Prior Teaching Experience

Prior teaching experience has increased over the past 4 semesters.

Class Year of Instructor

Class years have become equally represented among lecturers.

Students in the following programs take our course for credit:

• Cognitive Science minor

• Psychology (BA)

• Biology, Neurobiology (BS)

• Physiology (MS)

• Complementary and Alternative Medicine (MS)

• Biochemistry (MS)

• Pharmacology (MS, PhD)

Demographics of Lecturers

Course within a Course: Learning to Teach through Teaching Neuroscience Lauren Ullrich1,2, Patrick Forcelli1,3, Elizabeth West1,3, Karen Gale1,3

1Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience, 2 Dept of Neurology, 3 Dept of Pharmacology, Georgetown University, Washington DC

Introduction

Course design

The design is twofold:

1. To expose undergraduate and master’s students to broad

areas of the neurosciences

2. To provide pedagogical experience for Ph.D. students in

the IPN

In this class, students explore normal and altered nervous

system function, with a focus on different sets of disorders

each semester.

IPN Predoctoral Students

Class demographics

Challenges of a team-taught class

Ways in which we ensure continuity throughout the year

(within a team-taught class) and across years (across

changing instructors and directors):

• “Key neuroscience concept” for each lecture

• “Key neuroscience techniques” for each module

• Course directors attend all lectures

• Staggered directorship

• Repeated guest lectures

• Slides from previous years’ lectures available

• Standardized grading rubrics

• Faculty steering committee

Drugs, the Brain, and Behavior is an interdisciplinary two-

semester upper-level course at Georgetown University. The

class is team-taught by Ph.D. candidates in the

Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience (IPN). IPN faculty

provide mentorship in the form of a steering committee.

Funding: T32DA007291, T32NS041231, T32NS041218, NIH/NINDS

F31NS066822, Epilepsy Foundation Fellowship 123098

Pedagogy

Fall Semester

Psychiatric disorders

Spring Semester

Neurological disorders

Regulatory Systems,

Mood Regulation,

Executive Function,

Development (Psychological),

Biological Rhythms

Development (Neurological),

Neural Injury and Recovery,

Sensation and Perception,

Basal Ganglia,

Learning and Memory

2nd 25%

3rd 42%

4th 33%

Fall 2009

2nd 39%

3rd 22%

4th 33%

5th 6%

Spring 2010

2nd 34%

3rd 13%

4th 33%

5th 20%

Fall 2010

2nd 31%

3rd 25%

4th 25%

5th 19%

Spring 2011

Q1 I am intimidated by research language and terminology.

Q2 I feel that I can identify the problem statements in a journal article

and understand the purpose of the paper.

Q3 I feel that I can read a journal article and understand the basic

methods.

Q4 I am able to describe the concepts being studied in a journal article

and their relationship to each other.

Q5 I feel comfortable presenting a journal article to my peers.

Q6 I feel comfortable weighing the value and validity of different animal

models.

Q7 I feel comfortable weighing the pros and cons of competing theories.

Q8 I am familiar with a variety of methods used in neuroscience

research and the specific questions they are applied to.

Q9 I have an understanding of pharmacology as both a tool to explore

and a therapy to treat brain dysfunction.

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2

3

4

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Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 Q6 Q7 Q8 Q9

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Fall 2010 Student self-evaluations

Before class

After midterm

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Technology

This class has been a leader at Georgetown University Medical

Center in incorporating technological advancements in course

design and execution. In addition to the widely used Blackboard

software, we have incorporated :

• iclicker© (classroom response system)

• Sharestream © (streaming video of classes)

• SMART board © (interactive whiteboard with save function)

Primary literature is employed in multiple ways:

• As representative data in didactic lectures

• In student paper presentations to the class

• Synthesis of data in a term paper

End of class questions ensure that students continue to engage

with classroom material outside of class.

Participation is emphasized through questions and discussion.

IPN students participate at many levels:

1. Guest lecture on single or multiple topics

• Select readings, develop learning objectives, prepare

lecture, and elicit student participation.

2. Teaching tutorial for credit

• Attend classes, provide written critiques of lectures, guest

lecture in the course, and write an exam question.

3. Course co-director

• Design the syllabi, select readings and lecture topics, and

prepare and grade student assessments.

• As peer mentors, they train and coach student lecturers in

the course.

Feedback Instructors at all levels receive feedback from:

• Students taking the class

• Course directors

• Faculty steering committee

These evaluations become part of the student’s teaching portfolio.

• Prof. Karen Gale (Pharmacology; PI NINDS-sponsored

training program in Neuroscience)

• Prof. Barry Wolfe (Pharmacology; Director, Pharmacology

MS)

• Prof. G. William Rebeck (Neuroscience; Director, IPN)

• Prof. Maria Donoghue (Biology; Co-director, Neurobiology

BS)

• Prof. Darlene Howard (Psychology, Co-director Graduate

Program in Developmental Science)

• Prof. David Lightfoot (Linguistics; Director, Cognitive

Science minor)

Achievement of Learning Objectives

History of the course

Since the start of the course in 2000, 20 IPN students have

acted as co-directors. In the 11 semesters of the course for

which we have data (2 semesters are missing), 80 IPN

students have lectured in the course. Thus, more than 60%

of students who have entered the IPN program have taught

in the course.

This course is unique at Georgetown University in bridging:

1) multiple disciplines (psychology, biology, cognitive

science, etc.), 2) levels of study (Bachelor’s, Master’s, and

Ph.D. students), and 3) the medical center and main

campus.

From a teaching perspective, this course poses a special

challenge and benefit in that course directors and lecturers

get experience with both the "Main Campus" and "Medical

Center" teaching atmosphere and style.

Steering Committee

In Fall 2010, The majority of classroom

hours (68%) were taught by students

with two or more semesters of previous

experience teaching in the course.

0 5 10

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0 5 10

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0 5 10

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0 5 10

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2+

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# of lecturing students

Fall 2009 Spring 2010 Fall 2010 Spring 2011 agree

disagree 0 19%

1 13%

2 13%

3 28%

4 4%

5 23%

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Student ratings of course over time

Fall 2007

Fall 2008

Spring 2009

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