Are you a new faculty member preparing to teach your very first class? Or are you an aspiring graduate student or post-doc looking to shore up your teaching skills? Standing before a class full of students with expressionless faces can seem quite a bit daunting. Here are a few things I have learned over the years…
- Remember you are the expert in the room
It’s easy to forget when you step into that classroom and are overwhelmed by the sheer number of students, that it is you who are the educator, and the one who will impart knowledge. As long as you have done your homework and prepared well for the class, you have nothing to fear. The students are just as eager to hear from you and get to know you as you are to teach them (or at least that’s how I choose to see it!). If you haven’t really prepared for the class (for whatever reason, you may as well have just been sick), then, yes, things may get awkward. But you still have to remember, that you are the one with expertise in the field. - Have a conversation
A good teacher is not someone who just reads out bullet points from slides. A good educator communicates with students. You need to have a conversation. You need to get to the students’ level and explain things to them. Important points to keep in mind about having a conversation: get to know your students, make eye contact, ask questions, try to relate to their experiences. Once you have broken the ice (on day one), things will get a lot easier. - Explain
You will get nowhere regurgitating material you have read or using scientific jargon if you don’t first explain basic concepts that students have not encountered before. Many an aspiring educator may begin their lectures with slides depicting complicated diagrams or detailed signaling pathways. Remember, your students most likely know none of this. Unless you explain every single point you have on the slide, you will lose them. The best of professors can tend to do this and I know I have done this many times as well. - Rehash concepts as you go along
Remember, you may not just be teaching students one lecture or one concept, but your goal is for students to build and develop their knowledge in this area over time (the semester). Make sure to rehash and reiterate concepts as you go along. This will ensure that your students are learning the material and give you a chance to re-teach if necessary and re-emphasize important points. - Do your homework
It is no service to the students if you yourself are not well-versed in the material or if you have not thoroughly prepared for class. Do whatever you think is necessary to prepare. If there are concepts that you are unfamiliar with or may have learned a long time ago and have now forgotten, take time to re-learn them. Think of ways that you think may be best to explain these to students. This could include audiovisual tools, analogies, an activity, a model, discussion, and other active learning modalities.
All the best!