By Zhehang Zhang, Sociology Teaching Effectiveness Award Essay, 2026 Goethe famously wrote that theory appears gray when separated from life. In my UC Berkeley sociology discussion sections, that was the pedagogical problem I faced. Students brought extraordinarily different racial, class, gender, and educational histories to seminar, yet many…
By José Eduardo Valdivia Heredia, Ethnic Studies Teaching Effectiveness Award Essay, 2026 A recurring challenge in interdisciplinary classrooms is the gap between abstract theoretical frameworks and students’ capacity to engage them concretely. In my sections for Introduction to Gender & Women’s Studies, I observed that students could often…
By Angelica Remache Lopez, Political Science Teaching Effectiveness Award Essay, 2026 Few topics arrive in the classroom carrying as much weight as immigration. When I became a GSI for “The Politics of Immigration,” I knew the subject would resonate with students, but I did not fully anticipate how…
By Julia Paris, Economics Teaching Effectiveness Award Essay, 2026 Why should we care about taxes? Should cellphones be banned in schools? What should be the role of the social safety net? These are the questions that students confront in a class on Using Economics for Public Policy. When…
By Oliver Maynard, Statistics Teaching Effectiveness Award Essay, 2026 Concepts of Probability, Stat 134, equips students with a probabilistic toolkit. The core skill of the course is not computation but, rather, selection: given a problem, which tool applies? Over three semesters as a GSI, I have watched performance…
By Jonathan Mackris, Film and Media Teaching Effectiveness Award Essay, 2026 Students entering my film courses usually have some familiarity with analyzing written texts. Analyzing moving images is a different story. All of them are able to follow films and understand their plots. Yet many of…
By Maxwell Lindquist, Sociology Teaching Effectiveness Award Essay, 2026 In my discussion sections for Political Economy of Silicon Valley, the main teaching challenge was not getting students interested in the course material. They were already interested. Most came in with strong opinions about tech companies, founders, AI, and…
By Elena Leonenko, Slavic Teaching Effectiveness Award Essay, 2026 Learning Russian at the basic and intermediate levels can be particularly challenging for English-speaking students due to the heavy emphasis on mastering complex grammar structures. Although vocabulary development and engaging activities such as songs, poems, and games are incorporated…
By Sherine Ebadi, Geography Teaching Effectiveness Award Essay, 2026 Teaching Global Studies, I emphasize developing students’ critical thinking, reading, and writing skills as primary learning objectives of the section. However, my own experiences in academia have taught me that struggling with these skills cannot merely be explained by…
By Dev Desai, Molecular and Cell Biology Teaching Effectiveness Award Essay, 2026 In the first third of MCB102 (Survey of Biochemistry), a course notorious for its steep learning curve, two recurring concerns emerged from students during my discussion sections: the expectations for the upcoming midterm were unclear, and…