When I started my teaching career, my view was that teaching excellence was about proficiency in learning and teaching that particular subject’s core topics and theories. Accordingly, I used to spend a lot of time learning those topics, theories, and how to teach those theories. Accordingly, my approach was narrow and very objective to those topics. While on the one hand, this approach was useful as it aimed at developing the best class knowledge in the area, there was also a problem with this approach, and that was, it resulted in an isolated view of the topic from the real-world applications.

My approach to learning and teaching changed when I was doing my research work with a professor, Olaf Fischer, who taught me that I need to develop connections between the topics with the real world and that it is imperative to develop an abstract and high-level view. The professor told me to step back and also develop a helicopter view in addition to the core details. Initially, I was not convinced of this approach, but later on, I realized that this approach has several benefits in both learning and teaching. First of all, it helps to develop a clear picture of the topic and enriches the details of the core topics. Second, a high-level model is more appealing to the students and audience as it is more informative and intuitive than the core details which are usually technical and sometimes difficult for students to grab. Third, a high-level conceptualization also helps students to relate the topic to their own experiences. Relating a high-level picture to our daily life experiences is much easier than that of technical details. Finally, high-level knowledge is more appealing to people who do not belong to that discipline. So for instance, if you want to convince policymakers, then presenting technical models is not very useful rather information must be presented through high-level models. However, these high-level conceptualizations must be supported with core technical details.

This was an important learning lesson for me that has transformed my teaching approach. Now when I teach my students, I always try to start and end the discussion with these high-level details. They make take the form of policy-making suggestions, moral or ethical aspects, or applications of technologies and theories in sustainability, or potential applications in advancing human progress.