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© 2006 UC Santa Cruz
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Lori G. Kletzer– Teaching Statement 2002-03 The Element of Surprise Why do I teach? I teach to share my enthusiasms for policy-relevant issues and topics and for social science in general. These enthusiasms are the “secret” to my “success” as a teacher, and they are the foundation of the element of surprise that I use to build a teaching and learning relationship with my students. Students do not expect economics to “jump off the page.” Unbridled enthusiasm for the subject and liveliness of presentation seem to take many students by surprise. By offering an intellectual activity that will be more deeply engaging and provocative than expected, I believe I bring students into the course and challenge them to be active thinkers. My teaching philosophy consists of three themes: respect, engage, challenge. My main tools for achieving these goals are high standards and clear expectations. I tell my students from the outset that I will expect much of them, and in return they can expect much of me. One message they get from this compact is that my respect for them appears not only in my classroom and office demeanor, but also through my respect for their curiosity and ability. I set high standards because I fully expect my students to have the ability and drive to meet them. Being clear in my expectations and standards opens the door for students to begin to be actively engaged and challenged. I teach a wide variety of courses, ranging from very large lecture (introductory microeconomics at 350+ students) to small graduate seminars, with large (but smaller than very large) lecture courses on introductory econometrics and intermediate microeconomics and moderate size upper division electives somewhere in the middle. This range of courses requires a variety of approaches to teaching. For the lecture courses, I work closely with my teaching assistants to establish shared goals and objectives. Weekly meetings help maintain cohesiveness and uniformity. Help from the TAs is essential for breaking down the barriers of anonymity created by enrollment size. In these large courses, I encourage active learning by making solution sketches, sample exams, and other course material readily available through a course website.Writing is my main tool in upper division courses. I assign frequent short papers, with (hopefully) prompt turnaround and feedback. Through these writing experiences, I watch virtually all my students improve their writing and gain confidence in their communication skills. Economics relies heavily on tests, and my writing assignments push students in ways to which they are often unaccustomed. My values of respect, engagement and challenge influence all aspects of my teaching, big and small. Particularly in the large lecture courses, I insist on starting on time, with the promise that I will finish on time. I further insist that students behave in respectful ways toward each other and me. I make clear my lack of tolerance for common distractions from the teaching and learning environment (arriving late, leaving early, talking). Being organized and prepared demonstrates my respect for students’ time. Proceeding through a lecture in an organized fashion gives students a framework for taking useful notes. Displaying an outline further encourages students to be organized in their own thinking. Across this variety of courses, engagement is a key element in my teaching, and necessary for challenge. For every course, I start each meeting asking students for their thoughts, reflections, questions and comments on the news and events of the day. These few minutes of current events are great icebreakers in the sense that the commentaries offered are ways to begin talking to me and to fellow students. From this start, I go on to pose questions and present challenges throughout the lecture (if the meeting is a lecture). Having the patience to wait through the silence encourages participation. These themes are particularly important when I teach introductory statistics and econometrics (econometrics is the application of statistics to economic data and problems). Students arrive at my door at the beginning of the quarter filled with dread, either about the difficult nature of the material, or about how boring and uninspiring it will be for a long quarter. I take these presumptions as a great challenge on two fronts. The first is to show the material to be understandable, even though that understanding requires hard work. The second front is to show that every theoretical point has some real world or policy importance. More generally, I am aware of my roles as a mentor and role model. In my graduate seminars, where I am often coordinating student research projects outside my own area of study, I tell my students that I will be their chief cheerleader, coaxing them toward completion and instilling confidence, while remaining on the sidelines. With the underrepresentation of women in academic economics, particularly in the tenured ranks, I never lose sight of my job as a role model, for both graduate students and undergraduates. I am honored to receive a nomination for a teaching award. I thoroughly enjoy teaching economics and it is deeply rewarding to know that I have connected with my students in a lasting way.
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