Teaching 101: Bringing Effective Teaching Practices to Your Classroom

GENETIC 302QC Subject & Catalog Number

Description

 This hands-on course will teach you how to create learning experiences that are goal-oriented, intellectually rigorous, and accessible to all of your students. Students in this course will learn, practice, and receive feedback on core skills spanning the full cycle of teaching. 

You will learn how to:

1. Identify your teaching goals and your students’ learning goals
2. Design individual lessons, activities, and assessments aligned with those goals, with an emphasis on using active learning techniques – from low/no-tech methods to creative, responsible uses of generative AI
3. Create inclusive, collaborative learning environments
4. Deliver and implement your instructional activities
5. Reflect on, evaluate, and revise your teaching

We will tackle practical questions in modern teaching: They’re nodding – but are they learning? How am I supposed to add in active learning when I have 200 students and my class starts in one week? If AI can get a perfect score, is this still a good assignment? What should I teach when science keeps changing?

Through teaching demonstrations and feedback, you'll refine your skills, gain confidence, and begin developing your own teaching philosophy grounded in evidence and your own experience. 

Course Notes

Postdoctoral fellows and other Harvard affiliates who are not current students may be allowed to audit as space allows. Please contact the instructor to request permission to audit.

Recommended Prep

The course will draw on teaching techniques, challenges, and education literature from the life sciences, but the course is designed to be open and accessible to interested students from any discipline. This course is complementary to CELLBIO 306qc: Teaching 100, but neither course is a prerequisite for the other.