Teaching Portfolio

Learning Environment

Many of these practices rely on setting the tone in the first classes of the semester. For instance, it is important to consider who your students are as individuals: their upbringing, background, interests, and personal goals can all impact how a class is perceived. For this reason, I believe in gathering data about the students in the introductory class by filling out a simple survey or assigning a revealing task, such as a short essay on their impression of the subject. We used similar approaches in the first class of two very different courses in my field: one for upper year students informed us on what classes they had already taken in college, while the other, a seminar for freshmen, let us know what they expected from the class [Introduction to Computational Genomics vs. Quantitative Approaches to Genomics Sciences] . Such information can motivate how I present different topics and what examples I give in explanation. I am interested in showing how the material is relevant to them and how it fits into the wider world of science and society. I also introduce myself to the class and let them know that my purpose in teaching the class is to help them learn now and inspire them to keep learning. Thus, I value their participation and feedback and will strive to aid their understanding. With this start, I hope that my students will feel they are active participants in my classroom and we can develop a mutual respect.

Similarly, it is important to inform the students on what they can expect from the course. This means, of course, presenting a syllabus, but I would also like to convey that the focus of the course is on growth and developing scientific skills and aptitude. They may enter the course as beginners, but the aim is for them to emerge as, ideally, an evolved scientific scholar and, at the very least, with a new appreciation for the field. Although the assessments may be challenging, the goal is not to trick or confuse, but to encourage them to think about problem in different ways. I am not interested in forcing them to devote hours to the class; I would like them to feel that they get out as much as they give. Once such a comfortable learning environment is fostered, the teacher’s task of presenting material and giving assessments becomes a lot easier.

Classroom Methods

Once we have progressed past the introductions, my typical class will provide many opportunities for students to work with new concepts, breakdown and re-build foundations, and apply previously digested knowledge. I will find relevant and concise reading assignments to allow students to come to class prepared without being intimidated. In class, I will ask questions directly related to the reading but encourage the students to delve into the material more thoroughly to question and analyze. This will reinforce the value of the reading while building confidence in their knowledge base. It also allows me the opportunity to see where there may be misunderstandings and what they struggled with. For example, if we are learning a new method, I will guide the class through the protocol they have already read by asking the motivation behind each step and comparing it to competing approaches. Conversely, if we are learning about a biological process or experimental result, I will quiz them on the assumptions or conclusions involved and fit it into the bigger picture. When presenting new concepts to students, I like to review the historical development of the idea; this approach is particularly useful for concepts that go against the student’s intuition. Whenever possible, I find that describing current research in the field often stimulates interest in the topic at hand.

It is also important to give students the opportunity to interact in class and offer a variety of learning methods to keep their attention. During a lecture, I like to break the flow by asking the students an analysis question and having them work through it by themselves and in small groups (sometimes called a Think-Pair-Share). I am also fond of working on case studies in class that challenge students to problem-solve as they apply the lesson to a new scenario. When I guest-lectured on Genome Browsers and/or Databases, popular computational tools in biology, I encouraged students to bring in their laptops and work through the new program with their own data set [for FOCUS4 & Genome 48]. For these classes, I printed out a work-sheet that guided the students through simple steps and gave them a hands-on experience where I could assist and monitor areas of difficulty. These sort of active learning activities help prepare students for assessments of higher order learning objectives such as analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluating

I believe it is important to conduct formative assessments, where students are given feedback on their work, as well as summative. Formative assessments allow students to evaluate how well they understand the material and provide the chance for improvement. They are equally important for teachers to judge how well they are communicating ideas, emphasizing important concepts, and challenging the students. One useful habit is to ask students at the end of class to identify the most important concept of the day along with writing down anything they found confusing. Then, I can assess the effectiveness of the day’s lesson. In addition, I find when I collect anonymous responses to a few general questions – possibly with an in-class poll, I can get the same output while allowing students to judge their own results. These frequent self-assessments deliver feedback and enable me to adapt my teaching methods to the students’ needs.

In order to determine grades, I like to offer a variety of summative assessments that allow different students to excel. A mixture of take-home assignments and in-class tests offers a balance in the types of questions asked and skills examined. Occasionally, I will also design a less-structured assignment, such as an essay or creative task, which gives students the chance to express their individual ideas. Since it is important for science students to develop their communication skills, I will generally assign students a combined written report and oral presentation. In this case, it is beneficial to stagger the deadlines or ask for an early draft to provide students the opportunity for revision. Giving the students the opportunity to learn from their own mistakes not only allows room for improvement but also conveys the idea that the material is important enough to master beyond the one-time assessment. Not all these approaches are possible in every class given the allotted time, available tools, and class size, but the underlying principles of focusing on a deeper understanding and linking together concepts in the bigger picture endures.

Teaching Interests

My ideal course would be an introduction to computational biology for upper year students in immunology or other life sciences because they would have the appropriate biological background to appreciate the value of quantitative approaches. However, I would be happy to teach undergraduate courses ranging from general biological foundations to gene regulation, immunology, or even higher level seminars on epigenomics. I am confident that I can adapt my teaching skills to all class sizes and backgrounds. Any course I organize would be likely to incorporate ideas from computational biology. I strongly believe that conventional biology will become more computational and there is a promising future for biological researchers who are quantitatively skilled. I would be grateful to be involved in the education of students headed in that direction. Even if the students I teach never get the opportunity to employ the specific skills or they end up in a different field, I hope to influence how they approach any problem they face in the future.

As I mature as a teacher, I will remember how my experience on the far side of the podium has shown me what to reproduce and what to avoid. My training for the Certificate in Teaching has given me many opportunities to think about and try new approaches to see what works. As a scientist, I endeavour to understand the world around me and communicate my findings. By transferring my passion to the next generation of students, I hope to inspire young scientists as well as educate the general population. I am strongly motivated by my desire to challenge students and help them learn; and so, I will constantly strive to improve my teaching.