Teaching Philosophy

"The best geologist has seen the most rocks." - Herbert Read

Education of the next generation of scientists and researchers requires creativity and dedication on the part of the instructors. In order for a student to develop into their full academic potential, the student must learn both the language of the science as well as the thought processes underlying the science. To educate students in this way takes time, and with the modern demands on researchers, time is a valuable commodity. Therefore, the teaching process must balance the needs of the student and the abilities of the researcher. I have found that this balance is achieved with problem-based learning, where students are given opportunities to develop their geological skills, such as map reading, sample identification, or thinking in terms of processes occurring through time. In these types of problems, the instructor serves as a guide who helps students achieve success, rather than as an orator who is performing for students. This engages the critical thinking skills of students, and open-ended assignments allow for the student’s creativity and personal approach to geology to develop and grow. From the instruction point of view, if a well-crafted problem is given to students, then the role of the instructor is to confirm that students are keeping to a path that can lead them to an answer, but this can be achieved with less time spent than with other types of exercises.

The best example of this philosophy in action took place during a field trip for my economic geology module. The students were given a brief presentation, where I told them that their great uncle (that they had never met before) decided to donate a dimension stone quarry to them, on the basis that they must be able to successfully sell 10 blocks of the granite to a buyer who had specific geological requirements for blocks that she would buy. I then gave the students a list of requirements for each dimension stone block, including the geological features that must be present in the block. I also gave students instruction about the extraction process, and specified that the blocks would have a sale value, but would also have an expense to extract the blocks; the measure of success for the students would be the amount of money they could generate. The students were then taken to the quarry and shown the outcrops. While the students were learning what the rocks looked like, my colleague flew a drone to collect images of the quarry, and then began to process those images into a 3D model of the quarry. The students then spent several hours in the quarry selecting their blocks. During this time, I was able to move between the groups and answer questions, but I did not have to provide detailed instruction about what needed to be done. On their own, students were measuring sections of rock, using compasses to measure the dip of features (to decide if a sufficient percentage of a vein was within a block, for instance), and were having heated arguments with one another about the nature of the features that they observed. When the students returned to the camp, each group was called into a room where we projected the 3D model onto a screen, and the students were asked to show what blocks they had selected. Using a prepared spreadsheet, I could immediately calculate the cost of extraction for the block and the sale value of each block, and so by the time the students walked out of the room, the marking portion of the exercise was completed. Only one of the student groups failed the exercise, but because I had immediately marked their work, I was able to call the group back in to intervene and give the students additional instruction on what had gone wrong with their reasoning. From this exercise, I was awarded the “Innovation in Technology Enhanced Learning” in the UFS Excellence in Learning and Teaching Awards in 2020.