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 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 Taylor Brown, School of Social Welfare Teaching Effectiveness Award Essay, 2026 Social welfare policy is forged through democratic deliberation—through the messy, necessary work of disagreement, persuasion, and the building of consensus across differences. Yet our students arrive having come of age amid acute polarization and democratic backsliding,…
By Matthew Easton, Political Science Teaching Effectiveness Award Essay, 2025 Political science naturally lends itself to debate, disagreement, and even argument — it’s part of what makes the discipline so engaging. However, when I learned I’d be a GSI leading discussions on American politics during the Fall 2024…
by Mallika Bariya, Materials Science and Engineering Teaching Effectiveness Award Essay, 2021 Challenge: In the first fully remote semester of the COVID-19 pandemic, I was a GSI for Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) 45L, a core lab course. Labs revolve around hands-on participation and pose a unique challenge for…
by Frances Ramos, Graduate School of Education Teaching Effectiveness Award Essay, 2019 The American Cultures (AC) requirement provides Berkeley students with the opportunity to critically explore the complexities of our society and the contributions, experiences, and challenges of peoples historically marginalized in our curriculum. AC courses not only enrich the…
by Rachael Olliff Yang, Integrative Biology Teaching Effectiveness Award Essay, 2019 At the beginning of every class, instructors are faced with the challenge of encouraging participation. I was able to successfully increase class participation using phenomena-based inquiry. In Fall 2018 I co-taught the field section and lab of General Biology…
by Kevin Lin, Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences Teaching Effectiveness Award Essay, 2019 Students learn computer science (CS) by doing. In CS 61A, a highly-rated introductory CS course at UC Berkeley, students are introduced to new concepts in lecture, go hands-on to learn the solution process in lab and discussion…
by Nitin Kohli, School of Information Teaching Effectiveness Award Essay, 2019 Behind the Data: Humans and Values (Info 188) deals with the social, political, and ethical considerations of data science. Data science solutions are actively being deployed in diverse settings, implicating values such as privacy, fairness, and freedom of expression.