My E-portfolio

Biography (also see my biography page)

Teaching Record (F = Fall, S = Spring)

Lecture Class:

PHY201T: Calculus-based physics I (Mechanics) Theory (22F)

PHY202T: Calculus-based physics II (Electromagnetism) Theory (23S)

Laboratory Class:

PHY201L: Calculus-based physics I (Mechanics) Laboratory (22F)

PHY202L: Calculus-based physics II (Electromagnetism) Laboratory (23S)

What I have learnt from the course:

The sequence of these three courses, compactly arranged in one semester, provides me a solid and diversified training in many facets about education, including communication, teaching skills and evaluation. They help me to rethink in a more scientific way how different activities in the classroom intertwine and construct the pathway for students to reach their learning goals. On top of that, these courses help me to consider critically how modern pedagogy (social media, motivation, Broom's taxonomy, course assessment etc.), can be implemented to a classical subject of mine (Physics). Below I list some of the remarkable pick ups from each of the course. 

For communication, I learn that the tone in the email communication can play an important role in enhancing students' motivation in the learning process. When it is available, writing in a more casual and inviting tones can bring positive impact to the students' learning. On the contrary, writing in a diplomatic and neutral tone might make the students think we are less willing to be engaged. The immediacy is vital for students to feel supported in the classroom context, that students know the instructor as a person, not as an authority. This will also reduce their barrier for students to reach out when they encounter difficulty. 

For teaching skills, the biggest take-home message is that learning should be hard physically. It does not mean we need to suffer during learning. But it means that in order to build the knowledge in our long-term memory, it takes time and energy to complete the encode-storage-retrieval process. Therefore, at early time when we learn it, we should be feeling struggled because our brain is trying to connect neurons that have never been connected before. This also means, designing courses that are positively challenging (i.e. difficult at the points which are directly related to the course goals) is essential for enhancing the learning efficiency.

For assessment and evaluation, while it is a scheme to generate the final course grade for students, it is more important as a checklist for instructors what students need to master by the end of the course -- aka backward design. The evaluation should be echoing with the learning outcome. To maximize this learning perspective, the activities we do in the classroom should be closely connected to what students need to achieve by the end of the course. Given that the lecture time is highly limited, this gives a natural guidance in what the students need to learn in the course, and how to learn it. 

Learning Theories and Effective Teaching Practice:

Teaching Philosophy [PDF file]

Writing prompt (Topic: Motivation) [Instruction] [My response]

Assessment & Evaluation:

Final Assessment Plan for the course PHY202T [PDF file]