Student Learning

Teaching and learning improvement are very important to me. I like to create interactive environments and have published two course activities that I use in my courses. “Mock Public Hearing on Tragedy in the Amazon: Yanomami Voices, Academic Controversy, and the Ethics of Research” divides the students into groups representing the Yanomami, the Scientists, The Critics (Tierney), and the Anthropologists.  Each group must represent the perspective of their assigned group in the form of a mock public hearing.  This exercise actively engages the students into a current Anthropological controversy and highlights the need to discuss ethics. “Mnemonic Devices as a Supplemental Aid for Teaching Kinship Concepts and Terms” is a teaching strategy to get students to learn unfamiliar terms by breaking them down into more familiar word stems.  After I started incorporating this exercise in my course, students performed better on the kinship part of the exams.

For my lower division undergraduate students I use teaching tips and strategies in my lectures including games and visual aids to help students learn.  I explain that every student learns differently and each person must decide what works best for him or her. It is okay to have fun when you are learning.  For upper division students I encourage them to research areas that they find interesting.  I explain that for every writing assignment students should try to find a way to make it interesting for themselves.  I push students to read more, write more, and explore more than they felt possible.

Students often mention that my courses are well organized, that I have a concern with student learning, I am approachable, and I that they feel they have learned and understood material from the course.  Several students mentioned taking the course from another teacher before, one in particular from my introduction to cultural anthropology course said “I did horrible in that class and thought Anthropology was so boring because I couldn’t understand anything, but after I took this class, I actually found a lot of things interesting to me and I actually understood what the teacher was talking about.”  Another student from my gender course said  “During my freshman year, I took this course (same exact course) with a different teacher.  Though she was a great person, I felt her style of teaching didn’t quite encourage students to do well.  Professor Fischer wanted us to do well, if not do great in her class.  She showed great sensitivity towards the students and made this class enjoyable.”  I am especially pleased when students explore the material further than required and when students are inspired to change their majors to Anthropology such as the case of a student in my symbolic anthropology course who wrote: “I was interested in [Anthropology] before but didn’t think I would enjoy it this much at all.  The readings were very good, I wanted to read more and intend to look up a few people we read.  This class makes me rethink changing my minor in anthropology to a major.” Students learn reading comprehension, writing, research skills, and study skills.

Students often seek me out for advice and recommendations.  Students are often intrigued by the discipline of Anthropology and are curious about major and career possibilities. I have written a number of student recommendation letters and I am happy to hear from my former students.  I have worked with students on emerging scholars projects, Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation, and served as a CUNY BA mentor.