Teaching

I believe it is important to help my students learn how to learn and I hope to inspire my students with a desire to learn more on their own. I expect students to take individual responsibility for their education by coming prepared to participate in class. To encourage student participation, I use active learning arrangements, such as interteaching (Boyce & Hineline, 2002). During class meetings, I ask students questions that depend not just on recall of factual material but require the students to apply, analyze, synthesize, and evaluate the material (per Bloom’s taxonomy of education objectives [Bloom, 1984]). In addition, I regularly use in-class discussions and exercises that require students to work on the problems relating to the material. The pedagogical benefits of teamwork are well documented (McKeachie et al. 1990). Not only do the weaker students benefit, but also the bright students more thoroughly master the material through explaining it to others (Meyers & Jones, 1993). While fostering mastery of the course material and related skills is obviously important, of equal or greater importance is the development of more broadly applicable skills such as communication and critical thinking. It really does not matter how much knowledge students possesses if they cannot communicate their ideas effectively. The same is true if they cannot think critically about what they know and apply that knowledge to new situations. Working in teams allows students to practice these skills and benefit from strengths of their peers.

One of my greatest joys as a teacher is working with students on individual and small group projects. For me, teaching and scholarship are not mutually exclusive endeavors. Over the years, I have worked to develop a networked team approach where individuals and small teams are working on similar and/or related projects with students’ responsibilities on the team being assigned commensurate with their experience. In this way I have been able to meet numerous personal goals that include providing advanced students with intensive, long-term “apprenticeship” research experience and providing less advanced students opportunities to get involved in the research enterprise early in their academic careers. The idea that students learn best by doing is a sentiment firmly entrenched in the behavior analytic tradition and one that has clearly taken hold in science education more generally. Involving students in my scholarly activities is something I view as an essential part of my teaching.

References

Bloom, B. S., (1984). Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. New York, Longman.

Boyce, T. E. & Hineline, P. N. (2002) Interteaching: A strategy for enhancing the user-friendliness of behavioral arrangements in the college classroom. Behavior Analyst, 25, 215-225.

McKeachie, W. J., Pintrich, P. R., Lin, Y. G., Smith, D. A., & Sharma, R. (1990). Teaching and Learning in the College Classroom: a Review of the Research Literature. Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press.

Meyers, C., & Jones, T. B. (1993). Promoting Active Learning. San Francisco, Jossey-Bass Publishers.