Excellence in teaching
Terry Edwards is an Associate Professor at the Centre for Oil and Gas Engineering. He received the Excellence in Teaching Award for the Faculty of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences in 1999. This award represents a joint effort by the Guild and the University to recognise and reward exemplary teaching.
Firstly, I think we must acknowledge that today we face particular challenges in teaching the physical sciences and engineering. We have a very broad-based student intake with a diverse range of school subjects. Their focus has been on getting a high TEE score, rather than preparation for university. My teaching objective is to lead students away from passive, textbook-based, rote and prescriptive learning. The TEE, and, sad to say, some of our undergraduate teaching, has reinforced the notion that learning merely consists of mechanically working through set curriculum, repetitively performing certain exercises, committing chunks of the textbook, and equations, to memory, and developing exam technique. Certainly much of this is a pragmatic necessity, but if that is all we provide, if we teach to this, we have failed as teachers, especially as university teachers. We need to lead and guide our students so that they realise that the first resource in understanding a concept, or solving a problem, or undertaking a project, is not a textbook or section of a manual - it is in their own brain, their own intelligence, their latent intuitive sense, and their own capability for independent thought and analysis. This is the huge intellectual and thinking development that we must facilitate. In brief, the lecturer's role is not so much "the sage on the stage" but rather "the guide by the side". In pursuit of these student development objectives, I don't just present material to the class in lectures; I pose questions directly to the class and encourage discussion and questioning within the class. This approach also helps me to get across my enthusiasm for the subject, which in turn stimulates student enthusiasm. In short, my lectures are vigorous, stimulating, and involve the students in an active and thinking way. The approach removes the isolation and barrier of being the remote lecturer, and inevitably brings us closer to the students as individuals. This individual contact helps students to develop their self-confidence and communication skills. It also gives them the feeling that someone in the University cares for them. They develop confidence in their lecturer and are able to come to their lecturer for pastoral care and counsel, and career advice. Does this approach help all students? It certainly helps the less able students: their self-confidence and willingness to learn is raised and they set their goals at a higher level than previously. And those at the top for whom " the power of instruction is seldom of much efficacy except in those happy dispositions where it is almost superfluous" (Gibbons, as quoted by the 1965 Physics Nobel Prize Laureate, Richard P. Feynman)? Well, I think it works for them too. In many instances their academic achievements are based on an ability to pass exams in the mechanical way outlined previously. They would profit by developing their intuitive abilities and capacity for independent thinking and analysis. And so to Year 2000 teaching: I look forward to it and I hope that my students will share with me a stimulating, rewarding and productive year of discovery and scholarship. |
I was delighted and proud to receive the Excellence in Teaching Award, which I saw as a direct student and Faculty endorsement of my teaching style, philosophy and commitment. The award prompted me to reflect on my teaching experience, and, with a sense of humility, I now share some of these thoughts with the UWA community of teachers.