entomology: moving from paternalism to active learning

Abstract

We propose a shift in the traditional way to teach Entomology for undergraduate and postgraduate courses. We envisage a system in which undergraduate and postgraduate students interact, discussing Entomology outside the classroom. This would get them to actively seek for knowledge, rather than being paternalistically told how they should learn. Such a system does not preclude lectures as a didactic strategy, nor it rules out lecturers as responsible for instructorship. On the contrary, we believe lectures and discussion outside classroom are complementary for effective teaching. Our results show that undergraduate and postgraduate students who interact outside classroom are able to get better grades even when submitted to traditional written tests. Moreover, it seems that postgraduate students who get involved in such a system get permanent jobs faster than those postgraduates not taking part in it. Apparently, the key here was that when discussing outside classroom, students are allowed to think freely, rather than simply accumulating information taught in classroom. In doing so, they transform information into knowledge, and therefore, are able to solve even unforeseen problems.