by Anna Mikkelborg, Political Science Teaching Effectiveness Award Essay, 2021 When I learned that the first course I would teach at Berkeley would be offered not only remotely, but asynchronously, I was a bit disappointed. I’d been looking forward to leading a classroom of Introduction to American Politics students in…
by Adam Uliana, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Teaching Effectiveness Award Essay, 2019 “I studied, like, forever on everything we learned except what was on the exam. And I just got unlucky with dumb math mistakes.” Such overly simplified explanations echoed the room as I passed out graded midterm exams in…
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 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 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 Claire Duquennois, Agricultural and Resource Economics Teaching Effectiveness Award Essay, 2017 The first meeting of section is extremely important as it sets the tone for the rest of the semester. Despite this, it can easily turn into a hodge-podge of administrative activities that can leave students disinterested. Going over…
by Alexandria Yuan, Business Administration (Home Department: Goldman School of Public Policy) Teaching Effectiveness Award Essay, 2016 The Problem: There are two things that I have to actively fight in the classroom: complacency, and its closely related cousin, a kind of superficial motivation for students to participate in class simply…
by Mercedes Taylor, Chemistry Teaching Effectiveness Award Essay, 2016 The student pulled her test tube out of the ice bucket for the tenth time, then slumped in despair at the sight of the clear liquid. She shoved the sample back into the ice and put her head in her hands.