My interest in teaching arose back in high school when I discovered how much I enjoyed explaining to my classmates the concepts of chemistry, a subject in which I had great interest. During the break before each chemistry class, several of my classmates would gather at the blackboard eager to listen and discuss with me the material to be taught that day. We had an outstanding chemistry teacher who was passionate about science. She sincerely cared about students. Her joy of seeing students learn and her appreciation of the students’ efforts motivated my interest in teaching and made me realize now how important, even life changing a good teacher can be.
Following my experience teaching chemistry during my Bachelor's and Master's, I acquired extensive teaching experience during my Ph.D. at Rutgers University. I first served as a teaching assistant in a cross-listed graduate/undergraduate course in air sampling and analysis techniques, and then was directly responsible for two 24-student sections of a biology course. One of the highest assessments of my performance in teaching biology with my chemistry educational and teaching background is a testament to transferability of my skills. Being active in the classroom and interacting with students along with research in the laboratory diversified my academic life. I quickly understood how much both activities were mutually complementing and beneficial. My active involvement in research lets me always have the knowledge of latest scientific findings ready to mention in classroom and excite students’ interest with particularly remarkable recent discoveries relevant to the course material.
I recognize that students have different goals that motivate them to learn. They come from different social and economic backgrounds and with different expectations and skills, conditioned in their family and social circles. Motivated learning occurs when a student cares. Students care when they see the context and importance of a problem, as it is relevant to them, and clearly identify the skills required to tackle it. I strive to show students where they fit in terms of relevance and potential solutions to the problem, what their personal role and interest can be – in the present and in the future. Great educators are able to impart knowledge and instill curiosity and passion extending beyond the classroom. When curiosity drives learning, a sense of importance and personal interest, it leads to deep, long-term mastery and excitement about a field of knowledge or a particular problem. Such learning can change students’ lives, inspire careers and excite to learn further.
I believe that it is crucial to create a special critical learning environment. The features of such an environment that I view as most important are a non-threatening, positive atmosphere, with plenty of opportunities for students to try and fail before succeeding. Students should be provided with ample room to express their opinions, talk about their assumptions and what they know or think they know, discuss and receive feedback from peers and the professor without fear of showing lack of understanding. There should be an opportunity for students to practice the subject before they even know it, so they see early on what and why they need to learn. A course needs to be connected to the world, to the bigger questions and problems, to everyday circumstances in students’ lives, which serve as anchor points for new knowledge and skills in the students’ minds. When the instructor provides this kind of context, it serves two purposes. First, it ties the new knowledge and skills to the existing big picture already in the mind, facilitating deep active mastery of the material, and secondly, it is a powerful learning motivator.
Students have knowledge and assumptions based on their prior experience, to which they will try to fit the new material. These assumptions sometimes hinder understanding of new paradigms. A great strategy is to put students in a situation that defies the initial assumptions. Here is an example of this approach I could use when teaching about filtration of airborne particulate matter. Many students assume that all airborne particles smaller than the size of pores in a filter will pass through it, yet, that is not the case. A simple classroom demonstration will let students witness failure of their expectation. Then learning of the mechanisms leading to entrapment of airborne particle in filters can take place around this situation.
Another strategy I use is guiding students to understanding through their own logical thinking rather than relying on absorption of material delivered by the educator. I try to create a generally positive emotional experience for students not only in the classroom, but also in my meetings and electronic communications with them. I strive to be a role model for students by showing my passion about the knowledge and skills I am sharing and by demonstrating how rewarding it is to possess this knowledge and skills. The resulting enthusiasm translates into strengthened motivation and pride students take in their successful accomplishment of the learning process. Likewise, I collect early anonymous feedback from my students a couple of classes into the semester. Students are always happy when a teacher is listening to them and is open to hearing about what their motivation and expectations are. I find that making sure I know what students want to accomplish by taking my course and what their concerns are improves students’ success and fosters a collaborative and engaged classroom environment and boosts learning outcomes and student satisfaction.
I see evaluation of students’ learning progress as an important element to maximize students’ success and the learning outcomes. Evaluation methodology that is clear, and through which students can immediately feel the results of their learning effort, is a powerful motivational tool. In my teaching, I encourage creativity in the way students approach exercises, through diverse guided and independent assignments requiring both individual and group work. I see the strongest potential for assessment of learning in assignments where students need to be creative, and where they present their answers in free form through short written answers, essays and reports. Both individual and group creative assignments are beneficial and contribute to learning. Here is an example of a creative group assignment: students working in small groups are presented with a real or realistic environmental problem. The problem concerns a number of stakeholders, e.g., an industrial entity, a government environmental protection agency, an advocacy organization, and a local community. The challenge for the students is to study the problem using the knowledge and skills they learned in the course I am teaching and beyond, consider the interests and capacity for compromise all the stakeholders have, and come up with a solution. They can then prepare a poster and deliver a group presentation in the classroom. Other students can act as judges, so an in-classroom discussion ensues.
For the labs, I encourage students to prepare in a way that they can teach each other the skills for performing laboratory exercises. Students receive credit for effective accomplishment of this task within the small collaborative groups they form in the laboratory. I found this system extremely motivational. Students benefit greatly because “teaching as a learning technique” leads to the highest retention of information and skills.
I have completed several courses and programs specific to the development of teaching skills, including Pedagogics, Principles of Psychology, Methodology of Teaching Chemistry, and a Certificate in Public Speaking. My teaching has received high appraisals from the faculty and outstanding student evaluations. I am also very fortunate to have taught within very culturally, ethnically and socio-economically diverse student and faculty populations at Rutgers University in the US, and McGill University in Canada. I learned to be supportive of students of different levels and from various socio-economic and cultural backgrounds, as well as students with disabilities, in particular through my work as an individual exam facilitator for the Rutgers Office of Disability Services.
I have extensive experience of using digital technology in teaching. At Rutgers, I used a virtual classroom environment called Sakai with a virtual lab, instructional materials and assignments interactively managed online. At McGill, I use another virtual classroom system called myCourses, where my students and I communicate, share materials, and manage homework, maximizing the efficiency of in-class time use.
I am a member and involved in the governance of the Air & Waste Management Association, which offers outstanding student programs, including fellowships, networking and presenting opportunities, connects students to potential employers in industry, consulting, academia, government, and non-profit. This organization is international and has sections in the US, Canada, China and elsewhere around the world. I look forward to making available to students the resources available through this professional organization.
I honed my skills of making a diverse classroom perform effectively over the four years of teaching at Rutgers University during my PhD. The students included in-state, out-of-state and internationals of different ages and from various social and economic backgrounds. Therefore, I greatly benefited from Rutgers being a very inclusive and large public university that is also located in the very diverse state of New Jersey. As a result, the diversity in my classroom was phenomenal. I felt myself a rightful element of this diversity, originally coming from another country and having experienced economic transitions in my life. I was in a position to present an example of how passion for learning, education, contemplation of norms and openness to ideas lead to success, to empowerment to control one’s future no matter what your background or your current situation, and independent of the current policies and the level of encouragement, acceptance, and tolerance in a given society.
Listening to and learning from all students provides an opportunity for a mentor to evolve. Input from students is a constant source of motivation for the instructor to modify teaching and advising strategies, assessment strategies, and mentoring. A good mentor must understand mentees’ diverse and changing aspirations and concerns, and be sensitive to their personalities and day-to-day dispositions. Listening and being concerned helped me understand my students and colleagues and match my work and collaboration with them to their interests, motivation, and specific goals. This is the main strategy that allows me to create a classroom environment where no tensions or special treatment, or reminders of potentially perceived differences exist. Outside the classroom, I believe it is very important for an educator to constantly educate oneself about the problems hindering inclusivity, the findings of latest research on the subject, the potential solutions to improve diversity and ensure everybody thrives, and devise strategies to achieve better learning outcomes through a combination of approaches for all students to develop effectively. I stay up to date with relevant literature and have now developed an instrumental approach, which means that I strive to promote inclusivity and enthusiasm about diversity through my personal interactions and sharing of information and ideas with my colleagues and in my networks.