Period
September 2016 – January 2017
Course
Cosmology
Level
Master course
Teaching hours
18
Activity
As tutorial assistant my duty was to preside over the exercise sessions, help students in solving the weekly assigned exercises, and clarify concepts when needed. The weekly exercises were then corrected and graded by myself, and discuss with each student individually.
Following the Dutch system, every course is divided into equal number of theoretical lectures and exercise sessions. The theoretical lectures are held by the professor in charged of the course, while during the exercise classes students are supposed to solve problems by themselves, and ask help to the assistant only when needed.
Even if I can see the positive side of this system, I see the negative points too. In my experience students tend to worry mostly about the results rather than the procedure in solving physics problems. Thus, during my class I gave an overview of the concepts involved, and clarify questions related to general relativity, astronomy and cosmology. I also helped students applying theory to concrete problems, focusing the attention on the understanding of the physical meaning. I was in charge of correcting their assignments as well, and in this process I focused my attention on their way of presenting scientific results. In writing down solutions, students were mostly focused on obtaining the correct numerical value, rather than show they have understood the procedure. I spent a lot of time in teaching them how to present problem solutions in a scientific way. At the of the course, I was pleased to see that their way of writing solutions have drastically improved, and that they also understood the meaning behind it.
Place
Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Period
February – June 2009
February – June 2010
February – June 2011
Course
Atomic and Laser Spectroscopy
Level
Bachelor Course
Teaching hours per year
60
Activity
As laboratory teacher I had the duty to preside laboratory exercises, and correct student reports. The reports were then discussed with each student individually, and my corrections and/or comments were implemented by the students when necessary.
Some students were following the Physics programme, while others a High-School Teaching-Oriented programme. My duties consisted in 30 minutes introduction to the related theory and the experiment procedure, and assisting the students during the laboratory session (approximately 4 hours and 10 students for each session). I was also in charge of correcting and approving their reports. During this class, I focused my attention on teaching students how to approach a physics experiment, how to proceed in data analysis and evaluation of final results, and how to write scientific reports. I dedicated a significant amount of time in commenting their reports and asking them to correct/improve their essays, so to teach them how to present scientific analysis and results. Even if the student background was quite different as mentioned above, I managed to let everyone understand the physics concepts behind the experiment, and after my comments the scientific quality of their essays drastically increased.
Place
Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Stockholm, Sweden