CARRIE O’NEILL © INAGEZOO / CORBISWhen he took his first job at Arizona State University, James Elser had spent nearly a decade in the lab and didn’t really know what to expect when it came to teaching. After instructing a few graduate classes, he was tossed in front of his first large class for nonscience majors, “to see if I could survive,” he says. It was challenging, he thought, and not all that enjoyable, but he didn’t worry too much about it—until he got back his teacher evaluations. “They said I was going too fast, that they weren’t clear what it was for, or why they were learning this stuff,” Elser says. That’s when it really hit him that he could do better—for himself and for the students.
For Elser, now a member of ASU’s Distinguished Teaching Academy for excellence in teaching and research, it came down to how he wanted to spend his time. “I developed this feeling that if I’m having fun during the lecture, delivering the material, then the students have fun,” he says. “If it’s frustrating for them, it’s frustrating to me, and that’s not fun.”
Having more fun while teaching—and becoming a better teacher in the process—is possible, without sacrificing too much research time. “It doesn’t take that much added effort to do a good job instead of a passable job,” says Elser. Plus, there are added benefits: “I became an effective communicator,” he says. “I’ve had people come up to me at a scientific meeting and say, ...
