Cecilia's Teaching Portfolio: A Teaching Portfolio

A Teaching Portfolio

Cecilia Boklin

School of Life Sciences and Chemical Technology

Ngee Ann Polytechnic 535 Clementi Road, Singapore 599489

Objective

This teaching portfolio is intended for my professional development in education. In this portfolio, I will share my teaching philosophy and my approaches in lesson delivery. As this portfolio showcases my development as a lecturer, it will be updated as and when I discover, experiment and reflect on new teaching strategies and approaches. This portfolio also includes the student feedback as the outcome of the effectiveness of my teaching method. I also present my teaching goals in this portfolio.

Teaching Roles and Responsibilities

I am currently teaching Veterinary Bioscience diploma students in Ngee Ann Polytechnic. To date, I have been teaching for approximately 8 months; since December 2, 2013. My students are animal lovers and enthusiasts. They have very strong interest in the well-being of animals and most of them inspired to pursue Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) bachelor degree after completing the diploma in Ngee Ann Polytechnic. The modules that I teach are:

Animal Welfare, Behaviour and Handling (Level 1.2, 23 students)
Animal Developmental Biology and Genetics (Level 2.2, 25 students)
Wildlife Conservation and Biodiversity (Level 1.2, 23 students)
Clinical Diagnostics, Surgical and Veterinary Practices (Level 2.2, 25 students)

The module syllabus are as followed:

Animal Welfare, Behavior and Handling

Animal Developmental Biology and Genetics

Wildlife Conservation and Biodiversity

Clinical Diagnostics, Surgical and Veterinary Practices

Student Development and Support Activities

Advisor to two batch of students (2V02 - 25 students and 1V02 - 23 students)
Veterinary Bioscience Final Year Project supervisor for 3 projects (Level 3 - 6 students)
Internship Coordinator for Veterinary Bioscience 4-month Local Internship Program
Student Development Workshop Coordinator - Currently organizing two workshops for Veterinary Bioscience students (Study Skills Workshop for Level 1 Veterinary Bioscience students and Customer Service Workshop for Level 2 Veterinary Bioscience students)
Educational Trip Coordinator for Veterinary Bioscience Year 1 students - Currently organizing the study trip to Malaysia on 7 to 10 October 2014.

Other activities that support learning and teaching

Presented a talk in School of Life Sciences and Chemical Technology staff session during the safety week - "Safety With Animals - We Don't Bite".
Interviewed in Mediacorp ScienceQuirks TV program entitled "The Digestive System of A Snake".
Veterinary Bioscience representative for the Compulsory Student Orientation Program 2014.
Veterinary Bioscience representative for the Scholarship and Awards Panel 2014.
Veterinary Bioscience representative for the Open House 2015.
Veterinary Bioscience representative for the School of Life Sciences and Chemical Technology Red Camp 2014.

Teaching Philosophy and Goals

I strongly believe that it is my responsibility as a lecturer to nurture the students' potential by providing a positive environment for them to develop an open mind and grow their knowledge and skills.

Well said, Mr. Forbes. -A photo by TakePart.com

My goal is to equip the students with both support as well as positive challenges in my teachings. Ultimately, I desire to see the outcome of my teachings, not just in the form of feedback and examinations or assessments, but mostly their further achievements in university and future career. I believe that the success of a teacher is reflected by the success of the students.

What motivates and inspired me to be a lecturer?

My previous job as a veterinarian (Wildlife Veterinarian for 4 years and Small Animal Veterinarian for 3 years) has equipped me well with interesting experiences, knowledge and stories that I can share with the students in the modules that I teach. During my previous job, I did many conservation programs and also supervised veterinary research students as well as veterinary internship students. I managed to build good rapport with these students, and this motivates me to believe that I can do the same with a larger number of students and on a daily basis. Hence, I choose to become a lecturer.

What is my personal definition of a great lecturer?

A great lecturer is able to convey a clear, confident, effective and engaging lecture, as well as able to generate curiosity in students for any topics to be taught. A great lecturer is a teacher who can provide information that the students could not learn from simply reading up on the lecture topic. Practice and experience are important to become one.

What do I believe about learning and teaching?

I believe that as a lecturer, my ability to teach should be judged based on students learning. Having said this, some students can, and will learn in spite of having a bad teacher. Some students will not learn even with the best teacher around. From my point of view, learning and teaching are two complementary processes that require some amount of effort by both learners and teachers.

Google image

What does learning look like when it happens?

During my previous job, I spent a lot of time interacting with animals and learning about them. In animal kingdom, when learning occurs, interaction takes place, a set of behavior or task is shown based on their needs and may be culturally transmitted in the animal group or population. When learning happens, the set of behavior can be expressed by many individuals within the same population (within and between generations). Now working as a lecturer, I find that the interaction (or communication) is more towards effective sharing or imparting of knowledge and skills that I have learned to the students that I teach. When learning occurs, I can see the eagerness of the students during the lesson and even after the lesson ended, especially when I can relate the essential and interesting part of the lesson with the application in veterinary field.

Dog handling practical. A Veterinary Bioscience Year 1 student is restraining a small dog while the other students are commenting on her techniques.

When learning does not happen, what has gone wrong?

As learning and teaching requires both interaction and engagement, I would think that when learning does not happen, the communication between teacher and learner is not mutually established nor it is effectively working. It needs to be revamped.

What do I want my students to know and be able to do when they leave my module? What changes do I hope to see in students after taking my module?

A continuous keenness and positive curiosity for learning further about the related topics. I always tell my students that the Veterinary Field is vast, learning the modules that I teach is only a small effort compare to what awaits them out there. After learning my modules, I hope my students will explore the field and learn something new. Still about animals, but something new. It may open many doors for them.

Surgical Asepsis Practical with Veterinary Bioscience Year 2 students.

Teaching Approaches, Methods and Strategies

I do incorporate conservative approach especially during tutorial where I have prepared notes and write important key points on the board. This approach is actually good as I can set my pace while the students are taking notes and thinking while writing. I ask questions to check if they understand what I teach. I also ask the students to give comments and prompt them to ask questions once in a while.
Technology. For lecture, I use Power point presentation, MeL and relevant videos to enhance the students' understanding and also to provide interest trigger.
Mini Project Experience. This experience will give students a shared responsibility as it involves mainly group work. I believe that this is essential as students can learn concepts better by carrying out the task on their own. However the projects must be relevant, integrated and hand-in-hand with the course material. I have a currently ongoing mini projects in two of the modules that I teach, Wildlife Conservation & Biodiversity and Animal Developmental Biology & Genetics.

Other strategies are included in my lesson plans as followed:

Animal Welfare, Behavior and Handling