Teaching Philosophy
We’re all
in this together in the classroom
To facilitate working together, I promote student collaboration by problem solving in groups. For example, I began a lecture on the Neurobiology of Anxiety asking the students to discuss in a small group why anxiety exists and what kinds of information must be known about the brain in order to comprehend disease pathology for effective treatments. This kind of activity allows students to draw from previous lectures on evolution, neuroanatomy, and pathology of other neurobiological diseases in a group to make educated guesses about anxiety. In these “group thinks” not only do students get a chance to share diverse ideas, but the students are more likely to participate in the larger group discussion if they have been able to evaluate options in smaller groups, thus giving them more confidence in their answers. These group activities also allow for a more inclusive classroom environment with all students participating. From small group discussions, I want to convey to students that group work can be beneficial. After all, in the real world, scientists work together to develop research hypotheses, run experiments, analyze data, and write up manuscripts. Even students who do not pursue career paths in science can still benefit from evaluating diverse perspectives and developing strong reasoning skills. Connecting a big picture justification for working together in class may help students realize the value of it. This teaching strategy would work well for psychology lecture courses as well as in laboratory courses.
To promote scientific citizenship, I would like to incorporate a writing assignment for students to write to their congressperson persuading him/her to increase funding for neuroscience research. Students could choose a particular area of interest, such as neurodegenerative diseases or mood disorders in postpartum mothers. In their letters they would have to include statistics on the disease, neurobiology of the disease in layman’s terms, and strong reasons for the increase in funding. Students could then send the letters to their congressperson as active members of the scientific community. I highly value the ability to communicate science to varying audiences, as this skill is a useful one for all future scientists.
In courses that require larger long-term projects, I will have students form their own groups of four. While many students lament group projects, I have observed from other educators that there are simple ways to make group projects work for everyone. For instance, once groups are formed, team members will devise a contract so all expectations are laid out and agreed upon by all group members. In addition, the protocol for handling conflict will be explicitly detailed in the contract. Like a sports team, each member of an academic team has strengths and weaknesses, and these should be addressed at the very beginning of group formation. To achieve success in group assignments, I will also instill the value of accountability in my students. Each member must be accountable for his/her own work or the whole group suffers. That being said, I will also be held accountable for giving students feedback on assignments in a timely fashion and I will be accountable for finding the answers to questions I might not know how to address. Furthermore, I will continue to stress the importance of working together in groups as I often cite that rarely does one find a journal article with a single author, and rarely are any large tasks a truly independent endeavor.
In future classrooms, I will employ more just-in-time teaching strategies to evaluate student comprehension and for my own feedback. While I have used various modes of assessments from in-class activities to exams, I have always used these assessments to improve student comprehension in the future classes, not the current course. For instance, students often have difficulty understanding how serotonin autoreceptors function in response to a drug. Before moving on from the initial presentation of autoreceptors, I could stop to ask a clicker question (or use index cards) prompting to students to either select: A) I am comfortable with this subject matter and can move on; B) I am somewhat comfortable with the subject matter, but would like to hear it one more time; or C) I am not comfortable with the subject matter and would like it presented in a different way. After receiving these results, I can then adjust by having students form small groups to explain the concept to one another and I can also provide additional examples. I can also use just-in-time teaching strategies from the outcomes of short online quizzes assigned outside of class. From these low-stakes quizzes, I can identify common misconceptions and address them in the next class meeting.
As a future instructor, I will incorporate my diverse training experiences and findings from my own research into the course material. It is imperative for students to apply what they learn from a textbook to current empirical research so they can better understand the course material and even apply what they learn to everyday life. For instance, after completing Dr. Diane Ebert-May and Dr. Anne-Marie Hoskinson’s Pathways to Scientific Teaching course, our group was able to implement our active learning module on epigenetics in their 100-level Biological Science course. In this module, students read a popular science article on how grandma’s stress can affect subsequent generations and answered questions for homework. In class, the students critically evaluated figures from the primary source referenced in the article and made predictions in small groups based on previous data. This active learning module would align well with a research methods course or a behavioral neuroscience course that includes molecular biology content.
To improve my teaching skills and develop more active-learning based approaches to course material, I enrolled and earned certificates in scientific teaching courses taught by Joyce Parker and Diane Ebert-May (Teaching College Science and Pathways to Scientific Teaching, respectively). I have participated in several workshops provided by the graduate school at Michigan State including: “Active Learning: Engaging All Students” and “Creating an Inclusive Classroom Environment.” I am also completing the requirements for the Certificate in College Teaching offered by the graduate school at Michigan State which included a mentored teaching project and development of a teaching portfolio. Please view the contents on my professional website: http://christinaragan.weebly.com/teaching.html. I have already implemented much of what I have learned from pedagogy courses and workshops into courses at Michigan State. In fact, in my lecture on the Neurobiology of Anxiety described above was modified to include more active-learning strategies based on what I learned in their classes.
As an instructor, I take my teaching evaluations very seriously. My teaching experiences have been very extensive -as a teaching assistant for many courses in graduate school, independently teaching two biobehavioral health courses, and presenting lectures in biology and psychology courses. From my evaluations, I have learned the areas that I excel in, including using various types of media to demonstrate core concepts ranging from podcasts, to online videos, to interactive websites. I also make course content approachable making references to popular culture or current events. In both classes that I taught independently, I received high ratings on areas including enthusiasm, investment in student learning, and presentation of course material (average of 5.5 and above) with no averages falling below 4 out of a possible 7 on a Likert scale. I ensure that the students comprehend the material with several “competency checks” throughout course meetings. I plan to incorporate more use of clicker technology (or simply index cards) to evaluate student learning during class.
This December, I co-presented a teaching workshop, entitled, “Creating critical thinkers in the classroom.” This workshop provided strategies for instructors to help students to think like a scientist. We discussed ways to implement reading assignments for undergraduate and graduate students by assigning readings to help them become critical thinkers and ready for more active engagement in the classroom. As an instructor, I am enthusiastic about implementing evidence-based pedagogical strategies for student learning in my courses.
We’re all in this together in the laboratory
Throughout my graduate and postdoctoral training I have been eager to mentor students. My primary research interests lie in the neurobiology of individual differences in maternal behavior and postpartum anxiety, and I draw in examples that the students can relate to when presenting data. When I train students in the laboratory, I ensure that they understand not only how we conduct our procedures, but also the rationale behind why we do them. For example, during my second summer at Michigan State, I mentored a student from the Summer Research Opportunity for Program who had no experience in behavioral neuroscience. A common question I receive from students and professors is, “How do you know that a rat is anxious?” Expecting my student to have to entertain this question during her final presentation, too, I proposed the question in different ways to her several times throughout the summer. Predictably, she was asked this question and answered it superbly. Challenging students throughout their training allows them to be creative and logical thinkers.
It is easy for students and professors alike to lose sight of the big picture when conducting research, so I always stress the importance of knowing what questions we are seeking to answer. I love seeing the look on students’ faces when that light bulb clicks on-it’s just so satisfying to witness. For many students, contributing to empirical research in a laboratory outside of class is the first time they have done lab work where nobody knows the correct answer. I often tell students that the uncertainty of the outcome is both exciting and anxiety-provoking and arguably some of the best parts of conducting research. Because of this new experience, I stress the importance that any outcome can contribute to what is currently missing. Together, we can discover new findings and brainstorm ways to interpret these data.
As a future research mentor and instructor, I will incorporate my diverse training experiences into my teaching in the laboratory and in the classroom. As an instructor, I will incorporate findings from my own research into the course material. It is imperative for students to apply what they learn from a textbook to current empirical research so they can better understand the course material and even apply what they learn to everyday life. For instance, after completing Dr. Diane Ebert-May and Dr. Anne-Marie Hoskinson’s Pathways to Scientific Teaching course, our group was able to implement our active learning module on epigenetics in their 100-level Biological Science course. In this module, students read a popular science article on how grandma’s stress can affect subsequent generations and answered questions for homework. In class, the students critically evaluated figures from the primary source referenced in the article and made predictions in small groups based on previous data. To follow up with this activity, I could include my own research that
In a laboratory class, I would find way to include students in my own research and tailor it to the course objectives. For instance, students could help with experiments such as analyzing data from high-throughput sequencing gathered from collaborators to determine genes of interest to further investigate their involvement in maternal behavior and/or postpartum anxiety. Depending on the course, students could also be involved in rat brain dissection and small groups could choose a region of interest to explore that is involved in maternal behavior and anxiety. Furthermore, students can design behavioral experiments such as examining the variability in behavioral responses to mild stressors among individual rats in different reproductive stages. Those types of laboratory experiments would help grow my research program and would give the students a sense of contribution to the fields of Psychology and Neuroscience.
During my training at Michigan State University, I have learned new ways to improve my teaching and mentoring skills from not only my research adviser, Dr. Joseph Lonstein, and the faculty members of the Neuroscience program, but also through workshops provided by the Graduate School, teaching certification courses, guest lecturing, and independently teaching Neuroscience courses. These resources have been invaluable to me, and I continue to reshape my teaching styles from the material presented to me. In the classroom, teaching laboratory, and research laboratory, we are all in this together. If we can all find ways to help each other out then we can all benefit. While I am excited to promote student learning, I am also eager to learn from them.
To facilitate working together, I promote student collaboration by problem solving in groups. For example, I began a lecture on the Neurobiology of Anxiety asking the students to discuss in a small group why anxiety exists and what kinds of information must be known about the brain in order to comprehend disease pathology for effective treatments. This kind of activity allows students to draw from previous lectures on evolution, neuroanatomy, and pathology of other neurobiological diseases in a group to make educated guesses about anxiety. In these “group thinks” not only do students get a chance to share diverse ideas, but the students are more likely to participate in the larger group discussion if they have been able to evaluate options in smaller groups, thus giving them more confidence in their answers. These group activities also allow for a more inclusive classroom environment with all students participating. From small group discussions, I want to convey to students that group work can be beneficial. After all, in the real world, scientists work together to develop research hypotheses, run experiments, analyze data, and write up manuscripts. Even students who do not pursue career paths in science can still benefit from evaluating diverse perspectives and developing strong reasoning skills. Connecting a big picture justification for working together in class may help students realize the value of it. This teaching strategy would work well for psychology lecture courses as well as in laboratory courses.
To promote scientific citizenship, I would like to incorporate a writing assignment for students to write to their congressperson persuading him/her to increase funding for neuroscience research. Students could choose a particular area of interest, such as neurodegenerative diseases or mood disorders in postpartum mothers. In their letters they would have to include statistics on the disease, neurobiology of the disease in layman’s terms, and strong reasons for the increase in funding. Students could then send the letters to their congressperson as active members of the scientific community. I highly value the ability to communicate science to varying audiences, as this skill is a useful one for all future scientists.
In courses that require larger long-term projects, I will have students form their own groups of four. While many students lament group projects, I have observed from other educators that there are simple ways to make group projects work for everyone. For instance, once groups are formed, team members will devise a contract so all expectations are laid out and agreed upon by all group members. In addition, the protocol for handling conflict will be explicitly detailed in the contract. Like a sports team, each member of an academic team has strengths and weaknesses, and these should be addressed at the very beginning of group formation. To achieve success in group assignments, I will also instill the value of accountability in my students. Each member must be accountable for his/her own work or the whole group suffers. That being said, I will also be held accountable for giving students feedback on assignments in a timely fashion and I will be accountable for finding the answers to questions I might not know how to address. Furthermore, I will continue to stress the importance of working together in groups as I often cite that rarely does one find a journal article with a single author, and rarely are any large tasks a truly independent endeavor.
In future classrooms, I will employ more just-in-time teaching strategies to evaluate student comprehension and for my own feedback. While I have used various modes of assessments from in-class activities to exams, I have always used these assessments to improve student comprehension in the future classes, not the current course. For instance, students often have difficulty understanding how serotonin autoreceptors function in response to a drug. Before moving on from the initial presentation of autoreceptors, I could stop to ask a clicker question (or use index cards) prompting to students to either select: A) I am comfortable with this subject matter and can move on; B) I am somewhat comfortable with the subject matter, but would like to hear it one more time; or C) I am not comfortable with the subject matter and would like it presented in a different way. After receiving these results, I can then adjust by having students form small groups to explain the concept to one another and I can also provide additional examples. I can also use just-in-time teaching strategies from the outcomes of short online quizzes assigned outside of class. From these low-stakes quizzes, I can identify common misconceptions and address them in the next class meeting.
As a future instructor, I will incorporate my diverse training experiences and findings from my own research into the course material. It is imperative for students to apply what they learn from a textbook to current empirical research so they can better understand the course material and even apply what they learn to everyday life. For instance, after completing Dr. Diane Ebert-May and Dr. Anne-Marie Hoskinson’s Pathways to Scientific Teaching course, our group was able to implement our active learning module on epigenetics in their 100-level Biological Science course. In this module, students read a popular science article on how grandma’s stress can affect subsequent generations and answered questions for homework. In class, the students critically evaluated figures from the primary source referenced in the article and made predictions in small groups based on previous data. This active learning module would align well with a research methods course or a behavioral neuroscience course that includes molecular biology content.
To improve my teaching skills and develop more active-learning based approaches to course material, I enrolled and earned certificates in scientific teaching courses taught by Joyce Parker and Diane Ebert-May (Teaching College Science and Pathways to Scientific Teaching, respectively). I have participated in several workshops provided by the graduate school at Michigan State including: “Active Learning: Engaging All Students” and “Creating an Inclusive Classroom Environment.” I am also completing the requirements for the Certificate in College Teaching offered by the graduate school at Michigan State which included a mentored teaching project and development of a teaching portfolio. Please view the contents on my professional website: http://christinaragan.weebly.com/teaching.html. I have already implemented much of what I have learned from pedagogy courses and workshops into courses at Michigan State. In fact, in my lecture on the Neurobiology of Anxiety described above was modified to include more active-learning strategies based on what I learned in their classes.
As an instructor, I take my teaching evaluations very seriously. My teaching experiences have been very extensive -as a teaching assistant for many courses in graduate school, independently teaching two biobehavioral health courses, and presenting lectures in biology and psychology courses. From my evaluations, I have learned the areas that I excel in, including using various types of media to demonstrate core concepts ranging from podcasts, to online videos, to interactive websites. I also make course content approachable making references to popular culture or current events. In both classes that I taught independently, I received high ratings on areas including enthusiasm, investment in student learning, and presentation of course material (average of 5.5 and above) with no averages falling below 4 out of a possible 7 on a Likert scale. I ensure that the students comprehend the material with several “competency checks” throughout course meetings. I plan to incorporate more use of clicker technology (or simply index cards) to evaluate student learning during class.
This December, I co-presented a teaching workshop, entitled, “Creating critical thinkers in the classroom.” This workshop provided strategies for instructors to help students to think like a scientist. We discussed ways to implement reading assignments for undergraduate and graduate students by assigning readings to help them become critical thinkers and ready for more active engagement in the classroom. As an instructor, I am enthusiastic about implementing evidence-based pedagogical strategies for student learning in my courses.
We’re all in this together in the laboratory
Throughout my graduate and postdoctoral training I have been eager to mentor students. My primary research interests lie in the neurobiology of individual differences in maternal behavior and postpartum anxiety, and I draw in examples that the students can relate to when presenting data. When I train students in the laboratory, I ensure that they understand not only how we conduct our procedures, but also the rationale behind why we do them. For example, during my second summer at Michigan State, I mentored a student from the Summer Research Opportunity for Program who had no experience in behavioral neuroscience. A common question I receive from students and professors is, “How do you know that a rat is anxious?” Expecting my student to have to entertain this question during her final presentation, too, I proposed the question in different ways to her several times throughout the summer. Predictably, she was asked this question and answered it superbly. Challenging students throughout their training allows them to be creative and logical thinkers.
It is easy for students and professors alike to lose sight of the big picture when conducting research, so I always stress the importance of knowing what questions we are seeking to answer. I love seeing the look on students’ faces when that light bulb clicks on-it’s just so satisfying to witness. For many students, contributing to empirical research in a laboratory outside of class is the first time they have done lab work where nobody knows the correct answer. I often tell students that the uncertainty of the outcome is both exciting and anxiety-provoking and arguably some of the best parts of conducting research. Because of this new experience, I stress the importance that any outcome can contribute to what is currently missing. Together, we can discover new findings and brainstorm ways to interpret these data.
As a future research mentor and instructor, I will incorporate my diverse training experiences into my teaching in the laboratory and in the classroom. As an instructor, I will incorporate findings from my own research into the course material. It is imperative for students to apply what they learn from a textbook to current empirical research so they can better understand the course material and even apply what they learn to everyday life. For instance, after completing Dr. Diane Ebert-May and Dr. Anne-Marie Hoskinson’s Pathways to Scientific Teaching course, our group was able to implement our active learning module on epigenetics in their 100-level Biological Science course. In this module, students read a popular science article on how grandma’s stress can affect subsequent generations and answered questions for homework. In class, the students critically evaluated figures from the primary source referenced in the article and made predictions in small groups based on previous data. To follow up with this activity, I could include my own research that
In a laboratory class, I would find way to include students in my own research and tailor it to the course objectives. For instance, students could help with experiments such as analyzing data from high-throughput sequencing gathered from collaborators to determine genes of interest to further investigate their involvement in maternal behavior and/or postpartum anxiety. Depending on the course, students could also be involved in rat brain dissection and small groups could choose a region of interest to explore that is involved in maternal behavior and anxiety. Furthermore, students can design behavioral experiments such as examining the variability in behavioral responses to mild stressors among individual rats in different reproductive stages. Those types of laboratory experiments would help grow my research program and would give the students a sense of contribution to the fields of Psychology and Neuroscience.
During my training at Michigan State University, I have learned new ways to improve my teaching and mentoring skills from not only my research adviser, Dr. Joseph Lonstein, and the faculty members of the Neuroscience program, but also through workshops provided by the Graduate School, teaching certification courses, guest lecturing, and independently teaching Neuroscience courses. These resources have been invaluable to me, and I continue to reshape my teaching styles from the material presented to me. In the classroom, teaching laboratory, and research laboratory, we are all in this together. If we can all find ways to help each other out then we can all benefit. While I am excited to promote student learning, I am also eager to learn from them.