Dr. Gregory Young, Montana State University
There is a teaching transformation that is happening now, or should be, toward more interactive learning, collaboration, teamwork, and discovery. These changes are being driven by three major forces: 1) employers want their people to be able to adapt quickly to change, to work well in teams, and to solve problems; 2) the big problems facing the world today, such as global warming, drought, poverty, and sustainable energy needs, are interdisciplinary in nature and take creativity and cooperation to solve; and 3) students want more interesting projects, learning that is more active, more social, and more applicable to the real world. Using interdisciplinary undergraduate research seminars and live musical examples, Young outlines actual teaching environments and strategies as examples, involving music, architecture, economics and neuroscience.
Gregory Young, director of the Montana State University School of Music, was Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education and founding director of the Undergraduate Scholars Program and started the MSU McNair Scholars Program. He has served as Assistant Dean of the College of Arts & Architecture, principal clarinetist with the Bozeman Symphony and the Intermountain Opera Orchestras, and Chairman of the National Conferences on Undergraduate Research. He holds a doctorate from the University of Michigan, and has taught at the University of Prince Edward Island, Memorial University of Newfoundland, and the University of Western Ontario. The United States Information Agency sponsored his concert tour of Brazil with the Kreutzer Trio and soprano Elizabeth Croy, and he has toured as concerto soloist Europe and Asia.