Statement of Teaching Philosophy
Philosophy
My goal for each of my students, regardless of whether or not they plan to go on to a scientific career, is to gain an appreciation and understanding of the scientific process so that they are able to critically evaluate scientific information that they come across in their futures. In past courses I have taught, I borrowed from the styles of teachers I admired, including Dr. Steve Vogel of Duke University. Dr. Vogel was known to fling objects into the classroom launched from a trebuchet he built, and then he would speak to the students about the mechanics of how the catapults worked. One of the lessons that I have adopted from his teaching style is how to ensure students come away from a class having experienced the physical world of plants and animals first hand, so that they gain a greater appreciation for the natural world. Being able to share this amazement of the natural world is one of my main reasons for teaching.
Active and Experiential Learning
Biology classes unfortunately often have a reputation for being difficult or boring. When I’ve asked students to describe what happens in an introductory biology class, many students reply that they have encountered confusing terminology, or that they have trouble memorizing every detail of a frog’s anatomy without ever understanding the bigger picture. For many students, biology thus becomes synonymous with rote memorization, which drives many students away from the field. Biology is more than the memorization of specialized terminology – it is the study of life and how life works.
Sharing this amazement of how life works is the reason I love to teach, and it is the underlying motivation behind every successful scientist I know. Also, sharing this amazement allows me to engage with my students more, which meets my goal of encouraging scientifically-literate students, regardless of their career choice. Bringing enthusiasm and curiosity to my classroom helps my students improve their critical and creative thinking as they learn the scientific method. For me and my students, fun is not the opposite of rigorous; rather, engaging in enjoyable activities is a complement to learning rigorous principles. For example, in my anatomy classes, I use specialized coloring books as a way to better learn new difficult anatomy terminology. Students color in the anatomy word and then color the corresponding body part; my student test results showed increased retention after this type of learning activity. Also, when I teach classes about animal vision, I have my students try on special upside-down goggles or other optical filters that let them see for themselves how different animals may experience the world rather than only read about it on a powerpoint slide.
Smaller class sizes are typically more conducive to interactive work, but even when giving a lecture to a larger audience, I pause to check on the student’s level of engagement with the material by having non-graded one-question quizzes. Additionally, I survey my students for feedback halfway through the course. I have found that students appreciate having a say in how the class is going before it is over, and hearing their comments allows me to tailor my teaching style to meet the current needs of all my students. My final evaluations demonstrate that students appreciate this open dialogue and my efforts to make classes interactive.
Preparation
In the decade I’ve spent developing my teaching philosophy, from my first Teaching Assistant position to my current position mentoring undergraduates as a Postdoctoral Fellow, I have made it a point to be involved in as many teaching experiences, workshops, and training classes as possible. I completed a Certificate in College Teaching, which gave me pedagogical training and involved taking classes on how to best teach to a diversity of students, which I hope will help me better serve my students. Also, I completed a Preparing Future Faculty program, which helped me explore what type of institution would be best for my teaching and research skills. I worked with a mentor, Dr. Christine Stracey, and gave invited class lectures at a liberal arts college, Guilford College, which reinforced my idea that a close-knit community of faculty, staff, and students bound by a shared love for the living world is my ideal environment.
As a culmination of earning my Certificate in College Teaching and completing the Preparing Future Faculty Program, I designed and taught my own course, Extreme Animal Adaptations. I was awarded the competitive Bass Fellowship by the Duke Graduate School where I developed this course that was entirely new to the Biology Department. My 14-person seminar was an advanced animal physiology class, and each week my students learned about a particular adaptation or physiological system via discussions and interactive activities. Once per week, the students led the discussion, and we critically evaluated the primary literature. This approach encouraged the students to see how science is relevant to their lives, even when talking about extremely strange animals. Over the course of the semester, I noticed that my students gained confidence in their own critical thinking skills. As one student wrote about my class, “Laura empowered us to disagree with a study’s methodology and conclusions… You don’t have to have spent thirty years in the field to have a legitimate scientific perspective.”
As a Postdoctoral Scholar at UC Irvine, I supervised several chemical engineering graduate students, where I learned how to guide research projects and teach students how to publish their work in journal articles, all while communicating science across disciplines. Now, as Postdoctoral Fellow at the Air Force Research Lab, I have the opportunity to mentor college students during focused internship projects. I also recently developed a new short course in Sensory Biology that I will teach next semester to undergraduate students through a collaboration with the University of Florida Research Engineering and Education Facility. Together, these teaching and mentoring experiences have helped me learn how to reach a diversity of students with different learning styles, and have prepared me to supervise independent undergraduate projects.
Developing as an Educator
I am constantly seeking to improve my teaching effectiveness with ongoing professional development and through listening to feedback provided by my students. In all of my classes, students learn the foundations of a certain topic as well as how that topic is integrated into the larger world of biology and other science disciplines through active experimentation and group exercises. I strive to make my classroom a setting where book learning and field research are combined into an immersive experience, invaluable for developing critical thinking skills.
My goal for each of my students, regardless of whether or not they plan to go on to a scientific career, is to gain an appreciation and understanding of the scientific process so that they are able to critically evaluate scientific information that they come across in their futures. In past courses I have taught, I borrowed from the styles of teachers I admired, including Dr. Steve Vogel of Duke University. Dr. Vogel was known to fling objects into the classroom launched from a trebuchet he built, and then he would speak to the students about the mechanics of how the catapults worked. One of the lessons that I have adopted from his teaching style is how to ensure students come away from a class having experienced the physical world of plants and animals first hand, so that they gain a greater appreciation for the natural world. Being able to share this amazement of the natural world is one of my main reasons for teaching.
Active and Experiential Learning
Biology classes unfortunately often have a reputation for being difficult or boring. When I’ve asked students to describe what happens in an introductory biology class, many students reply that they have encountered confusing terminology, or that they have trouble memorizing every detail of a frog’s anatomy without ever understanding the bigger picture. For many students, biology thus becomes synonymous with rote memorization, which drives many students away from the field. Biology is more than the memorization of specialized terminology – it is the study of life and how life works.
Sharing this amazement of how life works is the reason I love to teach, and it is the underlying motivation behind every successful scientist I know. Also, sharing this amazement allows me to engage with my students more, which meets my goal of encouraging scientifically-literate students, regardless of their career choice. Bringing enthusiasm and curiosity to my classroom helps my students improve their critical and creative thinking as they learn the scientific method. For me and my students, fun is not the opposite of rigorous; rather, engaging in enjoyable activities is a complement to learning rigorous principles. For example, in my anatomy classes, I use specialized coloring books as a way to better learn new difficult anatomy terminology. Students color in the anatomy word and then color the corresponding body part; my student test results showed increased retention after this type of learning activity. Also, when I teach classes about animal vision, I have my students try on special upside-down goggles or other optical filters that let them see for themselves how different animals may experience the world rather than only read about it on a powerpoint slide.
Smaller class sizes are typically more conducive to interactive work, but even when giving a lecture to a larger audience, I pause to check on the student’s level of engagement with the material by having non-graded one-question quizzes. Additionally, I survey my students for feedback halfway through the course. I have found that students appreciate having a say in how the class is going before it is over, and hearing their comments allows me to tailor my teaching style to meet the current needs of all my students. My final evaluations demonstrate that students appreciate this open dialogue and my efforts to make classes interactive.
Preparation
In the decade I’ve spent developing my teaching philosophy, from my first Teaching Assistant position to my current position mentoring undergraduates as a Postdoctoral Fellow, I have made it a point to be involved in as many teaching experiences, workshops, and training classes as possible. I completed a Certificate in College Teaching, which gave me pedagogical training and involved taking classes on how to best teach to a diversity of students, which I hope will help me better serve my students. Also, I completed a Preparing Future Faculty program, which helped me explore what type of institution would be best for my teaching and research skills. I worked with a mentor, Dr. Christine Stracey, and gave invited class lectures at a liberal arts college, Guilford College, which reinforced my idea that a close-knit community of faculty, staff, and students bound by a shared love for the living world is my ideal environment.
As a culmination of earning my Certificate in College Teaching and completing the Preparing Future Faculty Program, I designed and taught my own course, Extreme Animal Adaptations. I was awarded the competitive Bass Fellowship by the Duke Graduate School where I developed this course that was entirely new to the Biology Department. My 14-person seminar was an advanced animal physiology class, and each week my students learned about a particular adaptation or physiological system via discussions and interactive activities. Once per week, the students led the discussion, and we critically evaluated the primary literature. This approach encouraged the students to see how science is relevant to their lives, even when talking about extremely strange animals. Over the course of the semester, I noticed that my students gained confidence in their own critical thinking skills. As one student wrote about my class, “Laura empowered us to disagree with a study’s methodology and conclusions… You don’t have to have spent thirty years in the field to have a legitimate scientific perspective.”
As a Postdoctoral Scholar at UC Irvine, I supervised several chemical engineering graduate students, where I learned how to guide research projects and teach students how to publish their work in journal articles, all while communicating science across disciplines. Now, as Postdoctoral Fellow at the Air Force Research Lab, I have the opportunity to mentor college students during focused internship projects. I also recently developed a new short course in Sensory Biology that I will teach next semester to undergraduate students through a collaboration with the University of Florida Research Engineering and Education Facility. Together, these teaching and mentoring experiences have helped me learn how to reach a diversity of students with different learning styles, and have prepared me to supervise independent undergraduate projects.
Developing as an Educator
I am constantly seeking to improve my teaching effectiveness with ongoing professional development and through listening to feedback provided by my students. In all of my classes, students learn the foundations of a certain topic as well as how that topic is integrated into the larger world of biology and other science disciplines through active experimentation and group exercises. I strive to make my classroom a setting where book learning and field research are combined into an immersive experience, invaluable for developing critical thinking skills.