Teaching Philosophy
Science provides endless questions to be answered, hypotheses to be proposed, and experiments to be conducted. From my experience as a Duke University Molecular Genetics and Microbiology (MGM) PhD student, I know the excitement of conquering scientific concepts and completing rigorous experiments. However, I also know that learning and applying science can sometimes feel frustrating and irrelevant. My goal as an educator is to ensure that every student that I teach experiences the excitement of science by overcoming its inherent challenges. The skills students gain through doing so can be applied to any industry, as well as daily life. As a result, I believe that science must be a core component of every student’s education and must be taught in a way that encourages two crucial skills: critical thinking and collaboration. To this end, the objectives for myself as an educator and for my students as learners are as follows:
1. Foster an active learning environment.
Science classes traditionally rely on passive learning approaches, like lectures. Lectures are useful for summarizing large quantities of information, but are most effective when combined with other techniques. Because science students engaged in active learning perform better than those passively learning the same material1-3, I combine every lecture with active learning components like journal clubs, discussion groups, and laboratory-based activities. I find that students remain engaged, stay accountable, and ask more questions when active learning components are integrated into lectures. I employ many of these active learning components as classroom assessment techniques (CATs)4, enabling me to examine the effectiveness of my teaching and identify concepts that need additional attention.
2. Develop lifelong teachers.
The ability to teach high-level information to others is one of the most important skills a scientist can hone. Furthermore, “learning-by-teaching” helps student teachers comprehend and retain knowledge5. All of my students participate in learning-by-teaching, typically by researching a new topic or reading a primary research article and subsequently teaching it to the class and fielding questions. I view learning-by-teaching as a professional development and confidence-building opportunity for students as well because teaching is an important transferable skill, in both professional and personal contexts.
3. Train critical thinkers.
My students will be equipped to approach the challenges of life as scientists by critically analyzing information, asking questions, and developing ways to answer questions. I always integrate primary scientific literature into my courses to allow students to practice these skills. Students read primary literature at their own pace for homework. Subsequently, during in-class journal clubs, students critically analyze the paper and propose outstanding research questions. This process requires students to explain and defend their answers, rather than simply recall information without analysis.
4. Build a collaborative network.
Science is inherently collaborative; every experiment requires teamwork in some way. Scientific collaboration is a major component of my classes. Many active learning components involve small group collaboration, and students always work in pairs for laboratory-based activities. This organization promotes teamwork and helps students build relationships with their peers. I also integrate mentorship into my classes whenever possible, to help students build professional networks outside of their immediate colleagues. Because collaboration aids in knowledge retention6, critical thinking7, and creativity8, I find that these activities promote overall student confidence.
At the conclusion of my courses, I typically assess student progress towards reaching these objectives using quantitative evaluations and final grades. I also ask that my students similarly evaluate me to identify areas in which I can improve as an educator.
Teaching Experience
I received teaching training through the Duke University Certificate in College Teaching (CCT) program. Through my CCT coursework, GS 750 and GS 760, I learned about teaching methodologies like active learning strategies, syllabus design, and class management. Although the MGM department does not require PhD students to teach, Duke University provided me with highly diverse teaching opportunities that have enabled me to practice and refine the skills I learned in my CCT courses.
My teaching experience began in the Duke University Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics High-Throughput Sequencing Course. During the summers of 2018 and 2019, I served as a teaching assistant for this six-week intensive course that trains graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and faculty in designing, performing, and analyzing RNA-sequencing experiments. I specifically served as a teaching assistant for the laboratory portion of this course. I was responsible for designing the course experiment, performing pilot experiments, organizing laboratory reagents, and aiding all ~25 students with experimental techniques. Because nearly all the students in this course were at equivalent or more advanced training stages than I was, this experience enabled me to develop a respectful teaching style that maintains by status as an instructor.
In the Fall 2020 semester, I served as a Bass Instructional Teaching Assistant for MGM 222, Genetics and Epigenetics: The Codes that Control Our Genomes. This in-person, semester-long course was comprised of 18 Duke University freshmen in the FOCUS program. I was responsible for leading nine, 75-minute class periods. I selected class content, created lectures, designed active learning activities, constructed assignments, and graded assignments for each of these class periods. Half of my classes were lecture-based with active learning activities and CATs integrated throughout. All other classes were focused specifically on active learning and CATs, typically through student-led journal clubs on primary scientific literature. With largely microbiology training, this teaching experience was an excellent opportunity to teach content outside of my expertise. However, I brought some novelty by integrating microbiology topics into this course that is traditionally focused on multicellular systems. Anonymous student feedback collected throughout the semester helped focus my teaching efforts on active, collaborative learning and inspired me to become involved in graduate education.
I was awarded the 2021 Administrative Fellowship with the Duke University Office of Biomedical Graduate Education (OBGE). In this role, I designed and am co-directed a new semester-long course, BIOTRAIN 701: Foundations in Professionalism, which was in session Fall 2021. The goal of BIOTRAIN 701 was to introduce the ~100 first-year PhD students in the School of Medicine (SoM) to professionalism topics and provide opportunities for them to practice professionalism skills. Topics covered in BIOTRAIN 701 include professional communication, science inclusion, time/project management, early career development, and personal wellness. BIOTRAIN 701 was meeting specific needs in the SoM curriculum, as recent work discovered that Duke University SoM graduate students struggle with personal wellness9. By educating students about this reality, providing them with resources to combat personal wellness issues, and creating opportunities to practice personal wellness, we believe that graduate student wellness will improve. BIOTRAIN 701 is delivered as a combination of remote seminars and in-person small group mentoring sessions called “Gateway Groups” (see Mentoring Statement). As co-director, I worked with OBGE administration to construct the course syllabus, choose course content, and secure faculty speakers/panelists. I was responsible for moderating each seminar session, creating active learning components for the Gateway Groups, and communicating with all students, faculty, and mentors involved in the course.
1Deslauriers L, Schelew E, Wieman C. 2011. Improved learning in a large-enrollment physics class. Science 332:862–864.
2Freeman S, Eddy SL, McDonough M, Smith MK, Okoroafor N, Jordt H, Wenderoth MP. 2014. Active learning increases student performance in science, engineering, and mathematics. Proc Natl Acad Sci 111:8410–8415.
3Deslauriers L, McCarty LS, Miller K, Callaghan K, Kestin G. 2019. Measuring actual learning versus feeling of learning in response to being actively engaged in the classroom. Proc Natl Acad Sci 116:19251–19257.
4Angelo TA, Cross KP. 1993. Classroom assessment techniques: a handbook for college teachers, 2nd edition.
5Fiorella L, Mayer RE. 2013. The relative benefits of learning by teaching and teaching expectancy. Contemp Educ Psychol 38:281–288.
6Vázquez-García M. 2018. Collaborative-group testing improves learning and knowledge retention of human physiology topics in second-year medical students. Adv Physiol Educ 42:232–239.
7Gokhale AA. 1995. Collaborative learning enhances critical thinking. J Technol Educ 7:22-30.
8Jacobs GM, Lawson ND. 2017. Collaboration can promote students’ creativity. Institute of Education Sciences (ERIC).
9Nagy GA, Fang CM, Hish AJ, Kelley L, Nicchitta CV, Dzirasa K, Rosenthal MZ. 2019. Burnout and mental health problems in biomedical doctoral students. CBE Life Sci Educ 18:ar27.