The collaborative and exploratory nature of the sciences enables a truly distinctmethodology for teaching science and embodies my teaching philosophy. Throughengaging students, making them part of the teaching and learning process, assessingtheir learning goals early, and adapting course examples to student interests I placemyself in the role of a “facilitator of learning” and a cultivator of a critical and creativethought process. Rather than the “top-down” approach of teacher passing downknowledge through lecture and applying it in laboratory as seen in many other fields, I invite students to consider the basic scientific questions behind the material we cover and invite them to brainstorm how they might go about answering that questionthemselves. By guiding them along this thought process, and introducing the concepts of the course as tools and building blocks, the material gleaned becomes not only part of a working body of knowledge and a stepping stone to the next concept, but also sets the foundation of a relationship with students that is both collaborative and team oriented.
First, I believe that teaching should be approached with the same academic rigor as other scholarly activities. I strive to remain engaged with the scholarship of teaching and learning so that my teaching styles remain fluid and responsive and I use research-based principles of assessment to guide my classroom strategies. I firmly believe the instructor must maintain an integrity to the information that forms the basis of any science course and it must be their passion to inspire students to master its most difficult concepts. By demonstrating flexibility in both the examples used and assignments given, the instructor places the students at the center of the learning experience with obvious respect. From day one, the goals of the course and those of its students must come to a common ground and by inclusion of students in that process, we build for success. Through use of a variety of interactive approaches including first day questionnaires, brainstorming sessions, and email discussions, I tailor my lecture examples and lab classes to those that fit the students’ stated objective in the course. My teaching philosophy calls for an interactive, problems based approach, with discussion questions that are germane to the student’s interestsand/or current research topics in order to create an academic environment that is truly conducive to inspired student learning.
Students are encouraged to come up with alternate approaches to scientific questionsand we debate the relative strengths and weaknesses of both. By couching student contributions to discussion in the context of disciplinary methods and critical thinking strategies, I help students realize how the work in this specific class intersects with and illuminates other fields and scientific questions. This strategy has been particularlyimportant with my freshmen and sophomore students who are thirsty for a big pictureunderstanding of how their chosen career paths might intersect with this and other fields..
In addition to these in-class strategies, I have actively explored the use of technologyto improve learning, increase efficiency, assess and evaluate needs and progress, andenhance interaction with and among my students. From use of three dimensionalmodeling and visualization hardware, to bioinformatics websites, to an interactive course web-site, the goal of such interactions is to motivate students to become excited about the course material, and to become independent and skilled criticalthinkers who are able to work with each other as part of a learning community.
To that end, I also emphasize a second integration of teaching and research. The same disciplinary research that keeps me up to date and fully engaged with developments in bioinformatics, protein folding, and protein structure determination also plays an important role in course development and content. I believe exposure to recent research benefits students by including them in the most exciting, rigorous, and vibrant activities of the academic community. Although I believe in the strength and importance of the canon in building a disciplinary foundation for students, I also recognize the need to balance the canon with those voices whose challenges to and revisions of it help us to maintain rigorous examination of our field.
This same spirit of self-examination and evaluation also informs my teaching philosophy.I believe that assessment Is crucial to the success of making a connection to students and facilitating learning. I use mid-semester evaluations, minute papers, blunt classdiscussions, and other tools to assess the ongoing quality of my teaching and of mystudents’ learning. Such efforts support my desire to keep improving my teaching strategies in ways that are meaningful and effective for my students.
