Teaching philosophy & experience

The scientific pursuit of asking questions and developing means to answer those questions is the same fundamental objective of higher education. My main interest as an educator and a scientist is thus in developing students' capacity to ask and answer questions. Enabling active participation in learning is a key component in developing this ability to ask questions, develop ways of answering questions, and gauge the veracity of the answers received. This ability serves all students, regardless of their backgrounds, majors, or career goals, because it teaches them how to be critical thinkers. A person who has been taught how knowledge itself is gained has been taught a valuable skill indeed. Such a skill will be crucial in developing sustainable solutions to the accelerating global biodiversity crisis.

Teaching students how to be critical thinkers is not as simple as teaching them, say, the names of the bones that form a bird’s wing. Gaining the ability to ask and answer questions involves more than memorization. Memorization of basic facts is important, but a university is a place where students should become scholars, stepping out of their comfort zones as passive recipients of information and instead becoming capable of evaluating where information comes from and how it can be applied to solve real-world ecological problems. Memorizing facts is static; learning is dynamic. I incorporate current and ongoing research (including my own) into my lectures to show students how the field they are studying is growing and changing, and by including analytical exercises and lab or field activities whenever possible that enable students to become active participants in their own education. These exercises and activities stem from evidence-based instructional strategies and include such things as peer-to-peer teaching, deploying frequent small-stakes assignments to provide formative feedback, and using a variety of assignment formats such as videos and readings. These exercises and activities are linchpins in learning, for as I put it to my students, “Education is not a spectator sport.”

Is it a disservice to the students when I fail to remain dispassionate, when I express the joys and frustrations I experience as a practitioner in my field? I am, after all, a scientist, and scientists are supposed to remain objective. However, I am also an educator who loves being an ecologist, and that enthusiasm inevitably comes across in my teaching (be it in formal courses or in mentoring graduate students). I believe that demonstrating a genuine affection for my field has contributed nearly as much towards my students’ education in biology as have lectures, labs, and assignments. For in the words of Senegalese biologist Baba Diuom, "In the end, we conserve only what we love. We love only what we understand. We understand only what we are taught."