CV | Research Interests | Teaching Philosophy | Programming
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Teaching Interests
I am interested in teaching a wide range of courses from introductory to advanced level, including environmental science, general ecology, botany, plant ecology, general entomology, insect ecology, research methods, conservation biology, and invasion ecology. I anticipate that most of these courses would be comprised of lecture with intensive laboratory and field components. All courses I teach are writing demanding. I believe that scientific writing is the overarching connection between all courses I teach and that a successful scientist is one that can write effectively.
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Statement of Teaching Philosophy
The core of my personal teaching philosophy is built on key components that have been gleaned from faculty at various universities who have inspired me to be involved. My goal as a teacher is to involve, provoke, and inspire students. This is a single goal due to the interconnectivity and cumulative nature of involvement, provocation, and inspiration.
Although each student learns in individual ways, involving the students in participatory, hands-on activities built upon theories discussed in the concurrent lecture provides the students with the ability to take ownership of the subject matter. Bringing the student into an active situation allows the student to retain not only the information but also the connectivity between the topic and the entire course. Ownership of the material provides a significance of each concept to the student, and enhances future learning. The transfer of information is important, but futile if the student does not retain it.
Involvement and interaction are particularly important in courses that do not have a laboratory section attached to a lecture. In this type of situation, I place more emphasis on interaction in the classroom. Lecture combined with discussion during a course can be more effective than pure lecture. Also, the need exists for ensuring that assignments and work during the course have real situation application and are not simply a form of busy work. In Insect Ecology at Michigan Technological University, a laboratory section was not attached to the lecture, so I incorporated field experiences and a field based research project in an effort to increase the accessibility of the information covered in the course. I believe that students that are unable to write well, unable to communicate ideas, will have a very difficult time succeeding in science. However, the ability to write well is a learnable skill. In Forest Ecology at the University of Tennessee, I encouraged the students to develop weekly lab reports that were more like scientific papers rather than just a formulated fill-in-the-blank assignment. By requiring source citations and more in-depth analysis of field data they collected, the students were better prepared for future courses in their major than previous cohorts of students. I feel that provocation comes through the ownership of the material. By making the subject personal to the student through my experiences and other real life situations, connections may form that provoke the student to seek out more knowledge.
Students need instruction on certain skills that are common within the sciences, whether these are laboratory or field based. Once those skills are mastered, provocation becomes more essential than instruction. A book or other course reference material is all that is needed for a student to regurgitate information; a provoking lecture, moving the student to action and understanding, can shift a student towards critical-thinking. I believe provocation requires involvement of the student. Once involved, the student has the opportunity to be incited into the action of thinking.
Inspiration of the student brings the material out of the class and into their lives. Students cannot be inspired if they have not been involved in the material or provoked into thinking. I want my students to understand they can ask any question related to the course, not just for clarification, but also questioning the basis of a theory or concept. A questioning, inspired student will create novel techniques of investigation, seek understanding, and extend the development of science.
The proceeding paragraphs outline my goal as a teacher. Each semester that I am involved with teaching, I attain more understanding of what it means to be an effective teacher. I realize my teaching goals will develop and evolve over my career, but I will always seek to inspire students.