Teaching
This Teaching section includes my teaching philosophy, my
pedagoty, student evaluation and my reflections - click
the links above to view details of each section.
In the two and a half years, I have taught in the undergraduate childhood
education program and the MSED in Childhood Education graduate program at SUNY
Cortland. The technology course (EDU314: Teaching with Computers in Elementary and Middle Schools) is designed to provide preservice teachers with introductory skills aimed at helping them to integrate technology into their future teaching. The educational research methods course (EDU651: Understanding and Conducting Educational Research) is intended to provide graduate students with basic understandings of research, information, and methodology to be applied throughout the Master's program. I have designed each course to be rigorous and to have clearly delineated learning outcomes.
My teaching effectiveness is partially reflected in the course teacher evaluation (CTE) scores, along with students' reactions and comments, students' individual growth, and my personal devotion to the development of the courses.
Of the sixteen classes I taught during the two and a half years, the overall adjusted mean of CTE scores averaged 4.2 out of a possible 5.0, with the lowest score of 3.6 (first semester) and the highest 4.8. A pattern of continuous improvement of my teaching is reflected from the increase of the CTE: the last semester fall 2007 the CTE of each of the four classes went above 4.0, ranging from 4.2 to 4.6 (view students evaluation and comments from each individual class here). The improvement of my teaching is also reflected in students reactions and comments, students' individual growth, and my increased confidence.
My technology class (EDU314) in
both semesters received very positive comments. Students commented
that this was a course in which they learned and mastered the
most competencies with the least amount of stress. Students'
growth is always individual, but the scope and quality of their
course projects is an indicator of high achievement. Students
in the technology classes had a good mastery of both basic
and advanced technology skills, and were able to recognize
multiple ways to integrate technology into their curriculum.
This was especially gratifying since many of these students
came to the class with limited computer literacy. The educational
research methods classes had diverse comments on both the teaching
and learning. Some were very positive and some reflected difficulties
with the course. The subject matter - learning to design a
research study and compose a research proposal - is challenging
to everyone, including our master students. I set high standards
and expectations for students, and gave very rigorous evaluations
of both their learning progress and learning outcomes. Their
research proposals were impressive, and some could be sent
for conference presentations or be developed into research
papers for publication.
I continue to develop and re-design my courses in an effort
to maximize learner engagement. My proposal "Teaching Innovation
- Reforming the Teaching of Technology to Preservice Teachers"
with Cynthia Saver (another new faculty member in the Adolescent
Department) is part of that effort. I have also benefited from
very positive feedback by experts in the field and from colleagues
in the College who came to team teach or to observe my teaching,
including Dr. Lin Lin, Dr. Susan Stratton, Dr. Margaret Richardson
and Dr. Cynthia Benton.
Curriculum Development and Collaborative Teaching
I worked with faculty in the Department on a syllabus proposal of
a new course
EDU315 in our new program of childhood education.
Through serving the Curriculum Committe on departmental
level, I also got more involved in curriculum
development in our program level and later in college level.
I worked with a thematic
block entitled evTMB Beth Klein and Andrea LaChance have been working extensively in this thematic
block. I have been an active participant to the trips they
organized to Raquette Lake, to local elementary schools,
to Lime Hollow Nature Center, where our students get to meet
with "real
kids" in
a classroom and practice what they learn in our method block.
I also work with Susan Stratton, Kim Rombach,
Karen Hempson, and Ellen Newman and experimented new themes of preserving training such as Education for Social Transformation
(E4ST) and Threading Technology Through Curriculum (T3C).
During these two and a half years teaching in different teams, I have expended significant effort toward experimental collaborations with instructors that teach different subject matter. These experimental projects include jointly designed tasks that focus on technology integration across curriculum. These projects enabled students to apply newly gained technological skills with specific subject knowledge from different content areas to produce instructional activities for their future teaching. A short list of representive joint projects (Fall 2007) is provided below.
- EDU 314 Web Quest Project:
Use Web Quest to empower your students with discovery, a Joint Project with Lin Lin's Social Studies Project (EDU375); with Susan Stratton's Science Project (EDU 374), or with Elizabeth Klein's Science Project (EDU374).
- EDU314
Publisher Project: Use desk-top Publishing program
to enhance your classroom activities, a joint project
with Ellen Newman's Math
Project (EDU373), with Susana Davidenko's
Math Project (EDU373).
- EDU314 PowerPoint Project: Educational Applications of PowerPoint. a joint project with Orvil White's Science Project (EDU374); or with Kimberly Rombach's Social Studies Project (EDU375).
Academic Advisement and Counseling
Academic advisement and counseling is an essential part of being a teacher at Cortland. You may find my reflections on advisement by clicking here.
My Previous Teaching Experiences
- Associate Professor , (1996-2000),
School of Foreign Languages, Shanghai Jiao Tong University,
Shanghai, China.
- Assistant Professor , (1992-1995), School
of Foreign Languages, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai,
China.
- Assistant Professor , (1987-1989), English
Department, Liaocheng Teachers College. Liaocheng, China.
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