Teaching Philosophy & Courses

Experience, Awards, & Highlights

Since joining the Department of Biological Sciences at TTU in 2013, I have taught over 2000 students in several different courses, including:

  1. Human Reproduction & Sexual Behavior (BIOL 4301-079; online, face-to-face; developed this course)
  2. Brain, Behavior, & Hormones (BIOL 4301-079; face-to-face; developed this course)
  3. Anatomy and Physiology II (ZOOL 2404; online, face-to-face)
  4. Peer Mentoring in Human Physiology (BIOL 4301-079; online, face-to-face)
  5. General Endocrinology; Comparative Endocrinology (BIOL 4324/5324; face-to-face)
  6. Stress Biology (Biol 4301-079, starting Fall 2024)

I was the recipient of the Most Influential Teacher or Mentor at Texas Tech (2019), Largest Impact on Student Learning and Experience (2018), and the Apple Polishing Teaching Award (2014, 2020, 2023). In 2019, I was inducted into the TTU Teaching Academy and in 2020 was the recipient of the TTU President’s Excellence in Teaching Award. During the 2021-2022 year, I was a participant in the Institute for Inclusive Excellence; the theme was antiracist pedagogy and inclusive syllabi. Additionally, I routinely publish physiology case studies with students in the Peer Mentoring in Human Physiology course; over 30 different students have been coauthors on peer-reviewed, published case studies. At the Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology conference, I co-ran a workshop on sex diversity and gender inclusivity in undergraduate biology courses.

Before coming to TTU, I taught at The Claremont Colleges in Southern California, and at the University of California, Riverside.

General Phiolosophy

My primary goal as an instructor is to teach science as a process, rather than a collection of facts. As John Moore described in his 1984 essays, and later book series, science is a way of knowing. Teaching students the way of science – the scientific method, data analysis, and critical thinking – instead of just facts, is imperative. Regardless of whether students pursue a career in science or not, scientific literacy is paramount for their individual success and for our society. Literacy in science is especially relevant in the era of smartphones, social media, “alternative facts”, and “fake news”. Students literally have data at their fingertips, but often lack the skills to critique and interpret data to determine if a source is credible. Thus, teaching fundamentals of research methods, scientific rigor, and critical thinking is increasingly important.

Regardless of the course topic, I embrace active learning and emphasize four major themes in all my curricula: 1) research and the scientific process, 2) critical thinking, 3) data and knowledge application, and 4) evolution. Recently, to increase equity and inclusion, and to embrace antiracist pedagogy, I have added a 5th theme: objectivity, historical context, and ethical implications.

I believe an effective classroom incorporates balance between instructor-centered and student-centered activities. Students cannot truly learn material by being passive listeners in class, they need hands-on, active experiences, practice, and engaging exercises. I use an active learning approach, which is demonstrated to be more effective for learning in a broad range of STEM courses. As such, my strategy for teaching is to provide relevant, topic-specific information, and then give students the chance to apply what they learned. Encouraging students to be actively engaged and participatory in their learning and allowing them to explore course material and find answers on their own, gives them ownership of their education. Engaging students in the process of how we know what we know as well as asking them to develop hypotheses, collect evidence, and synthesize results helps them develop critical-thinking and metacognitive skills.

In addition to teaching science as a way of knowing, I practice scientific teaching, meaning I apply the scientific method to the teaching process by approaching course design and materials with the same hypothesis- and goal-driven approach used to conduct research. I routinely use the AAAS Vision & Change framework and the science education literature for teaching inspiration and have adopted many active learning approaches. Teaching is an iterative process for educators, just as learning is an iterative process for students. I continually enhance my knowledge through courses, seminars, professional meetings, and peer collaborations.

One recent seminar at the TLPDC fundamentally changed my mindset about my teaching effectiveness and about my understanding of bias and discrimination. During the fall semester of 2019, I attended a seminar by Dr. Bryan Dewsbury where he focused on inclusive teaching, attainment gaps and disparities, and education as social justice. His talk was powerful; it challenged me and inspired me to change. His seminar made me realize that although I thoroughly embraced active learning, I had not explicitly incorporated inclusive teaching. Not long after this experience, the COVID19 pandemic upended our lives, both academically and personally. We rapidly shifted to emergency online learning and the pandemic exposed and exacerbated long-standing inequities and disparities present on our campuses and in our classrooms. In fall of 2020 I led an interdisciplinary team on a publication about the important intersection of active and inclusive teaching, particularly in online courses. The resulting publication can be found here. And I completely overhauled my course syllabus with a new focus on inclusivity for the following semester. I will continue centering equity and inclusion in all my courses.

Harris, B.N., McCarthy, P.C., Wright, A.M., Schutz, H., Boersma, K.S., Shepherd, S.L., Manning, L.A., Malisch, J.L. and Ellington, R.M., 2020. From panic to pedagogy: Using online active learning to promote inclusive instruction in ecology and evolutionary biology courses and beyond. Ecology and evolution, 10(22), 12581-12612.

Want to read a shortened blog version of the above paper published at British Ecological Society Teaching and Learning Group? see here

Want to watch a talk covering the above paper that we presented at the TLPDC? see here

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