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<h3>Teaching Philosophy</h3>
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<p> My overarching goal as an instructor of chemistry is to show each student that, regardless of their socioeconomic background,
prior experience, and intended profession, chemistry is a set of tools and ways of thinking that they can use to understand
the world around them. To accomplish learning across a wide variety of student backgrounds, my teaching philosophy rests on
three pillars: students’ sense of <a href="#p1">academic belonging</a>, the development of <a href="#p2">epistemic agency</a>,
and the use of <a href="#p3">assessment</a> to continuously optimize learning environments.
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<h4>Pillar #1: Academic sense of belonging </h4>
<p>Terrell Strayhorn (2012) cites “sense of belonging,” i.e. students’ “experience of mattering or feeling cared about, accepted, respected, and valued” as a factor that strongly influences students’ retention in college, regardless of scholarly achievement. As a chemistry educator, my role lies in helping students view their identities as welcome in the classroom and in the field of chemistry and feel that their contributions are valued by me and their classmates. I strive to achieve that through my language and actions, which can range from small gestures, such as not assuming someone’s pronouns or lifting up the voice of a student who was being talked over, to bigger-picture, longer-term “themes” that I convey through the structure of the learning environments I am responsible for. The first overarching message I convey to my students is that some degree of struggle is a necessary and natural part of learning, and that <strong>students will never feel judged for seeking help or asking a question</strong>. To reinforce that mindset, I give students multiple environments to share questions as they feel comfortable (quiet individual in-class work, structured small-group work, and whole-class discussion), which makes students increasingly comfortable sharing their questions and perspectives without the pressure of being infallible. </p>
<p>Another core aspect of how I cultivate a sense of belonging is <strong>humanizing myself to help students expand their conception of who can be a scientist</strong>. Dismantling persistent, monolithic views of what scientists should look like and be interested in is key to helping students feel included in that identity. As a Greek female TA with a noticeably non-native accent, I always try to express my personality in front of my students, share my background and extracurricular interests, and ask them about theirs. With almost no exception, I will jokingly invite my students to join my karate club’s beginner’s class every semester and, although most students will politely decline that request, the invitation sparks many ongoing discussions about work-life balance. Taking the extra step to get to know my students proved to be particularly crucial during the unexpected transition into online learning in the Spring of 2020. Conducting weekly check-ins through a survey and sharing my own experiences helped <strong>maintain a sense of community among me and my students</strong> and, as one student confessed near the end of the semester, “was the only thing that felt normal” to them during a very uncertain and disruptive time. This striking example reinforced for me the importance of emphasizing the human element when teaching chemistry, a science that can be thought of as not concerned with social interactions.</p>
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<h4>Pillar #2: Epistemic Agency </h4>
<p>I believe that another key influence on a student’s motivation to keep engaging with and to succeed in a subject is the development of “epistemic agency,” or the involvement of the student in driving and monitoring how they build knowledge (Zivic 2018). This entails engaging students in metacognitive practices, providing authentic problem-solving contexts that they are motivated to participate in and, to the extent possible, giving students options on activities, topics, etc. that they want to pursue within a course. Prior to each session or activity, I place a lot of emphasis on clearly communicating to students an overview of <strong>what there is to know or learn and how it connects to broader themes and goals</strong>. Student’s feedback has shown me that having this organization makes students more aware of where they need to be in their understanding and tasks at a given time, and therefore more willing to promptly reach out if they perceive they are falling behind on a particular objective. </p>
<p>Reflection prompts are another technique I value as a way for students to actively develop epistemic agency; engaging in <strong>metacognitive thinking is one of the main mechanisms that promotes learning</strong>. For example, I use my feedback on students’ lab notebooks (which start with a “purpose” and culminate in a “reflective summary” for each lab) to guide students towards formulating clear and targeted ideas about the most important aspects of each lab. Every semester, I observe that students use that feedback and quickly develop the ability to productively frame each lab experiment, document their thinking throughout experiments, and reflect on the broader impact of their results. </p>
<p>A student is more likely to recognize what they want to learn and why, if they are presented with a <strong>real-world phenomenon that requires application of knowledge</strong>. Using the concept of three-dimensional learning (i.e. the interplay between disciplinary core ideas, scientific practices, and cross-cutting concepts, National Research Council 2012), I create activities and tasks that present students with authentic situations and engage them in scientific practices as they are learning new material. I like to parallel my ideal chemistry learning environment to how I learned to use Python; not by studying isolated definitions and testing myself with abstract problems, but by being faced with situations that require me to apply the “language” of the science as I am learning it. Creating as many authentic problem-solving situations in the classroom as possible helps students see chemistry not as another learning weight on their shoulders, but as a set of tools and mindsets that they will learn to use and appreciate.</p>
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<h4>Pillar #3: Assessment and Adaptability </h4>
<p> Assessment is at the core of chemistry instruction; on one hand, if designed well, assessments tell us what students know and can do, and how our visions and teaching approaches are realized in the classroom. On the other hand, assessments matter to students and can positively or negatively impact their career; if poorly designed, assessments can actively perpetuate systemic inequities. My teaching experience has shown me the value of using formative assessments to adapt to real-time student needs, as well as the importance of precise alignment between assessments with learning objectives and other curricular components.</p>
<p> <strong>Formative assessment</strong>, i.e. ongoing assessment and/or evaluation that monitors student learning throughout a course, is core to my teaching philosophy and something I have used consistently to diagnose the strengths and weaknesses of my teaching and, subsequently, to adapt my approach to my students’ particular situation. I have used weekly reflective surveys to examine outcomes of new curricular interventions on student learning, organizing the responses so as to clearly communicate emergent themes to my instructional team. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the weekly check-ins mentioned above also served as a formative assessment; students’ responses provided me with insight into unforeseen circumstances that impacted their learning, and I was able to use that information to advocate on their behalf for modifications to the curriculum. </p>
<p> When designing course materials or curricula, I seek to <strong>align learning outcomes, assessments, and the activities that students complete</strong>. This constructive alignment —as defined for example by Briggs (2003)— allows me to use assessments as more accurate evidence for what students have learned and also relieves students’ frustration about discrepancies between what is “covered in class” and what “shows up on the exam.” I have applied this principle of “backwards design” to various curricular materials, including a simulation-based lab I developed (Spitha 2021), designed to teach students about the origin of the exponential profile of light intensity in terms of the submicroscopic behavior of light and matter in solutions. Along with the simulation, I developed a set of three-dimensional assessments that specifically aimed to elicit evidence about the target learning objectives, and used results from these assessments to improve the activity in future iterations. In general, I see <strong>assessment as part of a continuous, iterative cycle</strong> of identifying what students should know and be able to do, introducing modifications to our curriculum, and assessing the impact of those modifications on learning (Cooper 2018).</p>
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<p> At the end of the day, chemistry courses should have an inspirational, and not deterrent, role, in a student’s future career path. As an instructor, I pledge to have an open mind about working with my colleagues to challenge our traditional perceptions of what university instruction looks like, to listen to our students, and to continuously work to develop chemistry curricula that are equitable and accessible. </p>
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<p><strong>References:</strong></p>
<p><ref>Strayhorn, T. Introduction. College Students' Sense of Belonging: A Key to Educational Success for All Students, 2nd ed.; Routledge, 2018. </ref></p>
<p><ref>Zivic, A.; Smith, J.; Reiser, B.; Edwards, K.; Novak, M. Negotiating Epistemic Agency and Target Learning Goals: Supporting Coherence from the Students’ Perspective. In 13th International Conference of the Learning Sciences (ICLS); London, 2018; pp 25–32.</ref></p>
<p><ref>National Research Council. A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas; Keller, T., Ed.; National Academies Press, 2012.</ref></p>
<p><ref>Biggs, J.; Aligning Teaching and Assessing to Course Objectives. Teach. Learn. High. Educ. New Trends Innov. 2003, 1–9. </ref></p>
<p><ref>Spitha, N.; Doolittle, P.S.; Buchberger, A.R.; Pazicni, S. Simulation-Based Guided Inquiry Activity for Deriving the Beer–Lambert Law. J. Chem. Educ. 2021, 98, 5, 1705–1711 </ref></p>
<p><ref>Cooper, M. M.; Stowe, R.L. Chemistry Education Research—From Personal Empiricism to Evidence, Theory, and Informed Practice. Chem. Rev. 2018, 118, 12, 6053–6087</ref></p>
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