Why Teach Primatology?
At the intersection of ecology and evolutionary anthropology lies an important, interdisciplinary space for learning. As a primatologist, my expertise centers on understanding ourselves and our closest relatives, and on finding ways to conserve the natural world for both humans and wildlife. As a teacher, I remember how learning about these topics shaped my life and my worldview, and I want to help my students see the things I see. At this juncture of science, students learn best through a combination of a hands-on approach to research and a thorough but broad theoretical exploration in the classroom setting. By engaging them in labs alongside lectures, I offer both in each course I teach.
I enjoy teaching because I enjoy getting to help students find the same joy in learning that I do. I think that critical thinking is a very powerful tool especially in the face of issues like the conservation crisis. By engaging students in a classroom setting with challenges I can help set them up to be successful thinkers in the wider world. I am there to help my students engage not only with the material itself, but also academia writ large and, by proxy the wider world. As such, I take my role very seriously in creating a safe, welcoming environment for students to gain knowledge and understanding, as well as practice critical thinking and analysis skills. As an instructor, it is my role to facilitate student engagement and understanding.
Teaching Principles
I believe the best way to connect with students is through empathetic, listening-based approaches rather than pure lecture. By meeting students where they are at, I am able to better fill my role in facilitating their commitment to class and knowledge of the topic. I do this by holding frequent office hours, checking in with my students one-on-one, and by using grading schema meant to reflect effort, improvement, and mastery, rather than only looking at mastery. In designing coursework, I balance different styles of activities to evenly engage learners with different capabilities and preferences. I also offer options for each assignment, allowing students to demonstrate mastery in different ways depending on what they see as the best way to demonstrate what they know. I use Bloom’s Taxonomy as a framework for identifying the goals of each course, and each class within that course.
It is also important to me that students generally understand not just the who what and how of what they are learning, but also the why of why they are learning what they are learning, and what they will do with this material. I think especially in my field, often the point of the class is about skill development, as well as material, in different ways. For example, the students working with the live animals are doing “research” at the lemur center and writing journal style papers, but it occurred to me that not all of them fully understood that the point of the class was not the material they gleaned from the animals (for example, the data they collect of species differences and sex differences is essentially meaningless because of sample size constraints) but rather the value is in developing highly specialized research skills. As such, I want to find ways to make it very clear what each unit actually does for my students (are they learning info they will use later? how/why? are they learning skills they can use later? how/why? what is the real world future application of the class? can they practice these things?)
Specific Experiences
In a typical classroom setting, the pacing of my class is very important to me. Every 10 minutes or so the I engage the students were in a different way (ie going from activity to video to lecture to activity). I like to give my opportunity to create something over the course of the semester that has real-world applications. For example, as a lab instructor for Evolutionary Anthropology 101, I work with students over the course of the class on creating a conference style poster to present at a symposium using published data (see an example here). While I have yet to be the instructor of record for a class, I have guest lectured for Evolutionary Anthropology 101 as well.
Primate Field Biology, one of the classes I am a teaching assistant for, presents a unique setting for students to engage with material in a hands-on way by observing live primate groups. Most of our students have never had the opportunity to experience something like this in the past. As a result, there can be a steep learning curve at first, and some anxiety. I find it effective to emphasize that this class is a safe place to “fail” at things, because the point is to allow the students the space to learn highly specialized skills they have never learned elsewhere.
Within this class, I am also able to give students access to state-of-the-art technology for recording animal behavior. This gives students the opportunity to familiarize themselves with real-world tools that can be used in jobs or further academic studies within this field. This technology is not widely available, so this gives those students the opportunity to get a head start. The first time I TA'd this course, I did not have much experience with the technology myself. This was reflected in my evaluations at the end of the semester; most of the students had positive feedback as to my help and teaching, but some noted that at times it seemed like I was not fully "up to speed". The next semester I TA'd the class, I took this feedback very seriously, and got significantly better evaluations.
Closing Thoughts
Generally speaking, I view teaching as one of the most important roles I take on as an academic. The future of science, and of the entire world, rests in the hands of future generations, and I take great pleasure and pride in helping to pass down my knowledge and skills.