My Art of Teaching

"If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail" - Abraham Maslow

A teacher transfers knowledge with effect and affect. We improve our techniques for optimal effect. We innovate our teaching environment/incubator to affect learning. Teachers should embrace lifelong learning themselves for regular recall of this process.

Classroom Teaching

I have taught a continuum of learner levels. My efforts tend to our less privileged populations.

I carry two principles across this spectrum.

First, if we fail to convey the message to your students that you care about them, we will not be very successful.

Second, we show the basics and guide the students to teach themselves. Science is a venue and a tool to develop critical thinking and the process of gathering information to solve problems. We show pupils how to plan, to complete, and to succeed with tasks and goals.

A science teacher is not there to propagate science clones, but to train young people to make their small successes, moving them further down their own path of choosing. Transference of your own passion and successes in science can stimulate their choice to follow the route. We must resist the temptation to count success by the ability to clone oneself in our teaching incubator.

To carry out these goals, we must know the classroom in front of you. We must then stay as close as possible to the pulse of classroom and students. Constant monitoring, adapting and adjusting to where the pupils are is critical to finding creative ways to lead them to where you expect them to be. We don't lower our expectation, but lead students to our standard.

A teacher must develop different techniques and pedagogies to load into the teaching toolbox. "If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail," as said by Abraham Maslow. We use various styles in a sequence depending on the tempo and needs of the classroom. Explain to the students what you are doing and why you are doing it. Students can be very forgiving of mistakes if they already know you care and are doing your best.

Innovation in Education

At the college level, I believe in innovating educational programs to give students self-empowerment.

One such program is the Biology Colloquium at the University of Minnesota. Students protested the administration in the late 1970s. They demanded a course run by themselves and for themselves. They designed a self-containing course with their social emphasis. This program had a good run. It was in decline and under the budget ax in 1985. The famed ornithologist David Parmelee recruited me and unleashed this energetic undergraduate to revitalize and restructure this dying program.

The program became a jewel of the university for many decades. It is still operational to date. This idea mushroomed many other programs that engage students in leadership training, practical science and career learning. It is team learning in its purest form.

We built a tailored program in Chicago. It transforms biological education at this urban campus so rich with diversity.

I learned early that a good idea needs a structural framework for self-renewal and longevity.

At the graduate school level, I believe in multidisciplinary training to prepare young professionals with an ability to adapt to the moving world and then to move the world.

In 1998 I co-founded the Yale Biotech Special Interest Group at Yale University. We brought together students of Yale Law, Medicine, Life Sciences and Business Schools. It is a program run by the students for the students, bridging the gap between academia and industry. The program provides transfer learning in applied science and business management.

We were at the right time when Yale and New Haven started their biotechnology thrust. It became an overnight success. The concept integrated into the Yale curriculum.

I learned that a good idea would grow faster in fertile ground and with the right timing.

At the K-12 level, I believe in the proverb "It takes a village to raise a child” for our urban settings of fragmented homes and high economic stress.

We built a model STEMM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, Medicine) program for an urban middle school. We designed a NASA Explorer School in Connecticut.  I teamed with parents, teachers and administrators. We forged partnerships with organizations and industries at city, state and national levels.

The common goal for stakeholders was to prepare our middle-schoolers to grow up as productive members of society. For some students, we aspired them to go into STEMM careers.

Our Explorer School became a top program in the national NASA network. We succeeded short-term, but I failed with my goal of longevity. The quality of the program fell off after my departure.

I learned that a good idea in harsher soil needs a longer period of soil revitalization before transitioning to sustainability.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photos. NASA Explorer School, Sheridan Middle School, New Haven, Connecticut.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photos. NASA Explorer School, Sheridan Middle School, New Haven, Connecticut.