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Teaching philosophy

It is with great ease that I can trace the values that define the way I approach teaching. I discovered my passion for teaching as a young adult guiding canoe camping trips in Northern Minnesota. As a guide, I was tasked with educating youth from a wide variety of backgrounds and ages on the skills necessary for such a venture: paddling, setting up a tent, cooking over a fire, and perhaps most importantly, teamwork. The stakes in this context are high; if I could not teach my campers these skills, the trip would not progress — we would find ourselves motionless, hungry, and without shelter. I was thus quickly motivated to develop effective teaching skills. Today, my experiences as a teacher involve a lot less firewood and mosquitos and a lot more laptops and Post-it notes, yet many of the philosophies I hold have grown from the foundational experiences I had in that first teaching role. I retain a strong belief in the importance of establishing community, hands-on experiences, and teaching learning as a skill in a successful educational environment.

Community

What I discovered on my canoe trips was that there was a point around the second day when things began to click. A period when campers began to pick-up the new skills more quickly and demonstrate more confidence. Having reflected on this experience, it is clear to me that this phenomenon was not solely the product of repeated instruction but that this was also the period of time when the group began to “gel.” This is the period when trust is formed, and campers feel comfortable trying new things with less fear of the consequences of failure. Once they were willing to make mistakes and learn from one another, there was a notable increase in both the new skills campers learned as well as their enthusiasm for their own and others’ growth.

I have felt this paralleled as both a student and teacher in the years since. The courses with the most successful students were the ones where a strong community was built in the classroom. In my experiences as a guest lecturer and teaching assistant, I have been in a position that requires me to build this community quickly, often in the span of a single class period. I’ve found I am most successful when I incorporate shared experiences and humor. I make a concerted effort to take the time to engage students in their questions and perspectives while emphasizing that we have a shared goal in their education. Growth cannot happen when success is guaranteed and yet it also cannot happen when there is an excessive fear of failure. Generating an environment that strikes this balance is central to my teaching approach.

Experiential Learning

Unsurprisingly, my time guiding canoe trips also taught me the value of experiential learning. While I could spend an hour physically describing or demonstrating the methodology of steering a canoe, these lessons only ever really struck home once the paddle was in the campers’ hands. As a student and teacher, I have encountered the same phenomenon. While a didactic lesson is often an essential precursor, opportunities to apply newfound knowledge and skills are what both solidify a lesson for many students and exemplify its relevance. In environmental and public health, there is rarely a scenario in which we cannot provide students an opportunity to actively engage and apply the material they have learned.

Learning to Learn

One of the most valuable lessons I learned guiding canoe trips is that the act of learning is often just as important as the content itself. I personally experienced the sense of empowerment from building a fire or navigating the islands that came, not just from having those skills but from having learned those skills. I developed both confidence in my capacity to learn and an understanding of how I learn best, and I attribute much of my own academic success to having made those discoveries at a young age.

I fundamentally believe that one of the most important lessons an educator can impart is not one of subject matter but rather fostering a sense of autonomy and self-discovery in learners. Learning is a process as unique as the individual. As a teacher, I cannot teach a student their own learning style; that is something that only be learned through experience. What I can do is provide tools and opportunities for students to exercise their capacity to learn with guidance, feedback, and support. The impact of an education then extends far beyond the semester as students will have gained not only subject matter knowledge but also the invaluable ability and confidence to continue growing their knowledge as their academic and professional lives demand.

Most of all, just as I understand my success as a teacher must be measured by the success of the students, I have discovered my joy for teaching is derived from witnessing and participating in the joy of learning. As someone who has very genuinely enjoyed over 10 years of higher education, it is integral to my mission and philosophy as a teacher that learning can and should be enjoyable. It is my belief that building community, learning through experience, and an emphasis on the process of learning interact with the attitude and approach of a teacher to contribute to an environment where learning can be enjoyable for all involved.

Teaching Experience

Throughout my education, I have sought out every opportunity to put this philosophy into practice and learn and grow as an educator. As an undergraduate student I held the only Teaching Assistant position available in the Environmental Studies Department, in the Geographic Information Systems course. In this role I held office hours to work with students and also had the opportunity to give class lectures on multiple occasions when the professor was unavailable. As my introduction to teaching in the higher educational setting I quickly learned about classroom dynamics and how to balance didactic lecture with practice.

During my graduate studies I have served as a teaching assistant or teaching fellow for five courses. These courses have ranged from topics in toxicology to a hands-on laboratory methods course for which I was awarded the departmental Teaching Assistant of the Year award. In these courses I have held an active role in curriculum development and lecturing. Since fulfilling my formal teaching requirements, I have been invited annually to give guest lectures on Neurotoxicology in the Molecular Toxicology course. This invitation is both a reflection of my abilities in content development and delivery, as well as my desire to continue seeking opportunities to practice and learn as a teacher. I have also sought out opportunities to mentor students in the research setting. During the summer of 2023 I supervised an undergraduate student in a laboratory project, teaching a variety of skills from basic benchwork to data analysis. At present, I am taking a series of courses from the Columbia University Center for Teaching and Learning on pedagogy and inclusive classrooms. I believe there is always more to learn and opportunities to improve as a teacher and I am committed to remaining a student of education throughout my career.