Honoring Teaching: Leslie Collins

Pratt School teaching award winner says students can shape the classroom instruction

Friday, April 22, 2005

Note to Editors: Associate Professor Leslie Collins of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering is this year's winner of the Capers and Marion McDonald Award for Excellence in Teaching and Research at the Pratt School. Below is a statement of her teaching philosophy.

Durham, N.C. -- My goal for both graduate and undergraduate teaching is not only to be able to teach the material specific to a certain course, but also to be able to inspire students to ask the questions "why" and "how," and to help students develop the insight necessary to address engineering problems.

It is a continuing challenge to lead a class to help themselves learn, as well as to inspire individuals to seek further knowledge. Although I believe that in-class lecturing is important to the process of learning, I also believe that the most effective teaching is often performed at an individual level. I encourage questions and plan at least two days of "unplanned time" in a course to allow for topics of interest to the class. In addition, I am available to my students outside of class time and during scheduled office hours. I believe that each person learns best at their own speed and know that the speed at which I cover material in class may not be optimal for every student. So I make myself available to talk my students through any stumbling blocks that they encounter.