EDUCATIONAL GOALS AND APPROACH

            My primary objective as an educator is to encourage students to develop the background knowledge, research skills, and critical thinking necessary to develop and defend reasoned conclusions, specifically scientific hypotheses -- a fundamental skill for the twenty-first century. My educational strategy is motivated by the hypothesis that students can occupy several positions of critical thinking (Table 1). The first position, Dualism, is characterized by assumptions that ideas or facts can be unequivocally known as true or untrue. Authorities, such as textbooks or professors, are considered to have knowledge of true facts that they can disseminate to students. Authorities are also considered able to teach students to distinguish between correct and incorrect ideas. In the second position, Multiplicity, the absolute truth or falsehood of facts is questioned. Instead, different opinions are considered equally valid in many areas. Encouraging students to think independently and develop individual perspectives is considered to be the purpose of education. Finally, Critical understanding does not consider facts or ideas to be equally valid, but acknowledges that they are necessarily situated in evidentiary (and even cultural) contexts. The contextual reference of facts and the possibility of competing ideas do not, however, prevent commitments to specific ideas or courses of action. Uncertainty can be overcome by critical evaluation of evidence, and reasoned conclusions can be reached.

My focus on developing critical thinking structures my teaching approach around four principal emphases:

Emphasis on conceptual tools. Firm theoretical frameworks help organize data and generate hypotheses. Often, even simple mathematical descriptions of biological systems can identify important variables and reveal the overall behavior of complex systems. I believe that structuring a course of study around recurring conceptual themes helps students understand general biological principles, while also helping students learn the terminology and descriptive facts that are important to biology and other natural sciences. Fundamental electrical engineering concepts of resistance (conductance), potential differences, and Ohm's law can describe many physiological processes, such as thermoregulation, osmoregulation and gas transport. Similarly, concepts from physics, mechanical engineering, fluid dynamics, and controls systems theory can serve to link and explain many aspects of morphology, physiology, and behavior. Introducing developmental and evolutionary concepts such as phylogenetic constraints and epistasis can help students place physiological knowledge into a broader biological context. Strong conceptual frameworks help to provide the context within which students can actively engage biological problems and evaluate hypotheses.

Emphasis on process.  Scientific facts are usually discovered through a series of experimental processes that measure and describe natural phenomena. Consequently, research findings are limited, to greater or lesser extents, by the theoretical and technological environment of these processes. When presenting research findings it is important to consider the process of experimental science leading to them. Conducting experiments and analyzing real experimental data are important for introducing students to the strengths and limitations of experimental science. This experience is invaluable for helping students to critically evaluate different types of experimental data.

Emphasis on new technology.  New technologies hold a tremendous potential to contribute to education and the development of critical thinking. The broad amount of information available to students and the public through media and the Internet requires people to evaluate data and arrive at reasoned judgments. Memorization of facts will become less and less important as more information is immediately available to everyone.  For example, virtual discussion groups using electronic mail and the Internet can allow students direct access to the authors of the papers in their course reader.

Emphasis on current research. I seek to integrate current research into every aspect of my teaching, as advocated by the Carnegie Foundation's Boyer Commission report. Physiology, biomechanics and motor control research are ideal fields for training students to think critically and actively engage in research. These fields integrate information from many active research areas, including cell physiology (neural properties, muscle physiology), anatomy (neural organization, musculoskeletal structures), and behavior (mechanical task requirements, mechanical and sensory interactions with the environment) to understand function. To understand physiology and behavior, students must critically evaluate mechanical, energetic, and neural hypotheses. Students integrate tools learned from undergraduate coursework in chemistry, physics, and biology, to gain critical understanding of physiological research problems and directly test current biological hypotheses.