Teaching Philosophy

Teaching is a fundamental mission of an assistant/associate professor and other senior faculties. I believe it goes much beyond formal lectures or scheduled tutorials, though well conducted lectures and tutorials are where quality teaching starts.

The first task of a teacher, at the beginning of a new series of courses is to pick up the students' attention to the subject being taught, so that they will recognise its relevance in connection with the description of the Universe we live in, as well as its application in everyday life. It is indeed what physics is all about, from classical to quantum mechanics, through electromagnetism and statistical physics, and up to general relativity: the description of the world around us and how we apply the principles of physics in everyday life, even without being aware of it. Let's take the example of a series of classes on electromagnetism. If I start writing Maxwell's equations on a black board along with the mathematical definition of rotational and divergence, I am afraid that I will immediately sound boring. I would rather introduce the historical debate about the wave-corpuscle duality of light, talk about electric and magnetic phenomena observed in nature, and how the connection between both phenomena was observed (when a piece of iron receives a lightning stroke and then behave as a magnet). Then the writing of an equation describing a concept that the students have started to integrate will make sense. Then the proper technical teaching can start. Also, I would start advising the readings of popular science books as soon as possible, as well as giving references to relevant text books that can complement my course. I can quote as a reference the series of books by Dr. G. Venkataraman, in the collection “Vignettes in Physics”.

One important step in the teaching process is to be attentive to the way the students perceive the lesson. Regular checks of what they understand is fundamental. As a student, after attending a lecture at University, I thought at times “I have understood this course quite well”. Then, after reading my notes in a systematic way (with a pen and a notebook), I realised that I have not really understood as clearly as I thought. And what was needed was to study more and ask the teacher questions, so that things become clearer. It is why I believe it is important to progress at the right pace in the class: too fast and students will just learn to reproduce patterns to pass exams without getting the physics concepts; too slow and I would not complete the programme, and some students would get bored. So, I seek to encourage interactions with the students. While giving a lecture to a small group of students, these interactions can easily happen during and/or just after the class. If the class is constituted by a big group, it is not possible to entertain individual interactions, but still I would wait after the class whenever possible for those who want to ask questions. During the class, at least it is possible to get a general feeling on how the attention of the students is maintained or lost. And during tutorials in small group, further interactions will be expected.

To keep records on the progression of the student's learning, and also because it is important to motivate students to study on a daily basis, I find relevant to give regular written tests (that can be short tests) to evaluate their understanding of the class, so that we can intervene to correct what is needed. It may be my way of presenting a particular lesson that would not be appropriate and would need revision of either the method or the academic level that I could have under or overestimated.

There are different ways through which one needs to handle teaching. The number of students, their age, if they are coming from some unsafe suburb of a big city, or from the countryside. Here the setting is important. In a big hall with college students, the teacher often need to display authority firmly. In some places, he has to play more the role of a policeman, and then, what is to be taught is significantly challenged. I believe it is very important to show firmness in such circumstances, and to catch the student's interest by a relevant pedagogic method. In small group and/or at postgraduate level, when students are definitively not in the class by chance but by real motivation, there can be a less formal relationship teacher-student, and we may feel more like colleagues.

For about the last 15 years, we have been living in the “Internet Generation”. We have become used to accessing a lot of information in the click of a mouse and it has been shown that our generation reads a lot but very superficially. While browsing the web, many students are used to acquiring exactly what they are looking for very rapidly (though not always accurately) and they are not used to searching deeply for relevant information, as we were used to before. I am also a big user of internet, and I believe it is a very useful tool for research as well as for teaching, but one needs to acknowledge that students need to learn (or re-learn) concentration, progression and perseverance while investigating some new topic they are assigned to study. For example, while preparing a lecture in astronomy, I can dedicate time to download a lot of beautiful pictures of the Solar System, and make a very nice presentation. But it can be very superficial, thought it may look exciting to the eyes. Though I would advice to associate beautiful pictures to a relevant description of what is behind the pictures (like the formation of the Solar System, the description of the space exploration missions from Pioneer to the Mars rovers, etc.), I would still track if the speaker has a working knowledge of the topic he is presenting, or if his presentation only relies on superficial research made in a rush. Everyone can easily access images afterwards, but the mission of the astrophysicists is to convey the right information, as accurate as it can be.

I keep in mind that my teaching and training activities are towards those who want to be scientists. So I am used to include in my teachings the relevant information on how we do research. When I am asked for advice, I am trying to give a picture as complete as I can about the right choice in terms of studies, like inviting them to think about which kind of research they feel more attracted to: hardware development, data analysis, modelisation, or theoretical research, so they can prepare to the right Master's degree. It is why I have started this statement of teaching philosophy by saying that “teaching goes much beyond formal lectures or scheduled tutorials”. I also need to prepare the student to enter “higher places”, such as Masters, Ph. D. programmes, scientific communications, etc. It is important that the students I teach/train can find me in my office for relevant discussions.

Now I would also like to mention the case of the one-time lecture (during a seminar or a public event). I have often been involved in such events. Then it is not possible to know the public in advance and to anticipate its response in the same way that we are used to with our regular students. But to some extent a connection can be made through interactions/questions that can also happen during the lecture. In the context of a lecture or an entertaining programme in a planetarium, the “teaching mission” is even more ambitious: my scientific colleagues who would be present should find the presentation as relevant and entertaining as their 5^th-grade kids or any non scientifically educated person would do.

I would like to conclude by saying that teaching is a mission that I don't want to compromise with the busy duties of a researcher, since what I know has been built thanks to the dedication of many who have joyfully and with hard work taught me. So I consider it a great honour to be given the opportunity to transmit to others and to the new generation what I have understood on how the Universe works!