Teaching Philosophy

While pursuing prerequisite studies for medical school, I was hired to teach the Comparative Vertebrate Anatomy Lab at Augsburg College.  I instantly knew at that time that I wanted to apply to graduate school and pursue a career in college teaching.  I am now in my ninth year of teaching college Anatomy & Physiology and related Biology/Pathology courses and loving it.  My goals as an instructor are to inspire my students to appreciate and understand the human body and its functions, to develop an awareness of the biological world around them, and to develop a desire to educate others about what they have learned.

Developing appreciation of the human body and attaining cognizance of body functions requires intense study of foreign terms and delving into dissection with the examination of unfamiliar structures.  In my classes, I make the world of anatomy and physiology less intimidating by using metaphors, games, and group activities to illustrate difficult concepts.  I continue to reference material from previous chapters to the current topic.   My goal is for the student to develop enough physiological insight so that when “Grandpa” says after eating a Thanksgiving meal, “Oh, I’m so tired now,” my student can respond with, “That’s your parasympathetic nervous system kicking in!” In other words, they can take their anatomy and physiology knowledge out of the classroom and into everyday life.  

I want my students to develop an awareness of the biological world around them by piquing their curiosity in science overall.  Through field trips and lab experiments, I am able to open up a new world to my students.  During the chick embryology lab, they can watch a fertilized egg develop through various phases and hatch into a chick.  While studying trees, they can learn what type of tree indicates which type of soil.  Instead of driving down the freeway and seeing “trees,” now they can say “black spruce on acidic soil,” for example.  By performing open-ended experiments and not “cook-book” labs, we can test our hypotheses without having a predictable outcome.

Nothing is more rewarding for me as an instructor than to see my students develop a desire to teach others.  One assignment that is conducive to this is where each student writes their own “exam.”  Then they get together with other students and take turns taking each other’s “exams.”  This is a great study tool because they are looking at the material from my perspective in writing the exam, and then working together as they study each other’s exams.  It is a well known fact that you learn by teaching.   

I do not want my students to walk away from my class as if it is just another class they had to pass for their major.  I want them to remember these lessons throughout their careers in the healthcare field and their lives.  I always have an essay question on the last exam that asks, “What was the most important thing you learned in my class, why was it important to you, and how has it affected your life?”  The feedback I have received has been very rewarding, from students motivated to quit smoking to another student who changed majors from dental hygiene to pre-med.  Although I disappointed my family by not going to medical school, I believe I am

ultimately reaching more patients in the long run through the comprehensive education of my students as they enter the many branches of the healthcare field.