By Andrea Lara-Garcia, Geography Teaching Effectiveness Award Essay, 2024 Last semester, I had the privilege of teaching two discussion sections of GS10AC, or Introduction to Global Studies. Our first writing assignment was an analysis of the documentary film Writing with Fire. Set in Uttar Pradesh, India, the film follows a…
By Emily Kang, History of Art Teaching Effectiveness Award Essay, 2024 In Fall 2023, I was a first-time GSI for History of Art 101: Theories and Methods for a Global Art History. The challenge (and joy) of this course was that the “content” of the lectures ranged from Italian Renaissance…
By Sukriyo Chokraborty, Chemistry Teaching Effectiveness Award Essay, 2024 “Ethanol possesses polar atoms; hence, it fully dissolves in water.” Or, “toluene has induced dipole-induced dipole bonds”. Or, “ethyl acetate is non-polar while water is polar”. These were some of the answers that surfaced while grading data analysis worksheets in Chem…
By Vivek Bharadwaj, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Teaching Effectiveness Award Essay, 2024 The demand for computer science classes has ballooned across the nation, and UC Berkeley is no exception. Given massive class sizes of hundreds of students, the workload for teaching assistants (TAs) is so immense that department union…
By Gregory Arena, Integrative Biology Teaching Effectiveness Award Essay, 2024 Amidst a gauntlet of Berkeley bureaucracy and impersonal undergraduate prerequisite courses, students often tell me they feel that they must fend for themselves. This was my experience as an undergrad at Berkeley. In my first two years, I never once…
By Jes Heppler, Philosophy Teaching Effectiveness Award Essay, 2023 The problem of getting students to feel comfortable enough to speak about high-stakes topics is not new. Nevertheless, in an era where social media can build or destroy a reputation, many students who are just beginning their adult lives are keenly…
By Joshua Freed, Political Science Teaching Effectiveness Award Essay, 2023 Two terms ago, I reflected on the structure of my communication with students. I realized that my students fell into three categories. First, there were the actively engaged students who felt comfortable coming to office hours or exchanging emails regardless…
By Douglas Van, Political Science Teaching Effectiveness Award Essay, 2023 The history of political thought is enigmatic. Studying ideas well requires students to take seriously the beliefs and moral commitments of persons from radically different contexts from one another and from themselves. In a survey course like Democracy: Ancient and…
By Meg Everett, Berkeley School of Education Teaching Effectiveness Award Essay, 2023 Washed in sunlight and seated in a bright room, the man smiles sanguinely at the camera and describes GPT-4 as a simple tool that solves real human needs. “The obvious one where these systems have incredible potential is…
By Valentín Sierra, Social Welfare Teaching Effectiveness Award Essay, 2023 In our current educational system, colonialism is often overlooked or dismissed, perpetuating the marginalization of Indigenous peoples and their knowledge, while simultaneously reinforcing colonialism’s power over their lives. Colonialism is detrimental for all learners, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, as it perpetuates…