By Cassandra Hendry, TLS Staff Writer
For the 2016 winner of 杏吧原创鈥檚 Excellence in Learning Support Award, you would expect a strong dedication to student learning, and that鈥檚 exactly what Claudia Buttera brings to the table.
Buttera, who is a lab co-ordinator with the Department of Biology, is intimately familiar with excellence; in 2014, she was one of three 杏吧原创 winners of the prestigious Capital Educators鈥� Award. Her award-winning philosophy of teaching is simple: foster student engagement in unexpected ways.
鈥淲hat works best is to make connections with disciplines that are not plant material-based, especially for those students who aren鈥檛 interested,鈥� she says.
For Buttera, this manifested itself clearly in a student who she says seemed completely disinterested in the lab, one who would only come in to do his work and avoid talking with others. But when Buttera spoke about the connection between biology and architecture and engineering, the student perked up and would jump into the class conversation with enthusiasm.
鈥淭he important thing to remember is that just because you鈥檙e talking about a certain topic, it doesn鈥檛 mean you shouldn鈥檛 or can鈥檛 relate it to something else that would be much more interesting or important to another person,鈥� she says.
Buttera instills this philosophy in her teaching assistants when she runs training sessions that are aptly named 鈥楥uriosity.鈥� In many math- and science-based courses like biology, she says, the students aren鈥檛 always registered because they want to be. That鈥檚 why it鈥檚 the lab co-ordinator and TAs鈥� jobs to keep students engaged with the material.
Finding out what interests students personally isn鈥檛 always obvious, so Buttera and her TAs try to connect with students through one-on-one and group conversations to develop strong learning relationships. That way, curiosity can flourish.
鈥淸Biology labs] are all mandatory and very scripted. You have a protocol you have to follow. Curiosity and creativity aren鈥檛 usually obvious things related to science labs, but ultimately they have to be,鈥� she says.
鈥淚f we鈥檙e not teaching students to become that way, how can we automatically expect them to go from recipe followers to these creative individuals when they鈥檙e done?鈥�
One of the ways Buttera achieves this is through her emphasis on helping students think about how they can use the skills learned in class for their own personal career or educational goals.
鈥淢aking them aware of those things early on will increase the value of the course for them. They鈥檙e more invested because they鈥檙e looking for what it is that they鈥檙e doing here that they can take away.鈥�
What techniques do you use to increase engagement in your courses? How do you show your students links between the real world and the classroom? Leave a comment below and let us know your techniques.