Teaching Philosophy
There are three tenets to my teaching philosophy. First, I feel
that students learn more effectively and retain more information when
there is continuity in the curriculum between lecture and lab, from
course to course and from department to department. This
philosophy is reflected in my desire to continue to work with students
at all levels of their undergraduate career. I have greatly
valued teaching the 100 level General Chemistry course and would
welcome additional opportunities to do so again. Having these
students again in the 300 level Biochemistry course has allowed me to
build a personal rapport and insure that the themes and skills learned
early on continue to expand at the upper level. Because of the
interdisciplinary nature of biochemistry, I have worked to foster
communication both within the Chemistry department and between the
Chemistry and Biology departments. For example the design of the
new Bio-analytical Chemistry laboratory complements and builds upon the
Experimental Biochemistry course. Also, certain topics
covered in Genetics are also covered in the biochemistry lecture
section. Through careful communication with fellow faculty
members, I have been able to provide students with a greater depth of
understanding and continuity in their education on these particular
topics. Finally, my work developing an exciting, inquiry based
biochemistry laboratory program has both given me an insight into the
topics and concepts that are particularity obtuse in the classroom and
allowed me to reinforce laboratory skills taught in other courses.
The second tenet of my teaching philosophy is that students benefit
from being continually challenged to work at a higher cognitive
level. As part of this philosophy I work to provide
students with the tools necessary to build their “chemical intuition”
and relieve them of their failsafe of blindly memorizing
everything. This philosophy is reflected in my test questions
that require students to design, modify and evaluate new sets of
parameters. Even though I am primarily teaching in a
lecture-based format, I value interaction from the students during
class. Currently I use a Socratic style to encourage deeper
answers. When possible I try to draw upon additional
disciplines whether it is a historical context, a relationship to
research or to current events. This has allowed students to make
correlations and drive their thinking to higher cognitive levels.
The third part of my teaching philosophy is to maintain flexibility
within my current and proposed curriculum. This allows me to meet
the intellectual and future professional goals of the students,
continue my development and be a “team” player both within the
department and between departments. To facilitate the needs of
the students I have been employing a two-part assessment tool.
The first part is administered at the beginning of the semester and
asks student about their expectations, goals, learning styles and
background. I use this information to adapt the course content to
meet their needs and reinforce their previous experiences. The
second assessment tool is given at the end of the semester and measures
the effectiveness of my strategy. Thus far I have used the
results of the assessments to 1) modify the scope and style of the
homework assignments, 2) improve organization of lectures and 3) limit
repetition between courses. A second avenue that has allowed me
to maintain flexibility has been a concerted effort to use a paperless
classroom. Lectures, handouts and assignments are available via
the campus network and can be modified and distributed a moment’s
notice. One of my future teaching goals under this philosophy is
to adapt the Just-in-Time Teaching strategy to fit the 300 level
biochemistry classes. I believe this represents an innovative
advance in teaching pedagogy.
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