Danny Minahan PhD

I am a behavioral ecologist and sustainability educator by profession. In my personal time I enjoy being outside as much as possible, running, hiking, and camping in the desert, and enjoying slow reflective walks in whatever place I find myself. I have been professionally involved in education for 20+ years, with diverse experiences that range from guiding outdoor leadership expeditions in the American West, to designing and implementing collegiate level biology and ecology courses in both the United States and Israel.

If you are looking for a quick academic overview, see my Curriculum Vitae

My philosophy

Education

I view education not solely as a formal process, but also as an ongoing informal process from within. It is from this place, from the perspective of internal reflection and inquiry that formal education thrives. When formal instructional frameworks incorporate an exploration of the inherent curiosities of students, interest in understanding course content grows, which naturally leads to improvement in student outcomes.

The world has entered an era where seemingly unlimited information, of variable accuracy, is available at the click of a button, or through the prompting of an AI tool. This has rapidly shifted, and will continue to shift the way in which humans learn and understand the world. The most important knowledge one can possess now and into the future goes beyond absorbing facts and identifying connections, to also include a practiced capability for discerning the quality of the information given, accounting for uncertainty, and ultimately reconciling new information with what is already known based on personal experiences. To do so necessitates that all people, whether inside or outside the classroom, know how to learn, know how to critique information, and know how to articulate observed challenges and identify potential solutions. This is the first part of what I hope to contribute through The Ecological Bridge. By incorporating the same way of thinking that is followed in formal research frameworks (e.g., the process of science) as a fundamental component of formal and informal educational systems, at all levels of organization.

Social cohesion

Not only are these metacognitive approaches to teaching and learning able to improve student outcomes within educational frameworks, but so to strengthen frameworks of communication throughout the world. In this era of 24/7-365 days a year news cycles, and reliance on social media as a primary source of information, together with growing social and geopolitical polarization, the capacity to discern reliable from unreliable information, or good faith, from bad faith information dissemination has become nothing short of essential. Such metacognition skills will be a necessary if we as a global community which to promote and implement frameworks that promote reconciliation and build bridges among peoples kept separate, and as “others” by modern power structures (e.g., local, regional, and national governments, social media companies, and agenda driven news outlets).