X-Git-Url: https://git.donarmstrong.com/?p=don.git;a=blobdiff_plain;f=resume%2Fteaching_statement.mdwn;fp=resume%2Fteaching_statement.mdwn;h=50eb7704ef5da05d8b4ea2def49c82df11920464;hp=0000000000000000000000000000000000000000;hb=5e1f47a06e05aea04f15a6145dd711af71d1d169;hpb=afd187e65eb57bfc98ab3adb6ec35b319b6d6e75 diff --git a/resume/teaching_statement.mdwn b/resume/teaching_statement.mdwn new file mode 100644 index 0000000..50eb770 --- /dev/null +++ b/resume/teaching_statement.mdwn @@ -0,0 +1,144 @@ + + +# Why I teach + +I have always wanted to know how everything works, interconnects, and +evolved. That moment when a flash of insight shines a light on the +underlying structure of nature is an incredible feeling. Like many +researchers in science, I willingly subject myself to experimental +failures, difficult-to-interpret results, funding difficulties, and +long hours in order to receive that momentary feeling. + +I teach because I want to share the excitement of discovery and +knowing, and I want others to be able to experience that excitement +for themselves. It is also quite rewarding to see the glimmer of +insight in my students eyes when they finally reach understanding for +themselves. + +# General Goals for Students + +## Desire and Excitement + +If my students are *only* interested in learning the material I am +teaching to earn credit, then I have failed as a teacher. I want to +covey at least some of my excitement in the subject to them. +Perhaps it's naïve, but I think that once students are excited about +the material, they are more likely to succeed. + +## Informed Skepticism + +While only a small percentage of my students will become scientists, I +want them all to know how science works, how to analyze claims, weigh +evidence, do background research, and come to an independent +understanding of nature. From politics to the latest false claim on +the Internet, an ability to become informed, think critically, and +analyze skeptically will help my students be conscientious members of +our democratic society. + +# How I Teach + +## Task Analysis + + +For each course, I identify course-specific overall goals that I want +all of my students to achieve. Then, I plan a path to these goals, +with a hierarchy of sub-goals along the way. This enables me to +measure the effectiveness of my teaching and the students' progress at +each step during the course. For example, in an introductory +bioinformatics course, an overall goal might be to have students be +able to use common bioinformatic databases to answer biological +questions. A corresponding sub goal would be for students to be able +to use dbSNP to select all genetic variants in a specific gene in a +specific organism. + +## Learn By Doing + +Even though lecturing, demonstrations, and similar passive learning +techniques are important, everyone learns best by doing. Mistakes, +failure, experimentation, and learning from them are important parts +of learning by doing, just as they are in science. To the greatest +extent possible, I want to provide opportunities for students to learn +by doing. I want students to learn by solving problems using the +knowledge and resources they have gained in the course. + +## Individual Engagement + +In large courses it is very difficult to keep individual students +engaged, as they feel they are just one face in a hundred and have +limited opportunities to ask questions. When lecturing, I like to +combat this by asking students questions directly, and getting +students (even those at the back) to participate in demonstrations. I +will also be accessible both in-person on campus, and via e-mail. +Finally, I will encourage my teaching assistants (TAs) to be engaged +with our students by asking TAs about students in their sections in TA +meetings. + +## Students Teaching Others + + +Having every student engaged with a teacher is a laudable goal, and +may be achievable in small in large ones, there will always +be some people who are not reached. Students teaching other students +is one method of extending a teacher's reach. In the past, I have had +online forums or mailing lists for all courses that I have taught. In +these forums, students are able to ask questions, and other students +are able to answer them. In addition, students are able to reinforce +their learning by answering other student's questions. You know a +concept when you can teach others. + +## Technology + +Classroom technology is very useful in increasing the ability of +students to learn, experiment, and measuring outcomes in the +classroom. I plan on using: + +1. Interactive websites to enable student's active learning by doing, + including exercises, experiments, and other activities. + +2. Real-time online feedback using automated grading on a website to + the extent possible on homework so students know whether they + understand the material. + +3. In-lecture questions through clickers or smart phones when the + course is too large to gauge student understanding of material by + asking questions of students or raising hands. + +4. Recording lectures so that students (and I) can refer to them + later. + +5. Forums, mailing lists, and other communication methods so that + students can learn cooperatively. When students explain material to + other students, it answers other student's questions and reinforces + their own knowledge. + +6. Demonstrations in class and online, both real and simulated, when + appropriate to the material being taught. + +# Measuring Outcomes + +## Success and Failure + +I'm continuing to study how to be a more effective teacher by learning +from other teachers and research into teaching techniques, and will +continue to do that as long as I teach. I will measure the outcomes of +my teaching in order to determine how effective I am. By correlating +the teaching methods I use for each sub-goal of my course with student +outcomes, over time I can identify the most effective teaching +strategies for me. + +# Teaching Experiences + +## Teaching Assistant + +While a graduate student at UC Riverside, I was a teaching assistant +for Introductory Biology, Introductory +Genetics, Molecular Biology, and Developmental Biology. +
+

Footnotes:

+
+ +
1

+ + +
+
\ No newline at end of file