Teaching philosophy
“We don’t teach biology, we teach students.” Dr. Bryan Dewsbury’s statement on inclusive pedagogy succinctly sums up my teaching philosophy, built on nearly a decade of teaching, tutoring, and mentoring. As an educator, I prioritize student growth. To do this, I foster a community of trust and respect and I engage student curiosity. I leverage this curious community to grow students’ science literacy skills and ability to carry their skills beyond the classroom. My teaching philosophy is based on my own teaching experience both in and outside the classroom. It is also guided by the pedagogical literature, which demonstrates that active learning and fostering students’ sense of belonging (i.e., self-efficacy) increase student learning outcomes and involvement in science[1-4]. Importantly, these techniques are particularly effective for students who are underrepresented and historically excluded in STEM[4-7]. In effect, my teaching aims to lifts all students and advances our fight for a more equitable classroom and educational system.
Teaching experience
My teaching philosophy first emerged through teaching outdoor science to middle school and high school students. From 2015-2016 I was an AmeriCorps intern and field instructor at Teton Science Schools in Jackson, Wyoming, where I planned and led place-based, hands-on outdoor science curricula for middle and high school students. For the next three years, I was a co-director, curriculum coordinator, and instructor of Girls on outdoor Adventure for Leadership and Science (GALS), a free two-week backpacking program for high school students from groups underrepresented in STEM. I developed or helped to develop 17 hands-on, place-based lesson plans spanning environmental justice, environmental science, and biology. I also co-led two GALS backpacking trips, during which I gained experience with active learning under the constraints of a wilderness backpacking trip that was a novel experience for most students.
My experience with hands-on outdoor education informed my teaching inside the classroom. As a teaching assistant for two Biology courses at Duke, I learned how to lead labs, facilitate discussions, deliver short lectures, and hold office hours for students. In 2019 I designed and taught Foundations of Animal Behavior for Duke’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. Working with adult students in an informal classroom setting gave me the opportunity to design a syllabus, develop and deliver longer lectures, and create classroom activities. This winter, I will co-teach another lifelong learner’s course, Why be social? The science of animal social behavior. Finally, in Spring 2021, I received a Bass Instructor of Record Fellowship from Duke to design and teach my own undergraduate course, Ecology and Evolution of Being Social. This capstone seminar enrolled 17 students. Teaching this course during a pandemic was challenging – more than usual, it required me to create a trusting and welcoming classroom community and to develop creative ways to maintain student engagement. Based on student evaluations, this course ranked among the top 5% of Duke Trinity College of Arts & Sciences classes.
Teaching philosophy in action
Fostering a community of trust and respect: Learning occurs when students feel safe; this was obvious as an outdoor educator, but it applies just as well to the indoor classroom. I work to build a safe community by working with students to create a community contract for the class, scheduling one-on-one check-ins with students throughout the semester, and helping students get to know each other, usually with games or rotating small group discussions. To demonstrate that all identities belong in science, I diversify my reading list and in-class examples and I facilitate planned and spontaneous discussions about diversity, equity, and inclusion in science. Finally, I am welcoming, understanding, and fallible; none of us knows everything, and the unknowns are what make the scientific process exciting.
Anonymous student evaluations from my Ecology and Evolution of Being Social course indicate that I foster a community of trust and respect. In response to the prompt “The course had a welcoming and inclusive classroom environment,” students gave an average score of 97.2% (4.86/5). One student wrote: “I appreciated how welcoming and warm the class environment was…She genuinely wanted to see each and every student succeed and did everything in her power to ensure that happened.” A second student commented: “Emily is amazing! She is so welcoming and does a great job keeping everyone engaged and is always checking in to see how we are doing.” When students feel safe, they take risks, make mistakes, and learn from each other – all signs of a flourishing classroom.
Engaging student curiosity: Student-led and student-motivated learning occurs when we engage students’ curiosity. To accomplish this, I harness my enthusiasm for science, I try to focus on content that is intrinsically exciting to most students, and I frame content in a way that engages them. For example, in my Ecology and Evolution of Being Social course, reading topics included social lives of fungi, social health disparities, and cooperation in slime molds versus humans. Students’ reading responses reflected their engagement: “I definitely had one of those ‘damn humans aren’t all that’ moment[s] with these readings/recording[s]. AWESOME!” “This paper is just so insanely interesting. I have tons of questions…” Engaged and curious students are ready to learn and easy to teach.
Another tactic I use is active learning, which increases student engagement and allows for formative assessments of student learning. Active learning takes many forms: playing games, drawing diagrams and graphs, writing 1-minute papers, synthesizing concepts in small groups, solving case studies, exploring outside, conducting experiments, analyzing data. In my course Ecology and Evolution of Being Social, I incorporated at least one longer or two shorter activities into every class period. Student comments from my class support the notion that active learning increases engagement: “This was such a good class! Very engaging, even when taught online. Loved the activities like the shrimp lab and the squirrel lab; they put what we learned into practice and were very fun.” “Thank you for such an engaging class!”
Developing science literacy via student-led science: One of my favorite ways to develop science literacy skills is through student-led science, in which students design and collect their own data and/or use pre-existing datasets to test their own hypotheses and predictions. Preparing students with necessary background information and ‘letting them loose’ is a powerful way for undergraduates to grow as scientists. For example, I received a Data Expeditions award from Duke in 2019 to co-design and deliver a lesson in which undergraduates use real data and the statistical software R to test hypotheses about baboon sexual signaling. When I read students’ reports from this activity and others, it is obvious that most engage deeply with the scientific process. In the future, I hope to foster this sense of self-efficacy and engagement by creating a course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE). In more typical courses, I will design experiments, data analysis activities, and field trips that enable students to do science, not just learn it.
Facilitate students’ ability to carry their skills beyond the classroom: I make content, activities, and assignments relevant to students’ lives; the skills they learn as undergraduates will make them more informed citizens and workers in any career they pursue. For example, in my Ecology and Evolution of Being Social course, we discussed the concept of natureculture and how our biases affect the scientific questions we ask and how we address them. This theme returned – both via my suggestion and students’ connections – in discussions about white supremacy, sexuality, and racism.
One way to encourage students to think beyond the classroom is to create ‘real-world’ assignments. For the two main assignments in my Ecology and Evolution of Being Social course, students could choose any topic related to the class theme, and they could communicate that topic either to an Animal Behavior Society panel via a grant proposal or to a lay audience via a popular science article, podcast, or other medium. To create structure in these open-ended assignments, I had students turn in a project proposal and a draft for detailed feedback, I delivered workshops to fill in expertise gaps, and I organized peer feedback. Students’ work was creative and fun: one student created an elegant social media campaign about the evolution of gossip, and another student created a podcast called “Biological Tinder: Finding the perfect match via chemical signaling.” I gave students the option to present their work to the public, and 11 out of 17 students chose to post at least one of their projects on my website. I hope that my students continue to engage in creative and critical thinking well beyond their undergraduate careers.
Ultimately, I want all my students to grow in independence, curiosity, and confidence. This goal, combined with my love of teaching, motivate me to continue to improve my teaching via self-reflection, student feedback, peer feedback, and professional development trainings.
Mentorship experience and goals
I take the same student-centered approach to mentoring as I do to teaching. I ask mentees to fill in a document about their short- and long-term goals, aspects of the semester that they are particularly excited or anxious about, and what they hope to gain from working with me. This document also details the expectations I have of them, as well as the expectations they should have of me. Interestingly, none of the undergraduates I have mentored want to pursue a PhD, or graduate studies in Biology more generally. Nonetheless, it is rewarding to help my mentees achieve their goals. For example, when I worked with a student pursuing a career in public health, we framed her senior honors thesis around human developmental health. In all, I have worked closely with 9 undergraduate mentees. These mentorships have culminated in 3 honors theses and 3 manuscripts in press or in prep that include 1, 1, and 5 undergraduate co-authors, respectively, as well as a major conference presentation. In spring 2022, I was honored to receive the Dean's Award for Excellence in Mentoring from the Duke Graduate School. Advising and doing research with undergraduate mentees has been one of my most rewarding aspects of graduate school, and I look forward to continuing this work as a faculty advisor and PI.
“We don’t teach biology, we teach students.” Dr. Bryan Dewsbury’s statement on inclusive pedagogy succinctly sums up my teaching philosophy, built on nearly a decade of teaching, tutoring, and mentoring. As an educator, I prioritize student growth. To do this, I foster a community of trust and respect and I engage student curiosity. I leverage this curious community to grow students’ science literacy skills and ability to carry their skills beyond the classroom. My teaching philosophy is based on my own teaching experience both in and outside the classroom. It is also guided by the pedagogical literature, which demonstrates that active learning and fostering students’ sense of belonging (i.e., self-efficacy) increase student learning outcomes and involvement in science[1-4]. Importantly, these techniques are particularly effective for students who are underrepresented and historically excluded in STEM[4-7]. In effect, my teaching aims to lifts all students and advances our fight for a more equitable classroom and educational system.
Teaching experience
My teaching philosophy first emerged through teaching outdoor science to middle school and high school students. From 2015-2016 I was an AmeriCorps intern and field instructor at Teton Science Schools in Jackson, Wyoming, where I planned and led place-based, hands-on outdoor science curricula for middle and high school students. For the next three years, I was a co-director, curriculum coordinator, and instructor of Girls on outdoor Adventure for Leadership and Science (GALS), a free two-week backpacking program for high school students from groups underrepresented in STEM. I developed or helped to develop 17 hands-on, place-based lesson plans spanning environmental justice, environmental science, and biology. I also co-led two GALS backpacking trips, during which I gained experience with active learning under the constraints of a wilderness backpacking trip that was a novel experience for most students.
My experience with hands-on outdoor education informed my teaching inside the classroom. As a teaching assistant for two Biology courses at Duke, I learned how to lead labs, facilitate discussions, deliver short lectures, and hold office hours for students. In 2019 I designed and taught Foundations of Animal Behavior for Duke’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. Working with adult students in an informal classroom setting gave me the opportunity to design a syllabus, develop and deliver longer lectures, and create classroom activities. This winter, I will co-teach another lifelong learner’s course, Why be social? The science of animal social behavior. Finally, in Spring 2021, I received a Bass Instructor of Record Fellowship from Duke to design and teach my own undergraduate course, Ecology and Evolution of Being Social. This capstone seminar enrolled 17 students. Teaching this course during a pandemic was challenging – more than usual, it required me to create a trusting and welcoming classroom community and to develop creative ways to maintain student engagement. Based on student evaluations, this course ranked among the top 5% of Duke Trinity College of Arts & Sciences classes.
Teaching philosophy in action
Fostering a community of trust and respect: Learning occurs when students feel safe; this was obvious as an outdoor educator, but it applies just as well to the indoor classroom. I work to build a safe community by working with students to create a community contract for the class, scheduling one-on-one check-ins with students throughout the semester, and helping students get to know each other, usually with games or rotating small group discussions. To demonstrate that all identities belong in science, I diversify my reading list and in-class examples and I facilitate planned and spontaneous discussions about diversity, equity, and inclusion in science. Finally, I am welcoming, understanding, and fallible; none of us knows everything, and the unknowns are what make the scientific process exciting.
Anonymous student evaluations from my Ecology and Evolution of Being Social course indicate that I foster a community of trust and respect. In response to the prompt “The course had a welcoming and inclusive classroom environment,” students gave an average score of 97.2% (4.86/5). One student wrote: “I appreciated how welcoming and warm the class environment was…She genuinely wanted to see each and every student succeed and did everything in her power to ensure that happened.” A second student commented: “Emily is amazing! She is so welcoming and does a great job keeping everyone engaged and is always checking in to see how we are doing.” When students feel safe, they take risks, make mistakes, and learn from each other – all signs of a flourishing classroom.
Engaging student curiosity: Student-led and student-motivated learning occurs when we engage students’ curiosity. To accomplish this, I harness my enthusiasm for science, I try to focus on content that is intrinsically exciting to most students, and I frame content in a way that engages them. For example, in my Ecology and Evolution of Being Social course, reading topics included social lives of fungi, social health disparities, and cooperation in slime molds versus humans. Students’ reading responses reflected their engagement: “I definitely had one of those ‘damn humans aren’t all that’ moment[s] with these readings/recording[s]. AWESOME!” “This paper is just so insanely interesting. I have tons of questions…” Engaged and curious students are ready to learn and easy to teach.
Another tactic I use is active learning, which increases student engagement and allows for formative assessments of student learning. Active learning takes many forms: playing games, drawing diagrams and graphs, writing 1-minute papers, synthesizing concepts in small groups, solving case studies, exploring outside, conducting experiments, analyzing data. In my course Ecology and Evolution of Being Social, I incorporated at least one longer or two shorter activities into every class period. Student comments from my class support the notion that active learning increases engagement: “This was such a good class! Very engaging, even when taught online. Loved the activities like the shrimp lab and the squirrel lab; they put what we learned into practice and were very fun.” “Thank you for such an engaging class!”
Developing science literacy via student-led science: One of my favorite ways to develop science literacy skills is through student-led science, in which students design and collect their own data and/or use pre-existing datasets to test their own hypotheses and predictions. Preparing students with necessary background information and ‘letting them loose’ is a powerful way for undergraduates to grow as scientists. For example, I received a Data Expeditions award from Duke in 2019 to co-design and deliver a lesson in which undergraduates use real data and the statistical software R to test hypotheses about baboon sexual signaling. When I read students’ reports from this activity and others, it is obvious that most engage deeply with the scientific process. In the future, I hope to foster this sense of self-efficacy and engagement by creating a course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE). In more typical courses, I will design experiments, data analysis activities, and field trips that enable students to do science, not just learn it.
Facilitate students’ ability to carry their skills beyond the classroom: I make content, activities, and assignments relevant to students’ lives; the skills they learn as undergraduates will make them more informed citizens and workers in any career they pursue. For example, in my Ecology and Evolution of Being Social course, we discussed the concept of natureculture and how our biases affect the scientific questions we ask and how we address them. This theme returned – both via my suggestion and students’ connections – in discussions about white supremacy, sexuality, and racism.
One way to encourage students to think beyond the classroom is to create ‘real-world’ assignments. For the two main assignments in my Ecology and Evolution of Being Social course, students could choose any topic related to the class theme, and they could communicate that topic either to an Animal Behavior Society panel via a grant proposal or to a lay audience via a popular science article, podcast, or other medium. To create structure in these open-ended assignments, I had students turn in a project proposal and a draft for detailed feedback, I delivered workshops to fill in expertise gaps, and I organized peer feedback. Students’ work was creative and fun: one student created an elegant social media campaign about the evolution of gossip, and another student created a podcast called “Biological Tinder: Finding the perfect match via chemical signaling.” I gave students the option to present their work to the public, and 11 out of 17 students chose to post at least one of their projects on my website. I hope that my students continue to engage in creative and critical thinking well beyond their undergraduate careers.
Ultimately, I want all my students to grow in independence, curiosity, and confidence. This goal, combined with my love of teaching, motivate me to continue to improve my teaching via self-reflection, student feedback, peer feedback, and professional development trainings.
Mentorship experience and goals
I take the same student-centered approach to mentoring as I do to teaching. I ask mentees to fill in a document about their short- and long-term goals, aspects of the semester that they are particularly excited or anxious about, and what they hope to gain from working with me. This document also details the expectations I have of them, as well as the expectations they should have of me. Interestingly, none of the undergraduates I have mentored want to pursue a PhD, or graduate studies in Biology more generally. Nonetheless, it is rewarding to help my mentees achieve their goals. For example, when I worked with a student pursuing a career in public health, we framed her senior honors thesis around human developmental health. In all, I have worked closely with 9 undergraduate mentees. These mentorships have culminated in 3 honors theses and 3 manuscripts in press or in prep that include 1, 1, and 5 undergraduate co-authors, respectively, as well as a major conference presentation. In spring 2022, I was honored to receive the Dean's Award for Excellence in Mentoring from the Duke Graduate School. Advising and doing research with undergraduate mentees has been one of my most rewarding aspects of graduate school, and I look forward to continuing this work as a faculty advisor and PI.
References
- Estrada M, Young GR, Flores L, Yu B & Matsui J. 2021. Content and Quality of Science Training Programs Matter: Longitudinal Study of the Biology Scholars Program. CBE—Life Sciences Education. doi.org/10.1187/cbe.21-01-0011
- Ryan SD, Bordoloi B & Harrison DA. 2000. Acquiring conceptual data modeling skills: The effect of cooperative learning and self-efficacy on learning outcomes. ACM SIGMIS Database: the DATABSE for Advances in Information Systems. doi.org/10.1145/506760.506762
- Freeman S, Eddy SL, McDonough M, Smith MK, Okoroafor N, Jordt H & Wenderoth MP. 2014. Active learning increases student performance in science, engineering, and mathematics. Proceedings of the national academy of sciences. doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1319030111
- Ballen CJ, Wieman C, Salehi S, Searle JB, & Zamudio KR. 2017. Enhancing diversity in undergraduate science: Self-efficacy drives performance gains with active learning. CBE—Life Sciences Education. doi.org/10.1187/cbe.16-12-0344
- Estrada M, Hernandez PR & Schultz PW. 2018. A longitudinal study of how quality mentorship and research experience integrate underrepresented minorities into STEM careers. CBE—Life Sciences Education. doi.org/10.1187/cbe.17-04-0066
- Haak DC, HilleRisLambers J, Pitre E & Freeman S. 2011. Increased structure and active learning reduce the achievement gap in introductory biology. Science. doi.org/10.1126/science.1204820
- Theobald EJ, Hill MJ, Tran E, Agrawal S, Arroyo EN, Behling S, … & Freeman S. 2020. Active learning narrows achievement gaps for underrepresented students in undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and math. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1916903117