One of the standard elements of most academic hiring and promotion applications, at least at a small liberal arts college, is some sort of statement from the candidate about teaching. This is called different things at different places– “statement of teaching philosophy” is a common term for it, and the tenure process here calls for a “statement of teaching goals.” <\/p>\n
I spent hours and hours on this, because I get a little obsessive about written work. It did get read closely by the ad hoc committee, at least– at my first meeting with them, they asked a couple of questions about details of the statement– but I put enough time into it that I’m going to get some more use out of it, by recycling it as a blog post.<\/p>\n
This has been lightly edited from the original text– I converted the LaTeX formatting codes to HTML, and concealed some of the student names (I’m not quite sure why, as they’d be trivial to figure out, but it seemed like the right thing to do). I was advised after my reappointment review (in my third year) that I needed to make the statement more philosophical, so, well, here’s what I sound like when I expound on my philosophy of teaching physics:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Statement of Teaching Goals<\/strong><\/p>\n My main goal in teaching physics, whether in the classroom or in Classroom Teaching<\/strong><\/p>\n When I teach our introductory classes, I state this goal I give them a four-step outline of this process: 1) first, To choose an example from Physics 120, if we want to explain the I try to organize my teaching around this process, especially in I also make an effort to introduce new formulae by placing them in I try to carry this approach on through the major sequence, with For my module of our advanced laboratory class (Physics 300), All of these tasks are intended to give students a better Undergraduate Research<\/strong><\/p>\n For students who do<\/i> plan to major in physics, there is no I view student involvement in research as not only an important Students have been involved in every phase of the construction of These students benefit from their research experience not only by They also learn to be more independent, as working on a research These are skills that are absolutely critical not only for careers One of the standard elements of most academic hiring and promotion applications, at least at a small liberal arts college, is some sort of statement from the candidate about teaching. This is called different things at different places– “statement of teaching philosophy” is a common term for it, and the tenure process here calls for… Continue reading Statement on Teaching<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"1","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,13,7,54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academia","category-education","category-physics","category-tenure_chase","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/989\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nthe laboratory, is for my students to learn something about what
\nit means to think like a physicist. Physics, like any other
\ndiscipline, has a characteristic approach to dealing with the
\nworld, and an important part of the process of education is for
\nstudents to see what this approach is and how it differs from that
\nof other disciplines. The aim is not necessarily for all my
\nstudents to become<\/i> physicists (though it’s always flattering
\nwhen some do), but rather for them to gain some appreciation of
\nphysics as more than a collection of trivia.<\/p>\n
\nexplicitly on the first day of class. Most students who take
\nPhysics 120 and 121 do so to fulfill a requirement for some other
\nmajor, and they often view physics as little more than a nuisance,
\na collection of arbitrary formulae to be memorized for later use.
\nI point out to them that if the goal were only for them to
\nmemorize a handful of facts, there would be no reason for the
\nclass to be taught by a physicist. The real purpose of the class,
\nparticularly at a liberal arts college, is to learn something
\nabout the process<\/i> of doing physics.<\/p>\n
\nidentify some phenomenon in the real world that we want to
\ndescribe physically, 2) break that phenomenon down into simpler
\nprocesses, 3) find universal rules governing those simpler
\nprocesses, and 4) using those rules, recombine the simple cases to
\ndescribe the original phenomenon of interest. Following this
\nprocedure not only allows physicists to describe the particular
\nphenomenon we started with, but also allows us to make predictions
\nabout new and different phenomena based on the universal rules we
\nobtained.<\/p>\n
\nbehavior of an extended object flying through the air, tumbling
\nend over end, we can break that down into two separate behaviors:
\nthe motion through the air, which is treated as if all the mass
\nwas concentrated at the center of mass of the object; and the
\ntumbling motion, which is treated as if the object was fixed in
\nplace and rotating about the center of mass. By considering only
\nthe center-of-mass motion, we arrive at universal principles like
\nNewton’s Laws and the conservation of energy and momentum. By
\nconsidering only the rotational motion, we arrive at the idea of
\nconservation of angular momentum. Putting those principles together
\nallows us to explain not just the original example, but any<\/i>
\ncombination of linear and rotational motions.<\/p>\n
\nthe introductory classes. One way I do this is to introduce new
\ntechniques by illustrating the need for them with some phenomenon
\nthat can not be easily described with previous methods. For
\nexample, when we move from discussing Newton’s Laws to
\nconservation of energy, I show the class a toy roller coaster that
\nmakes a loop. Using only Newton’s Laws, it is extremely difficult
\nto predict the starting height required for a car to make it
\naround the loop; this demonstrates the need for a new technique
\nand leads the way into the development of conservation of energy.
\nAt the end of the energy unit, I return to the roller coaster
\nexample and show the students that what was a nearly insoluble
\nproblem becomes almost trivial using energy methods.<\/p>\n
\na physical context. In Physics 121, rather than simply presenting
\nOhm’s Law as a new formula to be memorized, I explain how it can
\nbe understood as the result of the microscopic motion of electrons
\nin a solid. Starting with the well-understood behavior of a single
\nelectron in free flight, we can extend our model to the collective
\nmotion of large numbers of electrons. Making a few simple and
\neasily justified approximations, we arrive at Ohm’s Law with an
\nunderstanding of how it is rooted in simple physical processes. My
\ngoal is to help students see physics as a coherent whole, rather
\nthan a collection of arbitrary formulae to be memorized and
\nmanipulated.<\/p>\n
\nthe level of complexity increasing in the higher-level classes. In
\nPhysics 122, I assign several problems that require students to
\nmake explicit approximations in order to describe realistic
\nsituations. For example, they calculate the difference in time
\nbetween a clock at the equator and a clock at the North Pole, due
\nto the rotation of the Earth; the change is small enough that
\nstudents must make an approximation in order to solve it with a
\nnormal calculator. I have also started using Mathematica to
\nexplore problems that can only be solved with a computer, such as
\nfinding the allowed energy states of a finite square well
\npotential. For this activity, students need to determine the
\nboundary conditions that allow the computer to solve the
\nSchrödinger equation for this system, and also develop a
\nprocedure for determining which solutions are physically valid
\nwavefunctions. Successfully finding the allowed energy states
\nrequires understanding not just the equations involved, but also
\nthe procedure for finding solutions and the physical meaning of
\nthe wavefunction.<\/p>\n
\ntaught to junior and senior physics majors, I do not provide
\ndetailed step-by-step instructions for the experiment. Instead, I
\nask students to develop their own experimental procedure by
\nreading journal articles, as they would if they were working
\nscientists. Replicating and extending the work of others is a
\ncritical part of the practice of science, and this lab lets them
\nstart learning that skill.<\/p>\n
\nunderstanding of what it means to think like a physicist. Not only
\nis this good training for students in the major, it also helps
\nstudents outside the major see physics as an active and vital
\ndiscipline, and not merely a set of mathematical formulae and dry
\nfacts. The best indication of success I have seen was a comment
\nfrom a student in Physics 120 in Winter 2005, who wrote, “I wish
\nI had taken physics earlier than this year so I could have taken
\nmore.”<\/p>\n
\nmore important part of learning to think like a physicist than
\nparticipation in research. Learning to do research is an essential
\npart of the training of a physics major, and one of the chief
\nadvantages a small college like Union offers is the chance for
\nstudents to work closely with faculty on research projects. My
\nexperience working on research projects while at Williams was one
\nof the most important factors that convinced me to pursue a career
\nin physics, and served as excellent preparation for graduate
\nschool.<\/p>\n
\npart of the research program, but an absolutely essential part of
\nour teaching mission. For this reason, I have supervised fifteen
\ndifferent student research projects in my lab at Union, including
\nfive senior theses (with two more students doing theses this
\nyear), and seven summer research projects. Three students have
\nworked with me in two different summers. I have co-authored one
\npublication with a student, Colin F., and two students
\nhave presented their results at national meetings: Colin F.
\nat the National Conference on Undergraduate Research in 2003, and
\nMike M. at the Division of Atomic, Molecular, and
\nOptical Physics meeting of the American Physical Society in 2006.<\/p>\n
\nmy laboratory. The lasers I use were designed and built by Pat
\nS. and Eric G.. Ryan M. designed and
\nbuilt a tapered electromagnet and assembled the main vacuum system
\nas part of his thesis research. Mike M. has assembled and
\ntested an entirely new system to develop a new type of atom source
\nfor future experiments and will continue that work for his thesis.<\/p>\n
\nlearning specific lab skills, but also by learning the process of
\ndoing physics. They learn how to design an experiment, how to
\nbuild apparatus (my student projects almost always involve some
\nwork in the machine shop), and how to collect and analyze data.<\/p>\n
\nproblem is different than anything they experience elsewhere in
\nthe curriculum. To paraphrase a colleague at Williams, the hardest
\nthing for new research students to learn is that research is not a
\nthree-hour lab. Even in our advanced laboratory course, students
\nknow that the experiment they are doing will<\/i> work, if they
\njust follow the established procedure. With real research
\nproblems, experiments are much more open-ended, and there is no
\nguarantee that any given experiment will ever<\/i> work. This
\nrequires a much more flexible and independent approach than a
\nlaboratory class, teaching research students not just how to
\nfollow a set procedure, but how to modify the procedure in order
\nto reach a desired goal, and even when to abandon the procedure
\nentirely in favor of a different method.<\/p>\n
\nin physics, but for almost any career imaginable. Some of my
\nstudents have gone on to graduate school in physics or
\nengineering. Others have gone on to professional school in another
\nfield, or directly into a career in industry. Whatever their
\nchosen career, I am confident that they are all well served by
\ntheir research experience. In the end, some of the most important
\nteaching I do takes place not in the classroom, but in my research
\nlab.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"