DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

I have been maintaining Statements of Teaching Philosophy and a formal teaching portfolio since 1993, when I was selected to be one of two Teaching Assistant Consultants for the School of Social Sciences at UC Irvine (for 3 consecutive "tours", 1993-6). I revisit the statement periodically when my teaching duties or interests change, or after a particularly enlightening conference or conversation. I have recently added my first Statement of Mentoring Philosophy (April 2017).

 

My teaching philosophy has evolved as the courses I have taught have changed in nature and student-motivation. At UCI while a graduate student I taught courses "in my area" to students who were majors in my area (psychology/cognitive sciences). Intermittently since 2003 however, I was teaching statistics to people for whom the course is required, but not of particular interest or joy (and may be of considerable pain). Since 1997 I have been "teaching" my collaborators and colleagues about the importance of statistics and, especially since 2005, the critical importance of measurement for science, through our one-on-one interactions. These parallel experiences have been very interesting and have led to many insights about the way I see myself as a teacher - particularly of graduate and post-graduate students. They have also informed my interest in how statistics in particular are viewed (and taught) for scientists-in-training. I will be initiating workshops on statistical literacy for life scientists through the ELIXIR data for life program in Europe, beginning with a daylong introduction to statistical literacy workshop at the ELIXIR All Hands Meeting in Rome, Italy in March 2017. That workshop (12 attendees from 10 countries plus one international organization) has led to a new ELIXIR Working Group on Statistical Literacy, which will first create a framework for training in statistical literacy, and then will train new instructors to deliver that training worldwide.

 

The latest iteration of my Teaching Philosophy was updated specifically for my 2011 application for tenure and promotion. I need to revise this 2011 iteration to reflect my latest thinking about teaching and the learning enterprise. I gave a talk summarizing this thinking at the University of Hawai'i, Manoa on 18 October 2013, which you can watch here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3MZrYpKI_c&list=PLGSQhHCSoQhPHNo-UWDDEiguP5R4fejfM and the annotated powerpoint slides for which are here. I revisited this work for a talk I was invited to give at the Academy for Teaching and Learning at Baylor University in October, 2016.

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.