Lily Cheng
PhD student in Spatial Neuroscience
Geography is to study the earth as the home of people.
I am a graduate student major in geography and my research focuses on human spatial cognition. In the past, I TA'd for introduction to human geography course three times and led three weekly sections each time.
Easy to Connect to Students' Life Experience
Because geography is studying the earth surface, I find it easy to come up with real-world examples that most students have experienced to explain ideas. And I enjoyed integrating dry concepts with vivid examples. For instance, when I lectured map projections, I used a globe and flat maps to simulate the projection process and asked students different questions about how does the shape/size of a country or continent change when I transform it from a 3D globe to a 2D map. And it's usually easy to get people to have real-life experience discussion because everyone grew up on earth but probably on different parts of the earth. These differences can make them compare and extract patterns easily.
Extroversion & Imagination
As for personality, I am kind of surprised that I have a high extroversion score since I don't feel I'm very much outgoing. But then I took a deeper thought and I do feel like I'm the kind of person who will initially check on students and see if they feel emotionally supported, and not too pressured during my section. I do have a strong curiosity and imagination, which I guess is the reason I'm into research because research is fun and it's a creating process. This is consistent with my style because I am really open to new teaching approaches even sometimes they don't work well. For example, I tried to let students discuss in pair, in a group, semi-random call by lottery draw, or occasionally give a cold call. I tried different feedback approaches such as regularly asking students to write down their feelings on the back of each assignment, having a mid-quarter evaluation, videotaping, and posting discussion board on GauchoSpace. I felt my most exciting moment is usually when I carry out the new approach. I consider myself being still new to teaching, and my being open to different teaching approaches can increase the possibility and efficiency for me to find the style that works best for me and my students.
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