Sarah Balcom, DVM, MS
Principal lecturer and Director of the Undergraduate Program
Department of Animal and Avian Sciences
University of Maryland
Teaching Philosophy
These days, I spend a lot of time contemplating what makes a college course worth the time, effort, and money students put into them. That is, in this day and age of having the internet and all of the information it allows us to access available virtually anywhere, what is the point of having a course and an instructor to teach it? Why spend the time and pay the money to take a class when there is so much information that is so readily accessible? My philosophy is that a class experience, no matter how it is delivered, is vital to sifting through all of this information, and understanding its complexities, flaws, and its uses. I also believe that part of the learning experience is providing students the opportunities to productively interact with their peers (and future colleagues) and with experts in their fields to learn and practice the skills necessary for life-long learning and professional success. Through my teaching, I want students to appreciate that meaningful learning is interesting, complex, and worth the effort. Above all else in my teaching, I try to instill in students a certain appreciation for and fascination with the topics I teach. I want my students to be motivated by an interest in the subject and the curiosity to find out more, rather than just the want of a good grade. To that end, I try to deliver courses that are engaging, challenging, and thought-provoking on many levels. In all of my classes, I use group work, active learning techniques, projects and case-based learning to accomplish these aims. I use many clinical veterinary examples to illustrate my points, as many of my current students are planning on pursuing careers in veterinary medicine. I try to get students to think beyond their textbook chapters or pre-class assignments and relate what they are learning to other subjects they have studied within and external to the animal sciences department, and to current debates about science and technology in our society. In this way, I hope to help them integrate what they are learning with their entire education, and prepare them to consider their animal sciences educations in broad social and academic terms.
I have found that the delivery of a course is as important to a student’s engagement in the course as the material being taught. Accordingly, I work hard to prepare and deliver well-structured, thoughtful courses. I also work hard to be accessible to my students inside and out of the classroom. I believe that students deserve the same professionalism that we show our peers, and to that end I am punctual, organized and prepared for every lecture. In return, I demand the same from those taking my classes. I think that learning is best accomplished when students feel free to ask questions, seek help, and explore new areas of personal academic interest. Thus, I make it a point to be available to my students after class and during office hours and open-door office time, and to be welcoming to my students so that they feel comfortable in seeking help or advice from me. I have welcomed students to participate in my own work, and have had students “shadow” me while working in the veterinary hospital over the summer, and join me on short-term projects. Finally, to enhance the learning experience, I work hard to incorporate student engagement techniques into my teaching, from the use of clickers in the classroom, frequent think-pair-share or short discussion activities during lectures, and the solicitation of student feedback 2-3 times per semester in each class. In addition, I try hard to include guest speakers, short video clips, computer models and other media in the class to enhance the delivery of the information I am teaching. In two of my courses, ANSC 275 and ANSC 340, I have employed a completely "flipped" model, requiring students to study basic principles at home so that we can spend class time working on more advanced and more authentic activities. In ANSC 101 and 250, I have included many flipped class sessions with the remainder of class days spent with guest speakers who bring fresh insight to the issues we consider. Finally, to increase out-of-class engagement, I have worked to include internet resources to enhance my courses such as discussion boards, wikis, journals, and website evaluations.
Photo: Students in ANSC225 constructing mind maps summarizing key course topics on the last day of classes.
It is important to me to teach students not only a particular subject matter, but how to analyze, evaluate and effectively use information or form questions that will lead to future research. All of my classes emphasize evaluation of sources, from peer-reviewed journal articles to lay-press publications and websites. In ANSC 225/HONR218C, we consider the significant role of bias in our studies of human-animal interactions, and the different ways rhetoric is used in the debates concerning our human uses of animals. In ANSC 250, we spend a lot of time critiquing various sources of animal care information. The ANSC 275 course is focused on conducting evidence-based medicine reviews and using that information to make clinical decisions. In ANSC 340, students are asked to research high-quality information and write animal care “briefs” regarding diseases and health promotion in a target species. They then use the information in these briefs to create a facility health plan in groups of 5-6 students for their course final project. When I taught ANSC 446, we would consider how the popular press reports reproductive research findings (“Reproduction in the news”) and we would consider scientific studies in reproduction and areas where further research is needed as part of the course lectures.
I think that writing is an essential and often under-emphasized skill in the sciences, and thus I create writing assignments for every class that I teach. In ANSC 225/HONR218C, students write a research paper that they work on in stages so that I can provide with guidance throughout the writing process. In ANSC 235/245, students write frequent journal entries to document their course participation and relate their classroom learning to their experiences working with the animals in the barns. In ANSC 250, students write two 4-5 page written critiques of companion animal husbandry articles, one from the lay press and one from the scientific literature. For ANSC 275, students write weekly case write-ups as well as a final poster or video “grand rounds” presentation. In ANSC 340, students write weekly animal health briefs on a target species that they follow through the semester, culminating in a final group facility health plan. In ASNC 446, students wrote 4-5 page reaction papers to a special topic that has been presented and discussed in class. In addition, the 446 students participated in on-line discussion boards where they would explore a controversial topic further and practice debating a topic in an on-line forum in a manner that was provocative but respectful. Finally, the ANSC 447 students would write two “reproduction in the news” analyses as part of their course work. In all of my classes, exams are comprised of short answer and essay questions that challenge students to clearly and succinctly demonstrate their mastery of the course material and their ability to handle “new” situations by analyzing and applying what they have learned. In addition to writing, I try to develop verbal communication skills in my students by having them participate in classroom discussions and debates. I use didactic questioning and open-ended, short discussion questions in the lectures for all of my classes. In ANSC 250, ANSC 340 and ANSC 446, I also set aside class sessions as in-class discussions that allow us to explore a particular topic or question collectively. ANSC 225/HONR218C, my I-series course, is based on a lot of classroom discussion including one session per week devoted to students presenting their ideas and discussing areas of research for human-animal studies.
Finally, for my own part, I try to stay as up-to-date as possible in the subjects that I teach. I stay abreast of the veterinary literature and attend about 20 hours of continuing education conferences each year. I attend conferences and workshops to learn more about teaching and students. More recently, I have been participating in leadership fellowships to explore this area of my career. I think that when a subject is challenging and interesting to an instructor, it becomes a joy to share with students. My teaching evaluations from the past five years, from peers and students, have all been largely very positive. While I think that I still have so much to learn, I also think I am doing at least some things right.
