Teaching
Teaching Philosophy Summary
(full teaching philosophy: teaching philosophy pdf)
My desire to teach has stemmed from my learning experiences as a college student and from my own teaching experiences in the Earth Sciences. As a student, my education was strongly influenced by some of the truly excellent professors that made learning both fun and interesting. I found that these instructors kept students interested by using a variety of teaching techniques. They also encouraged higher-order levels of learning, rather than just promoting memorization, by scaffolding course content and clearly relating the course goals and objectives to the individual assignments provided for the course. After I began teaching, I realized that the courses and instructors that I enjoyed the most as a student also employed a wide variety of teaching methods in order to accommodate the different learning strategies and knowledge bases that each student brings to the classroom.
My enthusiasm for teaching comes from helping students reach an “ah ha!” moment when a previously troublesome topic suddenly becomes clear. I feel that students retain knowledge gained through this type of epiphany moment much more so than information that they are told, but that they often need someone to guide the way. I believe that teacher-guided learning not only helps with the retention of knowledge, but with its application as well, which is an invaluable tool in all science, engineering, and mathematics fields.
In order to become an excellent teacher like those whom I admired as a student, I focus on developing courses that emphasize higher-order levels of learning rather than memorization. I use a variety of teaching styles in order to accommodate different learning styles and increase student interest in my courses. The course assignments are tailored to individual students’ interests in order to keep students motivated and engaged. I also constantly strive to improve my teaching by assessing class progress on individual concepts and by asking for student feedback periodically throughout each course. I believe that if I continue to work towards reaching these goals, I will ensure that my students obtain long-lasting knowledge and skills that they can apply in the classroom and beyond. I also believe that I will be able to continue to inspire my students to share my passion for science!
Teaching Examples
The courses that I teach are designed using the concept of backwards design, meaning that course development starts with planning the goals and learning objectives that I want to accomplish by the end of the course and finishes with designing the individual assignments, lectures, demonstrations, laboratory exercises, etc. that are linked to the learning objectives. I provide several documents below that were created as part of the backwards design process for an upper-level undergraduate Geomorphology course.
Course Description & Syllabus
The course description is an administrative document that describes the goals, learning objectives, and rationale for an upper-level Geomorphology course that is open to departmental majors and non-majors.
The syllabus is given to the students on the first day of class and discussed in detail to ensure that the students thoroughly understand the course rationale and what they will learn throughout the course. The syllabus also outlines the structure of the course (lectures, laboratory exercises, etc.), major assignments, grading, and a skeleton outline of the main course subjects. Dates will be added to the syllabus for each semester although they may change throughout the semester depending on student progress with each subject.
Major Assignments & Rubric
The scaffolded writing assignment compiles the major assignments for the course, which are broken into steps so I can monitor student progress and provide timely help throughout the semester.
The assignment grading rubric is also provided because it is designed to be given to the students in order to clarify my research expectations for the argument portion of the assignment.
Laboratory Exercises
My labs are designed to vary from week-to-week to keep students interested in the lab topics and to ensure that students are gaining a wide variety of skills and knowledge that they can apply outside of the laboratory period. I've included a few of my labs here to give a good sampling of Geomorphology labs that I have given to my students. The labs are all designed to be completed and handed-in during a 2 hour, 45 minute lab period.
The satellite imagery and maps lab is often the most difficult for students because they typically have no experience with satellite images prior to the lab. Although students have told me they find the lab difficult, they also say they learn a lot from the lab and agree that analysis of satellite imagery is becoming an increasingly more important part of scientific research.
The glaciers lab is computer-based, but it would be modified considerably if the course was taught in a region with obvious glacial features. Currently, the lab looks at a glacier model then enables students to visualize how climate change influences ice flow. The lab then focuses on using Google Earth to analyze glaciated terrain. Students often comment on how they get a good idea of the landscape in 3D using Google Earth.
The landslides lab is based on a lab that I loved as an undergraduate. The students love that it is hands-on and they get to play with bean landslides throughout class. Finally, I've also included my aeolian process lab as an example of incorporating past and present techniques. Students analyze topographic maps then move to Google Earth to investigate aeolian features in satellite images. There is overlap in the exercises to demonstrate the advantages of using Google Earth for visualization purposes while teaching students how to read and interpret maps (which are important skills for anyone interested in doing field work).
