One aspect of my journey in academia that I did not receive any formal training in (few do but that’s beginning to change), was the development of a Teaching Statement. Which is to say, how to develop my personal philosophy on how I approach university-level education, how I decide which facets of information or skills to include and foster in students, and how to assess whether my teaching style and content are effective.
Over the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing selected portions of my Teaching Statement here, as I refine my philosophies for the submission of my second-year review this fall. I welcome feedback! Feel free to comment on the post (note, all comments require my approval before appearing publicly on the site), or contact me directly if you have more substantial edits.
The Teaching Statement is a component for most academic positions which include a lecture or teaching component as a primary effort of the job. I had to write one for my assistant professor applications, but not for any of my post-doctoral or graduate positions even though those included some teaching. For my job applications, my Teaching Statements reflected my previous experiences, explained the courses I wanted to develop, and gave a brief introduction to how I approach teaching.
As a tenure-track assistant professor, I will spend the first 5-ish years of my position creating a tenure packet – a massive document that amalgamates all my accomplishments, failures, and explanations of my actions. Since 50% of my appointment is teaching, my packet will include student evaluations of my courses, a list and description of the courses I developed, and a detailed Teaching Statement. I will use the Statement section to outline my teaching strategies, how I implemented them at UMaine, and how I improved them over time. Since I have only been teaching for a few months at UMaine, my current Teaching Statement includes a lot of strategies which have been implemented only once so far. My Statement will refine over time as I have more to add to it, as I work out the kinks in my course materials, and as I incorporate new aspects of learning and application into my pedagogy.
Teaching Statements are not confidential (assuming they do not contain sensitive information), but are generally only shared at the request and by the discretion of the faculty member. Each tenure-granting institution is unique, and departments weigh criteria differently, thus Statements can’t really be directly compared between faculty. That being said, I thought it would be beneficial to share some of my content and the process, in part because I might as well get the extra credit for writing a blog post on content I have already generated, but also because I feel that transparency can improve my competency and academia in general.
Fall 2020 is the beginning of my second year as an assistant professor at the University of Maine, but in some aspects, it feels like my first year.
The most prominent visual which evokes this feeling is the new office I just moved into last week. My new office space overlooks my two renovated lab spaces and allows me to witness the first official Ishaq Lab research take shape. My first office was in a building across the street from the two labs, all of which I was inheriting from a previous lab. This reduced our output for several reasons, in particular because undergraduates could not access or be left alone in the lab early on in their training. For several months, when students were in the lab, I was there, too, trying to maintain productivity while on my laptop. And, I needed to be present for several deliveries, meaning I would have to wait around. For the better part of the last year, several students and I have redesigned the space to fit our needs, and it was only over this summer that the microbiology space finally was sorted. Now, I can be close by to answer questions, sign for packages, and sort out problems.
Before (as a nutritional biochemistry lab) and after (as a microbiology lab). Anaerobic chamber is not in the photo frame.
Not only do I have spaces ready for my research, but this year I am also starting with students to perform it. It takes time to recruit students to your lab, and graduate students take particularly long because of application submission or funding start dates. Over the past year, I have been joined by two thesis master’s students, one non-thesis master’s student, 3 graduate students from other labs who do collaborative work with mine, 6 undergraduate researchers, and a handful more partial time undergraduate researchers through the Animal Science Capstone class (more on that further on). The projects range from gut microbes and health, soil microbes in blueberry fields, the use of leaves for home silage, lobster microbes and water temperature, and more! The team is dynamic, curious, and a delight to work with.
To ensure that we stay safe, we manage our lab occupancy with a shared lab calendar (and several of the students are performing partial or fully-online projects). Both spaces are designated for Biosafety Level II work, which means we are already wiping down surfaces with disinfectant before and after use, wearing gloves and a lab coat, and washing our hands before and after work. The air exchange systems stay on to prevent moisture or fume buildup, and they also remove particles from the air, but I have added HEPA filtration units in each lab and my office to remove additional particles (including viruses) from the air. A robotic vacuum in each space cleans dust and settled microbes off the floor each night. In addition, we now limit occupancy, wear masks when multiple people are in the room, and check in/out of the space to facilitate contact tracing.
This semester also feels like my first because I am teaching official courses for the first time. Between the two courses, I am teaching over 50 students! I expect that to increase next fall as my new course becomes more well-known, and as recruitment and retention continue to rise in Animal and Veterinary Studies.
I’m also teaching one on undergraduate research which is a long-standing class that I generated some new materials for. I will teach part of this each fall, and part each spring. Over the academic year they participate in research, then write proposals and reports.
Students generated a word cloud of descriptors for ‘scientist’. At the end, we’ll make a new cloud to see if their impressions change after participating in science.
Over the fall, I have a number of research projects to wrap up from the spring, such as data analysis projects which arose from my DNA sequencing data analysis course, one of which on ants I was invited to present at the virtual Entomological Society of America scientific conference in November! I’m also wrapping up a few small projects which originated over the summer, such as the blueberry soil pilot or the lobster microbes data analysis performed by my REU student-turned-direct-hire. I’ll also be starting several new projects on the interaction between gut microbes and the host, led by my graduate students and a number of undergraduates, which will form the core of the research in our lab.
In addition, my Microbes and Social Equity working group is gaining traction! At over 40 participants, the MSE group has been met with interest and enthusiasm from different research and professional fields, and levels of career stage. We are planning to collaborate on a journal special collection, as well as organize a mini meeting sometime in 2021. I look forward to bringing attention to important and timely work on microbes, health, and public policy!
At the University of Maine, I am currently developing two newcourses based on similar material I’ve taught previously at the University of Oregon and Montana State University. I’ve written about several of those classes, including a retrospective after teaching ‘Introduction to Mammalian Microbiomes’ to humanities students. Here, with the spring semester commencing this week, I thought I would share my approaches to developing coursework. While a class doesn’t stand on organizational physique alone, it can go a long way to facilitating your communication with your students, their understanding of course expectations, and their ability to assimilate the information you are disseminating.
What better way to learn about host microbiota than an anatomically-correct dissected cat costume?
Organization of materials
The nature of my teaching means means that I don’t assign readings from a textbook, I curate reading lists for my students from current scientific literature, which changes a little each year. Because of this, and the need for file management, I have a few tricks. First, I have a folder (on my computer and the online teaching tool) specific to readings for that class. I curate the file name with first author, year, and few words from the title so I can keep track of what it is (ex. Zhulin_2015_databases_review). I duplicate that file name in my syllabus, so I can copy and paste instead of writing it out again.
I format my syllabus as a table, and add each reading to the day on which it is assigned. If I move lectures around, I move the whole table row, so I can migrate assignments and readings along with lecture titles. Lastly, because the readings are specific to lecture and date assigned, I mimic that order in my file names by numbering them all instead of leaving them in alphabetic order (ex. 10_Zhulin_2015_databases_review), to facilitate knowing when and which is assigned.
And I don’t just number them by order, I number them by lecture so students or I can just match the lecture number across the lecture files, assigned readings, etc.
Written assignments (when logistically possible)
There’s no easy way to grade written assignments from students, but I prefer it to exam-style assessments. Particularly in teaching microbial ecology and sequencing data analysis, there’s not a lot of strict memorization like there is in anatomy. The material lends itself more to critical thinking and debating theory, to presenting a scientific argument, to problem solving, or to composing mock scientific manuscripts. In allowing students the word count to work through their thoughts, they are able to find the words to express their opinion on, say, the Hygiene Hypothesis when only weeks before they didn’t know that some microbes can turn the immune system on or off.
Written assignments allow me to give them feedback, including grammatical corrections, suggestion on sentence structure, pointing out leaps of logic where they left readers behind, and of course, on the strength of the scientific argument. This is particularly helpful when learning to write technical science.
Photo credit: Merriam-Webster
In giving students the agency to choose a topic to write about from the curricula tasting menu I’ve provided in my lectures, I receive back more information than just what I provided, which keeps things interesting for me. And, in giving them assignments which practice their writing voice, I witness their progression towards mature scientific writing.
Stacking assignments for improved retention
It takes time to become familiar with new information. That’s why school subjects are taught multiple times, or in specific orders, as you progress through education. I have 13 – 15 weeks in a semester (or 10 in a quarter!) to on-board students and teach them a skill. For most of the students I have taught, my class is their first introduction, or their first formal introduction, to the subject.
Especially for my host-associated microbial courses, there are hundreds of years-and-counting worth of history which led us to our current understanding of the microbes that inhabit us. Without that history, an explanation of the available technology, and a discussion of how that technology shaped the view we had, I can’t do justice to the majority of the coursework where I explain how we discovered the relationship between salivation and the microbial community geography in your mouth. The first section of my ‘host-associated’ course includes this background information, and a discussion of current technology, which is reiterated when later discussing literature and how technological shortcomings can hamper our understanding of a microbial community.
To give students more time to practice the material, I give related readings, have a guided discussion at the end of lectures, and stack assignments. Students start with a non-technical summary of a paper; 1-ish paragraph where they have to introduce the paper and why it was done, the methods used, and a major result or two. Trying to explain a complex experiment in simple terms is a great way for students to gain familiarity. When it comes time to write a two-page essay for a take-home exam, I allow the students to build off those summaries, if they choose.
A syllabus is a document which encompasses the important information for the class, including meeting times and rooms, grading policy, lecture and assignment schedule, required reading materials, and more. It can be used to recruit students to sign up for the class, and once in attendance, it’s the first impression students have. It’s where they refer for questions about the course, what’s expected of them, and where to find instructions on assignments. I write my syllabi in a way that makes sense to me, the instructor, and I welcome feedback from students when my instructions are confusing. But, I also welcome feedback from different student populations in order to make the language and presentation of the document more approachable. Sometimes you just need something to break the ice. Like a paper turkey hat.
Wearing the turkey hat that my mentee and I made.
I haven’t actually worn a turkey hat to teach a class, that’s too informal. I dress up like an anatomically-annotated dissected cat, because I’m a professional. Or, I ran regular class discussions that occasionally got heated and were monopolized by a fraction of the class. The next year, I took a stronger moderator stance and would impose more restrictions (“Ok the next comment HAS to use the word “microbes”). I don’t like calling on students, so the next time I have discussions I think I’m going to give them all D20 dice and have them roll for initiative on the order of presenting comments. I also added this to my syllabi:
Class participation: Students are expected to participate in discussions in class. I strive to create inclusive discussions, but if students still find it challenging to participate please notify me and I will alter the discussion format as needed.
AVS 590 Syllabus spring 2020
Most universities also require text or links to their campus policies, driven by federal, state, or university law. These include a statement about accommodations for disabilities, although many faculty are happy to make accommodations without the student receiving prior approval. I started allowing students to occasionally attend lectures by video conferencing, if they notified me ahead of time. It allowed students who were ill or traveling to keep pace with the material, and I have even remotely conference-videoed in to a student’s laptop to present when I was home sick but didn’t want to cancel class.
New this year, I’ve included text about students missing classes for parenting or caregiving responsibilities, something I don’t currently participate in, so it was not something I thought to include information on until someone else (Jenn Perry) gave me their perspective. Now I have this:
Pregnancy, lactation, and parenting: I am happy to make accommodations for students based on pregnancy, lactation, and parental needs, as well as work with the Office of Equal Opportunities. Maine state and UMaine policy allows students to breastfeed in any space, including in class. If a lactation space is required, please contact E.O. for arrangements.
AVS 590 Syllabus spring 2020
Similarly, a tweet by Dave Baltrus about including inclusive statements such as information for food insecure students led me to add this:
And finally, I added text about mandatory reporting. As a public university employee, I am obligated to notify the University of Maine Title IX office about criminal actions towards or by anyone on campus. If a student reveals information to me, I have to pass it on to the Title IX office which will then discretely reach out to the student with resources. The office advocates for anyone on campus, but they are particular important in situations involving students who are low on the power scale and cannot advocate for themselves. While my door is always open to students looking for help, I felt it was important for them to know that I might not be able to keep the meeting confidential.
Inclusiveness in the classroom is important to me, because if students don’t feel welcome, comfortable, and free from hunger, they can’t learn. Despite what opponents think, this doesn’t involve “coddling” or “being too soft”. It means being realistic in my expectations about how people learn and what else they are dealing with that might be inhibiting that. It means that I learn to be more proficient at communication and personnel management, which are vital skills for academics. And it means that we all elevate our skills together.
