Capstone Projects, 2021-2022

Jess McNeil

The pedagogy course in Anthropology necessarily needs to cover learning strategies that are simultaneously anthropological and meet the needs of two programs that often seem to substantially diverge. This capstone outlines a new workshop within ANTHRO3636 that covers object-based learning strategies: a pedagogical strategy that can be incorporated into classes across the anthropological spectrum. This workshop has three clear aims: to introduce a strong pedagogical strategy to new TFs; to highlight educational connections and similarities across our department; and, most significantly, to emphasize the exceptional resources uniquely available to TFs in our department via our significant relationship with the Peabody Museum.

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Wesley Simon

Although much of the content provided by current online streaming services are accompanied by closed-captioning and audio descriptions, many older films, as well as more contemporary independent films, are not easily available with these services. One particular area of need, for the anglosphere, is the high number of non-English language films that are only available with subtitles, but have no English voice-over (or overdub) that is accessible to persons with visual impairments. To address a specific case where this need arose in the Spring ‘22 semester, the AFVS70 (The Art of Film) teaching team coordinated with TDM to organize live subtitle readers during screenings, and with the Bok Center to record English voice-over tracks for online availability. The following is a list of considerations and resources that we have accrued in our pursuit of this project, that we hope future Harvard teaching staff will find helpful.

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Julia Judge Mulhall

Harvard provides extensive and robust resources both for accessible education and for pedagogical training for faculty and graduate students. A challenge we face now is how best to integrate these two efforts. A first step is to connect faculty and TFs to strategies, resources, and training opportunities for creating an accessible classroom. For my Capstone project as a Bok Pedagogy Fellow, I drafted a new online resource for faculty and TFs to take the first steps in creating accessible course content for their classrooms.

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Dana Mirsalis

"Accessible Education at Harvard: An Introduction" is a combination slide deck and toolkit about accessible education at Harvard University.  It includes a slide deck, a presenter's script, and a selection of further resources at the end.  It covers topics including: why teachers should care about accessible education, how to get accommodations at Harvard (as well as barriers to receiving accommodations), and what Teaching Fellows can do to promote accessibility in their own classrooms.

Derek Robey

I was fortunate to serve as a Bok Pedagogy Fellow for the Harvard College Program in General Education this year. For the capstone project, I am working with Jonah Johnson and the Bok Center team to expand the use and impact of Gen Ed Writes, which is a website that provides resources for course heads, Teaching Fellows, and students in courses with writing assignments. In order to expand its use and impact, I am developing a survey on user experience and will analyze the data to determine next steps.

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Myrzinn Boucher-Durand

I created a repository for Language teaching resources for my department. Because TFs have to teach languages of which they are not native speakers, and minority languages which have little visibility online, this repository provides resources  to helpTFs focus on pedagogy rather than having to dedicate all their time to creating materials. This repository is also meant to be updated as new materials are created, and can serve as a foundational platform for the creation of a future Celtic Teaching Colloquium.

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Emily Kerr & Maggie Klureza

The Chemistry and Chemical Biology PF positions are focused on assisting in the smooth running of the fall chemistry pedagogy course, serving about 30 first-year PhD students (G1s), as well as the observation and support of the G1s first semester teaching in the spring. This year, we added a teaching as performance workshop (in collaboration with Dana Mirsalis, BPF), an active learning workshop, and a diversity and inclusion workshop to the Chem 301 curriculum and spring training. The capstone highlights the timeline of different trainings, workshops, microteachings, and meetings that the Chemistry PFs facilitate for G1 TFs.

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Sarah Eisen

I am developing ClassicsWrites, a resource for Classics concentrators and TFs working in writing-based classes, particularly the curriculum’s sophomore and junior tutorials. The resource goes beyond general techniques that one could learn from the Writing Center, and addresses how writing specifically works in the field of Classics. I cover topics including: What is a close reading of a text? What is a commentary and how do I use one? How do I cite an ancient author? This guide also explains how to write about artifacts, and includes tips on finding and using appropriate research resources for the field.

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Maria Zymara

My capstone project is a proposal for a Pedagogy course in the Department of Comparative Literature. The timeline could also serve as a guide to future or current TFs in the Department as it includes links to relevant resources from the Bok Center website, the Harvard Writing Project website, or the website of Comparative Literature.

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Michael Allen

My capstone project is the slide deck for a job talk I gave at the University of Leeds in the UK. The position I was interviewing for—part lecturer in English, part pedagogy consultant—required me to synthesize and apply the insights of the Bok Center to a very different educational context. As I prepared this talk in consultation with the English faculty, I strove to speak to two different audiences: first, faculty who were enthusiastic about the application of pedagogical research and methods; second, faculty who wanted a colleague grounded (only?) in traditional humanistic inquiry. In response, I adopted a hybrid approach. For example, in answering the question “how will you transform our teaching?”, I drew on the philosopher L.A. Paul’s influential definition of transformative experiences and linked that to the pedagogical research supporting the value of fostering a growth mindset in students.

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Elizabeth Hentschel

As the pedagogy fellow for the Global Health Education and Learning Incubator (GHELI), I served as the liaison between the Bok Center for Teaching and Learning and GHELI. My primary responsibilities included managing the hiring process for GENED 1063: World Health Challenges and Opportunities, facilitating workshops and teaching observations for GENED 1063 TFs, co-creating section guides alongside the instructional design specialist, and ensuring that all homework assignments were aligned with section goals. This role has allowed me to grow as an educator and take a deep dive into the "behind the scenes" side of teaching.

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Julia Coyoli

In my capstone project, I present a unified framework for teaching skills in Government. TFs in Government teach classes that require students to know skills ranging from reading and writing to math and coding. In our pedagogy course I taught TFs a framework for teaching these skills to their students. While I taught different types of skills in separate sessions, I gave TFs a unified framework that they can apply to any course they will teach in the future, regardless of the type of skills needed.

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Danielle Leavitt-Quist

This document is meant to be distributed among G3s in HIST 3920 pedagogy class and other graduate students approaching the job market. It serves as a brochure-type resource for helping students understand how to leverage their teaching experience on the job market. Its general framework applies to the academic job market, but it could be useful for other markets as well. It covers topics such as writing a teaching statement, course and syllabus design, using teaching evaluations effectively, writing a statement of equity and inclusion, meeting departments’ curricular needs, and interviewing for teaching positions.

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Iman Darwish

My capstone project is a Canvas site meant to provide TFs in the History of Science department with information and teaching resources that will enable a successful teaching experience. The Canvas site is also meant to act as a repository ensuring  the continuity of institutional knowledge. This will be the first step, which will complement more structured support for teaching in the department in the form of a future Pedagogy Colloquium. Many parts of the website are still "under-construction" and  will continue to be populated over the course of the semester. 

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Niels Kuehlert

In this capstone project, I highlight several challenges that came up throughout the year and the actions that I took to address them. These included helping the G2s bridge the gap between teaching and non-teaching semesters, reframing how TFs in Linguistics can think about evaluations and feedback, maintaining and building on the work of previous Pedagogy Fellows in Linguistics, and rebuilding a sense of community and collaboration as we returned to in-person teaching. I hope the various workshops, new materials, and improvements to the existing pedagogy course will put future Pedagogy Fellows in good stead to keep rebuilding after the pandemic.

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Nathan Yang

I worked in the Teaching Undergraduate Mathematics Seminar (TUMS) course in the math department, the departmental pedagogy course taken by first-year graduate students. As part of the teaching team, I helped the course heads organize, design, and execute the course plans, contributed to the course structure, and facilitated multiple sessions and topics. I also continued the departmental tradition of hosting a tutorial panel for graduate students interested in designing and teaching tutorials. I invited panelists to share their experience with syllabus design and course planning, with a Q&A session.

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Roya Huang

This year, I designed and taught the first pedagogy course in the Life Sciences (MCB 327). Thanks to groundwork laid by the former MCB Pedagogy Fellow Matt Holmes, and support from departmental faculty and administrators, we were able to add this course to the catalog and make it available for G1s in the Molecules, Cells and Organisms (MCO) program.
 
I designed the course with inclusive teaching at the center. In my time at the Bok Center, I realized that all of the strategies we’d reflected on had the outcome of improving access to learning and making it more equitable for students of different backgrounds and levels of prior experience. In the future, I suggest including a day on practical information (resources at Harvard, types of courses available to teach in the life sciences). I also suggest opening up the course to anyone who wants to take it.
 
Additionally, I worked on an LGBTQIA+ inclusion worksheet (inspired by our activity from the University for Michigan Center on Learning and Teaching). This is meant to be a living document that I hope future PFs can edit and contribute to.

View Roya's capstone project.

Payam Yousefi

This music worksheet is my preliminary attempt at proposing a concept of Phenomenological Learning as Transformative Pedagogy.  It is designed to introduce university music students to new musical concepts within Classical Persian music. The primary intent of this worksheet is to provide an example of how we can take seriously the non-western musics that are presented in music departments using the example of Iranian music. 

I believe undergraduates in the music department possess the musicality and musicianship to successfully embody and perform the music of different cultures. It is worth noting that the main intent of such an endeavor is not to create performers of music from other cultures. Rather, the main goal of such teaching is to create more intimate levels of knowing that are informed by the process of learning to perform. Different musics possess varying aesthetics, meanings, philosophical foundations, sentiments, and histories that are ingrained in the music. As such, the process of learning how to perform within the correct idioms and context creates a heightened intimate form of knowing underlined by experience. 

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Conor Dube

I focused on remaking our pedagogy course for G3s to meet more regularly and to allow for the cultivation of a real community of teachers. I incorporated several new sessions, based in part on Bok Center seminars, and designed a new final project where the TFs participating in the course have an opportunity to design their own syllabus. The goal of this project is both to expose TFs to the process of course design and also to provide them material they could use on the job market.

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Caitlin Fitchett

Over the course of this year, I have developed a proposal to broaden the scope of the Philosophy department pedagogy workshop. Research and teaching are often regarded as pulling academics in different directions; time spent teaching is time not spent on research. Balancing these competing commitments is an important part of flourishing within academia and many of the strategies and skills that are useful for teaching are also applicable to research and vice versa. My aim has been to motivate institutional uptake of a broader pedagogy workshop, which would help G3 students to develop as both teachers and researchers.

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Arunima Sarin

I was the Pedagogy fellow for Psychology. My department mandates a yearlong pedagogy course for all new TFs. A challenge for me was to show the value of the course. I wanted to demonstrate that good teaching required thought, planning, and practice. I did this with a two-tier strategy. Our fall sessions focused on micro-skills (like active learning and leading discussions) that the TFs could put straight to their teaching, while in the spring sessions focused on macro skills (like philosophy of teaching, and motivation) to encourageTFs to reflect on their teaching. Over the course of the year, I found increased engagement and reflection in my TFs, managed to create an inclusive and open classroom, and had the most fun I have ever had teaching a class solo for the first time!

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Naohito Miura

This year, the HDS TF Liaison, Kelsey Hanson Woodruff, and I organized and facilitated an optional pedagogy course for doctoral students in the Committee on the Study of Religion. The course aims to equip students with skills to be effective Teaching Fellows at Harvard and to develop their own approaches to pedagogy as independent instructors in the field of religion. With faculty guest speakers, we covered various teaching methods, course design, and professional development topics. The course also provided a space to discuss day-to-day success stories and challenges in the classroom.

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Juan Arias & Luca Politi

We inaugurated the monthly newsletter “RLL in the Classroom,” featuring instructors and their reflections on pedagogy, events of interest, and relevant Bok Center resources. In RomLang 210, we assisted with the training of the new teachers in RLL through demo lessons and class observations and consultations. We organized two panels on teaching and the job market, and one for the rising G3s about to start teaching. Monthly social events around the Cambridge area provided the occasion to reconnect as a teaching community.

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William Qian

Teaching Fellows (TFs) in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) are tasked with helping students learn the discipline and skills necessary for a career in engineering. Preparing TFs for their teaching responsibilities falls primarily to the SEAS Pedagogy Fellow (PF), whose job is to support TFs and their diverse needs. TFs come to training sessions or review resources online. For those TFs particularly interested in improving their pedagogical and communication skills, ES 301 (SEAS Teaching Practicum) provides an excellent opportunity to engage with new pedagogical ideas, engage curiosity, and encourage innovation in their own teaching.

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Adam Travis

My capstone project consists of two artifacts intended to be used or adapted by future pedagogy fellows. The first document is a worksheet that I used to help me more effectively structure and frame reflective conversations during video consultations with new TFs. The second document is a semi-structured journal assignment for new TFs that could be adapted for use in pedagogy seminars. The purpose of this assignment is to encourage TFs to reflect on their own experiences as learners and to consider how these experiences shape (or might shape) their pedagogical aspirations and teaching practices.

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Louis Cammarata

As the 2021-2022 Statistics Pedagogy Fellow, I focused on designing and teaching the syllabus of the department’s pedagogy course, STAT 303 (The Art and Practice of Teaching and Communicating Statistics) based on four main components: learning, observing, practicing, and reflecting. I placed a strong emphasis on oral teaching and communication skills, by integrating 6 in-class oral presentations in the curriculum. STAT 303 is a unique time for incoming Statistics PhD students to practice teaching; I believe that giving them multiple microteaching opportunities will improve their confidence and impact when they face students in their second year.

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