by Samuel Nicholas Ramsey, Group in Logic Teaching Effectiveness Award Essay, 2017 In my first year of graduate school, a math professor confessed to me that it was only late in their graduate school career that they learned that most mathematicians spend their time feeling completely confused. This should be…
by Frank Ong, Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences Teaching Effectiveness Award Essay, 2017 The undergraduate digital signal processing class, EE123, was a class that introduced mathematical theory about data processing together with a series of hands-on programming assignments. These programming assignments were based on real-life applications and demonstrated the principles…
by Brittany Meché, Geography Teaching Effectiveness Award Essay, 2017 “Introduction to Development Studies” is a lower division survey course tackling some of the world’s most pressing issues. From refugee resettlement to gender-based violence to humanitarian famine relief, the course teaches students to evaluate reports from international organizations like the World…
by Linda Louie, French Teaching Effectiveness Award Essay, 2017 Revision is one of the most challenging parts of the writing process to teach because it is so specific to each individual student and paper. Furthermore, many students come into writing courses with a preconception of what “revision” entails that is…
by Evan Klavon, English Teaching Effectiveness Award Essay, 2017 Navigating multiple approaches to the same topic can be tough—even more difficult is learning to articulate connections across disciplines. As a TA for Intro to Environmental Studies, I guided students in learning and writing about cultural conceptions of nature, the history…
by Nicholas Kern, Astronomy Teaching Effectiveness Award Essay, 2017 In the Astronomy Department, we place a strong emphasis on teaching our students how to problem solve. This means we tend to prioritize fluency with equations and their physical contexts over route memorization of numbers and concepts. One way I accomplish…
by Jeffrey Kaplan, Philosophy Teaching Effectiveness Award Essay, 2017 In my experience, there is one problem that plagues higher education, especially in the humanities and social sciences. It is not a subtle problem. But it prevents progress in virtually every area of the educational and classroom experience. If this one…
by Clare Ibarra, History Teaching Effectiveness Award Essay, 2017 The reality of teaching History at the university level is that the professor and the student walk into the lecture hall with two totally different expectations of what it is they will accomplish in that space. While students believe they will…
by David Gardner, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Teaching Effectiveness Award Essay, 2017 Challenge: Thermodynamics is a notoriously difficult subject. It’s no surprise that the subject causes anxiety and animosity – even physicist Arnold Sommerfeld was quoted as saying that even by the third time you learn thermodynamics, “you know you…
by Martin Eiermann, Sociology Teaching Effectiveness Award Essay, 2017 Problem: Many students might initially perceive works of social theory as obtuse relicts from another era that remain interesting to a cadre of academic experts but are of limited utility to everyone else. This sentiment is only heightened by a canon…