Teaching

- my teaching goal is simple yet ambitious

help students learn how to learn

I still remember the moment when I saw excellence in the student evaluation of a guest lecture that I delivered during postdoc. A poker face that was too nervous to put on any expressions spontaneously filled with surprise and excitement. A sincere happiness from deep inside made myself unconsciously exclaimed “yes!”. My seemingly overdo response was because this excellence came hard and slowly. It shed lights to a teaching style that I had been seeking since my first terrible teaching experience that ended with zero attendance after a few sessions at the beginning of my graduate school.

I think all my students should thank this book "Make it Stick: The Science of Successful Learning" for saving me from an awful teacher. It has completely changed my teaching style and has transformed my class and interaction with students to be a much more productive learning experience. This book tells us how learning actually works based on the latest cognitive research findings, and provides a rich exploration of learning practices that really work, while showing why a number of commonly-used practices are actually counterproductive. If you don't have time to read the whole book, here is an excellent summary of the most valuable ideas and the most productive learning practices put forth in the book According to the book, the most effective learning requires 1) frequent retrieval of new knowledge from memory, 2) space out the retrieval over time, 3) increase the number and the strength of connections between new knowledge and prior knowledge (such as elaborate how the concepts explain everyday examples or cutting-edge research findings), 4) attempt to answer a question or solve a problem before being shown the answer or the solution.

To put these concepts into practices, I designed a number of in class and after class techniques. The following works the best in student evaluations.

In class

I tested a teaching model in my guest lecture in the class of Introduction to Atmospheric Science. The model was designed based on the recommended strategies in the book and some presentation skills I learned from "Talk Like TED". The goal of my model is to help students master the new knowledge during class and save time for reviewing after class. The excellence feedback from students was really encouraging. Here's my model.

My class starts with a volunteer student reviewing a concept from last class in 2 minutes using the presentation technique that I elaborate in book Impromptu in the Resources section.

20190828_FirstDay_NingLeng-_McCourt-4511

Then I would start to introduce new concepts (i.e. Rayleigh scattering and Mie theory) following these steps:

1. Introduce the physical meaning and the math expression

2. Everyday example: ask students to use Rayleigh scattering to explain why sky is blue and use Mie theory to explain rainbow.

3. Leave 2 minutes for group discussion

4. Encourage volunteers to elaborate

5. Walk through the complete explanation with students

6. Academia example: ask students to explain why visible light is used to detect water vapour in satellite remote sensing using Rayleigh scattering or Mie theory

7. repeat 3-5.

I would repeat these steps when introducing the next concepts, until the end of the class.

At the end of the class, I would leave 5 minutes for students to draw a concept map showing what concepts were introduced and how they were connected. This is also part of their assignment.

Comments from students:

"This class requires more thinking, but feel deeper understanding of the concepts after the class. "

- anonymous student

"... quality of discussions in class has gone way up..." - the instructor

After class

I designed a few after-class techniques and tested through my interactions with students as a teaching assistant in graduate school. These two techniques works the best based on student feedback.

Assignment: to help students frequently review the knowledge and attempt to solve a problem before being shown the solution, I designed the assignment similar to the table here. The unique part is that every assignment includes a two questions from earlier lectures and one question from the next lecture. This employs the "frequent retrieval" and "attempt to solve a problem before being shown the solution" strategies recommended by the book.

Comment from students:

"confused to see the reoccurrence of questions in assignments, but when preparing for exams, realized that the reoccurred concepts were still fresh and saved my time to review them. Learned a great and creative method!”

- anonymous student

Q&A: whenever a student approaches me to get help on assignment problems, I would ask the student to first identify what concepts are used in the problem, and then elaborate the concepts in his/her own words without referring to the note. If the student stutters, refer to the note and try again, until the student is able to elaborate clearly and precisely. Surprisingly, in most cases, students were able to answer the question they had on the assignment as soon as they were able to elaborate the concepts, even though we hadn't started to discuss it.