Teaching experience: What can I do? Kathryn A. Perrine

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1 Teaching experience: What can I do? Kathryn A. Perrine

2 Part 1 Opportunities Start small: Tutoring Kaplan center ( Grade Potential ( ) Other UCI resources to post for tutoring services: (

3 Start small: Outreach This can take many forms and target many different age groups: Demonstrations for student groups, classrooms Example: the optics suitcase Judging regional science fairs Participation in Science Exploration days at schools Showing prospective students or groups around your department or lab These may be hard to find, but the best resources to learn about these opportunities Local and or student chapters of professional societies Often they may even have a committee dedicated to this Colleagues at UCI Voicing your ambitions and network around your department to find opportunities

4 Overview of opportunities: Workshops Learn to give workshops i.e. at the TLTC Get involved with Professional Societies and Conference organizers Local chapters are always looking for new ideas and motivated individuals Most conferences will have additional activities (short courses, workshops, etc) and are often in need of volunteers and organizers) Also this is a good way to noticed and appreciated by your peers Contact the event manager or your division secretary to see how you can get involved

5 Overview of opportunities: volunteer Volunteer guest presenter for a class, at UCI Ask department professors if they need a substitute Be a substitute at UCI or off campus UCI extension (uniex.uci.edu) For instructors ( Volunteer in schools K-12 or community colleges Get in touch with the department in your field to see if they need extra/outside help Give a guest lecture on research in your field to give a real world class as a guest lecture

6 Teach within your department Request to TA for your department Talk to your advisor first and the chair Tell as many people as possible that you are interested in teaching Teach summer courses Ask if positions are available or if staff are needed Might be received better Develop your own course Design a new course in your expertise Get someone else involved: will help lighten your load and help reinforce your commitment to teaching Observe another course Observe a colleagues teaching style if you are not sure how to start (Dr. Nancy Aguilar-Roca agreed to have drop-ins for her course!)

7 Opportunities: about UCI extension As a university employee, you can teach a quarter on a topic of interested (to UCI extension) A great way to practice designing and teaching a classroom or online course UCI extension has great online resources for designing your course and aids with how you can begin teaching it

8 Part 2: Documenting your experience guest lecture Write a few lines of what the course is How you plan to approach it (lecture, class participation, student 1 on 1 learning, small groups, etc) What you hope to get out of the guest lecture Have some one observe your teaching style and take notes on your teaching style Were the students engaged? Did you vary your teaching style? Get a 3 rd person perspective on your class Reflect on reviewer comments and your experience How was the class? How did the students respond (get feedback)? What would you do next time?

9 Example: pre-reflection, how you prepared Pre meeting (instructor): 50 minute lecture in physical chemistry, quantum mechanics on the harmonic oscillator and introduction to quantum rotation. I prepared for this lecture by reading the required textbook material for the course, taking notes, and reading the professors notes. I also scheduled room time to practice teach to a fellow colleague to correct any mistakes and practice presenting to an audience. In addition I have observed this class, physical chemistry, several times prior to get idea of how the prof. teaches, so that I may not significantly deviate from his teaching style. I did not want to throw off the students learning by teaching them in a completely different way. These class observations also allowed me to relate to how to teach in academia and follow the lectures from week to week, so that I knew where the students had left off. A further note is that the students first day back to lecture after spring break, I might expect some not to show up for a guest lecture, also they might not pay a lot of attention, since their mind could be elsewhere. Also, this is not a typical observation due to I have not taught a full lecture before, and have not been teaching for a year or two. I hope this experience will help me lay a foundation of how I hope to improve on my current teaching abilities so that I may become a better instructor.

10 What have you learned about your teaching? I have learned that teaching takes a lot of time and preparation to teach students the required information for the course. The timing of the delivery of the information for the students is important. I felt like the students followed how I derived the equations until I realized I only had 5 minutes left in the class. I did not have enough time to tie up the end of the class for the day, without confusing the students. I tried to end the lecture with a summary of what I wanted the students to walk away with in a hurry and felt as though I rushed through the material. I didn t realize how much time it takes to prepare a 50 minute lecture. Also, it s not the material itself that is difficult to explain, but making connections between the material that is the challenge. What elements will you keep in your teaching style and why? For this course, physical chemistry, I plan to continue to incorporate writing and deriving the equations on the board, so the students can keep up with me. I would like to include more visual aids for those students who are better visual learners. If I just pop my lecture up on a power point presentation. Here, both the students and I are not actively following each other, or enjoying the lecture. With writing on the board, the students are not just aimlessly copying the notes, but are actively writing equations and getting a better explanation of how they are derived. The second aspect I plan to keep is showing diagrams/models of what the equations are describing. I believe this helps with any mathematical equation for those visual learners. What will you most likely change about your teaching and why? It is difficult to include visuals with quantum chemistry, most of the derivation is with math, but I think a few videos or dynamic physics diagrams would help solidify the full story of how to describe a molecule. In addition, I would also like to include active learning techniques in the class. This is a challenging aspect, particularly for physical chemistry, since most of the examples involve complex math to describe physical systems. I know active learning, such as group dynamics and students teaching other students is an effective way of learning. Just from interviewing a couple students, lectures are not interesting and unhelpful. If I can incorporate active learning, perhaps through group discussion or having students derive certain equations or examples for others (on the board) perhaps this will engage the class more readily. I plan to research this aspect more in the future, to get different ideas of how to engage students actively in the science classroom.

11 Part 2: Documenting your experience - full course Get periodic feedback before end of term evaluations. Take multiple student assessments: How did the students felt they learned? Was the material presented clearly? What part of the presentation was most clear/useful? What parts were they confused on? (can modify teaching method for next time) You can use this documentation to show evidence of your teaching style and for a teaching portfolio Will help give structure to your teaching statement

12 More about UCI extension Full course preparation Teaching Qualifications Knowledge and professional working experience in a specialty area, a master s degree in appropriate field of study (doctorate preferred in some disciplines). A master s degree is preferred, but not required, for some technical disciplines. teaching experience Experience in conducting workshops, presentations, and training may in some circumstances, qualify in lieu of formal teaching experience. Online teaching experience should also be noted.