Excellence in teaching
Professor Bob Gilkes, Soil Science and Plant Nutrition, won an Excellence in Teaching Award in 1995. These awards represent a joint initiative by the Guild and the University to recognise and reward exemplary teaching.
My first experience in teaching was to be confronted by a large group of fourth-year agriculture students to whom I tried to explain the intricacies of electron diffraction by soil minerals. I was petrified and the bored, blank faces of the students persuaded me that they already knew the topic by heart so my next lecture dealt with even more esoteric crystallographic theory. Of course the problem was that this polite group of students actually understood very little of what I was saying; indeed most of them hoped to become farm advisers which is a job where electron diffraction plays a minor role! My problem was twofold: firstly, I had no idea of what information the students needed and wanted; secondly I did not realise that teaching is a two-way street and that constant feedback is essential. Nowadays, I provide basic printed notes to cover the essential relevant subject matter of my lecture courses. The lecture and tutorial sessions have a large content of demonstration and discussion; this becomes difficult with 100+ class sizes but is still possible. Many students are reluctant to participate in open debate but most eventually come to contribute and enjoy the experience. For a practical subject such as soil science, it is essential to provide ample opportunity for students to study soils in the laboratory and field. At UWA the majority of students have urban backgrounds with little appreciation of landscape and ecological processes. I try to develop field trip activities to enable these students to feel confident in the field. In summary, I have learnt to listen to my students, recognise their needs and aspirations and engender in them an interest in soil science. I barely mention electron diffraction nowadays! |
I was appointed to UWA in September 1969 so it is probably now safe to confess that for several years I was probably one of the worst lecturers on the campus. In those days it seemed that one was appointed solely on the basis of research performance; there were no staff development programs to help us acquire teaching skills and colleagues would never dream of commenting on the content or presentation of an academic's course. Once an unknown somebody pushed a book under my office door on how to prepare lectures - it was an overdue library book!