It is the job of a teacher to accept students at their current level, while seeing their potential and striving to help them meet it. This means that a good teacher should be prepared to help his or her students grow both within the subject area being taught and in areas applicable outside the classroom. While this may seem overly simplistic for a course in higher education, it becomes critical to allow students to develop critical skills in communication, problem solving, and critical thinking.
I feel that students learn best through a variety of methods. Information should first be presented in a clear manner, appropriate to their prior experience. Students then need an opportunity to apply the theory in a guided information. Students need to further apply their knowledge in a problem based approach, and finally evaluate the student’s understanding of both theory and the pratical applications. The emphasis in the entire process should be put, first and foremost, on the student’s ability to think and reason, and secondly on their ability to learn the material.
One of the biggest challenges of an instructor of a course of first year non-major students in a difficult, general subject is convincing the students to put effort into the subject, and learn it for the sake of something more than a grade. This requires students to make a connection to the material they are learning on a pratical level which connects to their lives. It also, to some degree, requires me to make a personal connection to the students.
I make a point to begin each semester by learning the student’s names, as well as their work. As a laboratory instructor, I take time to circle the lab, and both answer questions and get to know the students. By knowing student’s as individuals, it both allows for better assessment and a comfortable learning environment.
I begin each lab by presenting the background theory of the experiment, trying to ground examples in things students will remember. First year chemists may have trouble with the idea of entropy as the tendency of a reaction to go toward a state of greater choas, but they have no problem understanding the concept when its suggested in regard to a dorm room. By grounding the chemistry examples in familiar areas, students are more easily able to make connections which help them learn the theory.
Since chemistry, like most of the physical sciences is based heavily in both theory and practical application, I encourage students in the lab to ground their work in things they have learned in lecture, or previous labs. Students are asked to make their own connections between theory and practice when writing their lab reports by providing an in-depth discussion of a real work application of the process studied in the laboratory. Those who engage fully seem to have a better appreciation for the technique. For example, while discussing Beer’s Law (which says a relationship can be made between the absorbance of a wavelength of light and the concentration of the colored molecule in solution), a student who worked during the summer in pool matinance talked about water testing systems he had used over the summer. He not only understood the concept in the laboratory, he also had a personal connection and a reason to care about chemistry.
During office hours, I encourage students to work through calculation issues, and discuss theoretical concepts. We start by going through the derivation of an equation before numbers are ever introduced, or going back to basic concepts like intermolecular forces and orbital theory before moving onto more advanced ideas. Students are then encouraged to work through the calculations on their own. I also like to emphasize skills useful to almost anyone, such as the use of a spreadsheet to maximize equation efficiency. Students from different classes are able to collaborate and discuss during these sessions as well. Often, if I am busy, a student who I have already worked with will explain the concept to another.
I place heavy emphasis on areas such as critical thinking and basic conceptual skills in my evaluation. I ask my students to develop the skills necessary to any scientists, such as the appropriate use of units and significant figures in reporting data, or concise scientific writing. I set high expectations, but I try to make resources and time avalible to my students so they can meet my expectations.
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