Knapp
 “I strive to teach in a manner that will facilitate experiences that challenge the mind and, more importantly, stimulate the heart.”
—Douglas Knapp |
President’s Award for Teaching
Excellence
Before 1993, many classes in outdoor recreation and resource management taught at the Department of Recreation and Park Administration were conducted almost entirely indoors.
Then-brand-new faculty member Douglas Knapp took it upon himself to revitalize the curriculum and make sure that outdoor recreation students spent plenty of time in the field—that is, in the great outdoors. Learning, he believed, happened best through hands-on experience.
In developing his teaching philosophy, Knapp took his cue from John Dewey, who wrote in Experience and Education (1938), “I assume that amid all uncertainties there is one permanent frame of reference: namely, the organic connection between education and personal experience.”
To that end, Knapp might require his students to lead their own labs to outdoor sites where they offer a resource site analysis to the rest of the class, to develop an ecosystem management plan for a new park site, or to offer local elementary school students environmental lessons and activities.
Knapp’s innovative and thoughtful teaching has been rewarded with two Trustees Teaching Awards, two Teaching Excellence Recognition Awards, a listing in Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers and selection as “best professor at IU” by the Bloomington Voice newspaper in 1997. He was elected to IU’s Faculty Colloquium on Excellence in Teaching in 2001.
His methods are “driven by a sound philosophical approach, pedagogical effectiveness and a strong research program,” said Lynn Jamieson, chair of the Department of Recreation and Park Administration at IU Bloomington. “He uses creative and innovative teaching approaches that engage the student.”
As Jamieson noted, Knapp’s teaching excellence is thoroughly grounded in his extensive research in pedagogy. The focus of his research has been on the impact that informal education programs have on their constituents, and the results of his studies have been consistently integrated into his own classrooms.
Judging from both the enthusiasm and the success of his students and former students, there is no doubt that his efforts in—and out of—the classroom have paid off.
“Some teachers teach history or math or recreation; Doug teaches people,” said former graduate student and Cannon Scholar Elizabeth Barrie. “And in the end, that is what makes Doug a truly great teacher. With all of his knowledge and interest in interpretation and environmental education, he never loses sight of the individuals he teaches.”
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