mr bean

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After 22 years, I am an expert student, and this is what shapes my approach to teaching the most: I approach my classes from the perspective of the students. I put myself in the students’ position for every class as I prepare for it and ask, is this going to be a lecture that I would want to go to?
Also central to my approach is the overarching view that teaching is a joint venture between students and teacher – in every course we’re all in it together to sink or swim. And swimming requires teamwork: participation and respect from both sides. In my experience, the best teachers don’t teach at students, they teach with them in a joint process. As part of this, I assume the best of my students: they want to learn the most they can. But, I also have a pragmatic (and I believe realistic) attitude about how students approach their classes and I try to work with that approach.
This means that I need to recognize when something’s not working – even if it worked the last time
I taught the course – and fix it. And, this means I need to listen carefully to the students and watch their faces to see that they get it and that they get why it’s interesting and relevant. It also means that I let students follow tangents, let them argue. I ask for dissenting ideas, alternative hypotheses and ramifications.
We are in an age where people appreciate what science can offer them, but scientific discoveries are often misreported and misunderstood because people don’t understand the scientific process. As an active researcher at a research university, I believe that one of the most important things I can do i