Before You Sign On: Choose Carefully
Not all people get to choose what courses they teach or when they teach, but if you're one of the lucky few who are given a choice, carefully consider your options to enhance your productivity. One of the best ways to reduce class preparation time is to teach a course that's directly related to your specialty, says Jean-Marie Bruzzese, associate research scientist at New York University Child Study Center. And of course it's best to start small: one lecture class without a lab, if possible.
<p>If you have the luxury of determining your teaching schedule, consider your personal rhythms. When are you at your best, cognitively speaking? Save your most productive time of day for your research. Also, choose a class time that doesn't disrupt your day. For example, consider an early morning or late afternoon class rather than one that meets in the middle of the day (e.g., 1:00 p.m.). Remember that students may want to visit with you before or after class to ask questions, so a midday class can eat up a large chunk of your day, making it difficult to return to your lab and immerse yourself in work.
Planning Your Course: Don't Over-Stuff[/br] Your students are a captive audience for an average of 45 hours over the course of a semester, but those class periods fly by. It isn't possible to cover all of the material in a discipline, so you must choose: What's the fundamental, essential knowledge that a student must walk away with? What are the themes of your course? As Julia Frugoli, assistant professor of genetics and biochemistry at Clemson University in South Carolina, advises, "Take everything you think students should know from a course, and cut it in half. Then teach that half well. We all want to show our students the latest, neatest stuff, but it's more important that they grasp the fundamentals. You can always add the neat stuff back as icing on the cake if you have time."
**This article first appeared in Science's Next Wave
