Teaching

Through teaching, I hope to engage my students in critical thinking and have them develop a passion for science. My focus is on skill development and improving upon comprehension, utilizing techniques that have been demonstrated to work in improving student learning outcomes. This will benefit students more than focusing on memorization of the material covered in my courses, rather aiding them in all their courses. Some of the teaching techniques include using a flipped classroom model, peer-based discussion, and at-home assignments.

         In designing course lectures, I adjust my teaching style based on class size. For larger class sizes I prefer to lecture with interspersed periods for think-pair-share activities. These activities provide students with time to digest the new material along with an opportunity to talk with their peers about the presented content. Through this discussion, students can resolve confusing points through discussion, or if both are confused by a topic, they can jointly ask a question which has been found to provide students with more comfort making them more willing to ask rather than if they alone had a question. Beyond this, the think-pair-share activities help break up the lecture which better aids students in staying alert during class time. Research shows that students can only handle approximately 15 minutes of lecture before they begin to lose interest, so by integrating these activities, whether through handwritten assignments, as clicker questions, or just a verbal discussion between students, students will pay more attention in class.

         After each class, students are expected to complete daily quizzes covering recent course materials, with an added section so they can provide feedback on how the current topics are taught or to ask questions that they may have had in class but didn’t ask. These assessments will provide students with a way to interact with course material outside of class and to provide me with data on which topics students may not understand and should be covered further in the following class period. With larger classes it is hard to identify if all the students are understanding the material, and so having a daily quiz better allows me to gauge student understanding of topics and to evaluate if I am teaching material in the best way. This is further enhanced through the comments section of the quizzes where students can ask questions and provide feedback relating to recent classes.

         As for smaller class sizes (≤ 30 students), class time will primarily consist of student-led discussion where my role would be to facilitate dialogue among the students. Many of the class periods will utilize the flipped classroom model and will require students to read papers or watch lecture videos, which will be the foundation for the following class period and will prepare the students for discussions. This structure will allow me to focus class time on clearing up questions or misconceptions that the students may have from the readings or lectures. Research shows that when students have more time to digest materials, whether it is several days or overnight, they are more willing to ask questions as they have had time to process what they read, even if it was unconscious.

         To provide students with general skills such as data and figure interpretation, and figure generation, I will have regularly scheduled class periods where students breakdown research articles in class. Students will read a scientific article related to current topics in class, and in groups, they will discuss the main results and identify the important findings of the article, recreating the figures based on what they read (without looking at the articles figures). These activities were incorporated into my undergraduate immunology course, and it was very beneficial. Undergraduate students are not taught how to read scientific papers, to interpret data, or to generate graphs from data and tables, so through this activity, students will be able to develop skills that will benefit them in other courses and in their future careers as these are important skills needed not only in academia but in industry, medicine, and many other fields.

         The role of an instructor is to provide students with guidance and to help breakdown complex ideas, so students can build a foundation for continued education. Similarly, the role of the student is to learn in whatever manner works best for them. Therefore, to achieve these goals, I teach using various techniques, so if one method fails for a student, another method may still help them learn. This is important in teaching, as we want all students to succeed, rather than having some fall behind. This is why I frame many of my in-class activities as student-led and peer-based to make the students not only accountable for themselves but to others as well. By focusing on the students and using research-based teaching methods, a successful classroom dynamic can be created.