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Teaching Statement and Philosophy
My primary goal as an educator is to help students learn to solve complex problems in biology. This involves supporting them as they build conceptual frameworks and a rich library of biological examples. It also includes frequent practice of problem-solving skills such as synthesizing information, identifying relevant questions, and breaking a complex problem down into pieces that they can solve. Whether students continue in research, medical professions, or other areas, such skills are an essential part of a biology education.
Biological concepts can never exist in a vacuum; everything we study is connected to the science of real organisms. Students struggle to learn without concrete examples; as such, I emphasize teaching real examples that are explicitly connected to our conceptual objectives. This was a fundamental piece of the design for my Genetics of Species Interactions course, an advanced seminar course which put equal weight on conceptual background and case studies. Each week addressed one type of interaction; one meeting wass background material and theories, the other was devoted to discussions of primary literature articles illustrating recent research in the area. Students practiced reading and talking about the literature, and saw concrete examples of how scientists are currently asking questions about the concepts that they were learning.
I implement student-driven learning in multiple classroom contexts. In Genetics of Species Interactions, students were responsible for leading the weekly paper discussions, with minimal input from me. Assignments in that course were designed so that that students could choose an interaction to analyze while still engaging in common learning objectives, such as comparing between taxa. For the final project they chose an interaction, identified a novel question, drafted an abstract for early feedback, and wrote a research proposal for studying that question. Choosing a topic that they found of interest increased student engagement, and provided them with very valuable experience in synthesizing background information, identifying a question, and designing experiments, all essential skills in any scientific context. As skills such as leading a discussion or devising a research question may be new to some students, classwork and assignments included multiple, small-stakes opportunities to practice and get feedback from peers and from me.
For similar reasons, I prefer inquiry-based lab exercises. As a TA, I found that modifying a previously “cookbook” lab to a more inquiry-based model, in which students were given flowering plants and support but devised their own question within the topic of pollination, increased self-reported student engagement and learning. As I develop lab activities for my own courses, I will emphasize inquiry-based projects in which students will practice both practical and conceptual problem-solving in a scientific context.
As an instructor, one of my central responsibilities is to improve students’ abilities to synthesize central concepts to solve complex problems. I give students opportunities to practice working on problems and giving feedback individually or in small groups during class time and at home. In-class lectures and activities present material in discipline-typical ways, particularly emphasizing the “classic” graphs, giving students practice interpreting the same materials that experts use. When students struggle, I try to guide them through solving the problem with a series of questions, giving them a chance to observe how I break down problems as well as practice doing so themselves. I also introduce students to a variety of tools for organizing their thoughts. These have included a comparison matrix contrasting different tests for selection; completed proceeding an inquiry-based activity, it decreased student confusion about the subsequent exercise, and improved the quality of their interpretations of their data. Other students have had significant success using graphic organizers, idea webs, and other creative visual tools to illustrate their understanding of the subject.
I take equity and achievement gaps in the classroom as critical challenges to address. Acknowledging that innate biases are inevitable, I seek both to identify and understand mine as thoroughly as possible, and to create a course design and classroom environment that minimizes their power. This includes practices such as reaching out directly to all students who perform poorly on the first exam and asking them to come talk to me about strategies for success; this has increased the number of students at my office hours, including students from under-represented groups. I use rubrics to make grading more transparent and less subjective, and incorporate course design elements, such as student-driven and inquiry-based learning, that have been shown to support increased success among under-represented groups. I seek to create a community in which all students feel welcome as valued members, and to actively discuss issues surrounding diversity in STEM.
I have experience designing and teaching a new course, Genetics of Species Interactions, a small seminar for advanced students. I have also three semesters of experience as a teaching assistant for Genetics and Evolution, a large (>300 student) introductory course where I taught two lab sections, assisted students during class, and gave a guest lecture. My teaching and research experiences have included topics in genetics, ecology, and evolution, and I would be comfortable teaching courses in any of those areas, botany or other plant sciences, or advanced courses in topics such as molecular evolution, the genetics of complex traits, population biology, or evolutionary genetics.
One thing I’ve learned while teaching is the extent to which effective teaching is not simply the result of intuition or inherent talent, but rather the instructor having an understanding of how students learn and developing a library of techniques to use. I engage in continuous self-reflective teaching practices, which include keeping a journal and asking students for frequent, short anonymous feedback. I work to incorporate student feedback from evaluations (Instructor, TA 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017), both working to improve on topics that students have identified as weaknesses, such as including more visual components to my lectures, and to build identified strengths. I have actively sought out opportunities to develop as a teacher; these have included courses taken online and through the Duke Certificate in College Teaching, mentoring and professional development through the Preparing Future Faculty program, and receiving the Bass Instructional Fellowship to design and teach my own course.
Biological concepts can never exist in a vacuum; everything we study is connected to the science of real organisms. Students struggle to learn without concrete examples; as such, I emphasize teaching real examples that are explicitly connected to our conceptual objectives. This was a fundamental piece of the design for my Genetics of Species Interactions course, an advanced seminar course which put equal weight on conceptual background and case studies. Each week addressed one type of interaction; one meeting wass background material and theories, the other was devoted to discussions of primary literature articles illustrating recent research in the area. Students practiced reading and talking about the literature, and saw concrete examples of how scientists are currently asking questions about the concepts that they were learning.
I implement student-driven learning in multiple classroom contexts. In Genetics of Species Interactions, students were responsible for leading the weekly paper discussions, with minimal input from me. Assignments in that course were designed so that that students could choose an interaction to analyze while still engaging in common learning objectives, such as comparing between taxa. For the final project they chose an interaction, identified a novel question, drafted an abstract for early feedback, and wrote a research proposal for studying that question. Choosing a topic that they found of interest increased student engagement, and provided them with very valuable experience in synthesizing background information, identifying a question, and designing experiments, all essential skills in any scientific context. As skills such as leading a discussion or devising a research question may be new to some students, classwork and assignments included multiple, small-stakes opportunities to practice and get feedback from peers and from me.
For similar reasons, I prefer inquiry-based lab exercises. As a TA, I found that modifying a previously “cookbook” lab to a more inquiry-based model, in which students were given flowering plants and support but devised their own question within the topic of pollination, increased self-reported student engagement and learning. As I develop lab activities for my own courses, I will emphasize inquiry-based projects in which students will practice both practical and conceptual problem-solving in a scientific context.
As an instructor, one of my central responsibilities is to improve students’ abilities to synthesize central concepts to solve complex problems. I give students opportunities to practice working on problems and giving feedback individually or in small groups during class time and at home. In-class lectures and activities present material in discipline-typical ways, particularly emphasizing the “classic” graphs, giving students practice interpreting the same materials that experts use. When students struggle, I try to guide them through solving the problem with a series of questions, giving them a chance to observe how I break down problems as well as practice doing so themselves. I also introduce students to a variety of tools for organizing their thoughts. These have included a comparison matrix contrasting different tests for selection; completed proceeding an inquiry-based activity, it decreased student confusion about the subsequent exercise, and improved the quality of their interpretations of their data. Other students have had significant success using graphic organizers, idea webs, and other creative visual tools to illustrate their understanding of the subject.
I take equity and achievement gaps in the classroom as critical challenges to address. Acknowledging that innate biases are inevitable, I seek both to identify and understand mine as thoroughly as possible, and to create a course design and classroom environment that minimizes their power. This includes practices such as reaching out directly to all students who perform poorly on the first exam and asking them to come talk to me about strategies for success; this has increased the number of students at my office hours, including students from under-represented groups. I use rubrics to make grading more transparent and less subjective, and incorporate course design elements, such as student-driven and inquiry-based learning, that have been shown to support increased success among under-represented groups. I seek to create a community in which all students feel welcome as valued members, and to actively discuss issues surrounding diversity in STEM.
I have experience designing and teaching a new course, Genetics of Species Interactions, a small seminar for advanced students. I have also three semesters of experience as a teaching assistant for Genetics and Evolution, a large (>300 student) introductory course where I taught two lab sections, assisted students during class, and gave a guest lecture. My teaching and research experiences have included topics in genetics, ecology, and evolution, and I would be comfortable teaching courses in any of those areas, botany or other plant sciences, or advanced courses in topics such as molecular evolution, the genetics of complex traits, population biology, or evolutionary genetics.
One thing I’ve learned while teaching is the extent to which effective teaching is not simply the result of intuition or inherent talent, but rather the instructor having an understanding of how students learn and developing a library of techniques to use. I engage in continuous self-reflective teaching practices, which include keeping a journal and asking students for frequent, short anonymous feedback. I work to incorporate student feedback from evaluations (Instructor, TA 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017), both working to improve on topics that students have identified as weaknesses, such as including more visual components to my lectures, and to build identified strengths. I have actively sought out opportunities to develop as a teacher; these have included courses taken online and through the Duke Certificate in College Teaching, mentoring and professional development through the Preparing Future Faculty program, and receiving the Bass Instructional Fellowship to design and teach my own course.
