Teaching in Eden: Lessons from Cedar Point

Teaching in Eden is about a teacher’s rebellion against the paradigms of higher education as they are manifested in the trenches–the introductory classrooms of large, research-oriented universities–the rebellion against standardized lectures and multiple choice exams, against the increasingly web-driven, audio-visual environment in multi-media teaching auditoriums, and against an educational bureaucracy’s definitions of success. The idealism that fuels this rebellion is a direct result of John Janovy, Jr.’s experience in field biology teaching a program known as the Cedar Point Biological Station in Nebraska, a place the students and teachers there have dubbed Camelot in recognition of its isolated beauty, its special instructional qualities, and its vulnerability.
This utterly unique book comes out of Janovy’s quarter century of teaching science at Cedar Point. Any teacher who reads this book will immediately change the way he or she approaches any subject, no matter whether that subject is biology, history, literature, or art. And any concerned parent who reads it will immediately begin asking his or her children about teaching techniques being used in their university classes. Remarkable in their potential, the tools Janovy provides are simple instructional devices that require only a teacher’s time and the courage to break out of the existing constraints to discover and assemble the elements of an ideal instructional environment.

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