Teaching

Summary of Teaching Experience

I am fortunate to have had the pleasure of teaching a second-year Introduction to Marketing course and a third-year Marketing Research course in the Rowe School of Business at Dalhousie University. In my introductory course, students learn about creating customer value, marketing strategy, developing new products, pricing, channels, and more. With this knowledge, they are prepared to continue on to my course on Marketing Research. This advanced course teaches students about methods (e.g., research design, measurement) and statistics. I am especially passionate about teaching Marketing Research, because of my ownintrinsic interest in data analysis, and also because this course provides students with concrete and marketable skills post-graduation. These experiences have shaped my pedagogical philosophy and my strong beliefs in the importance of education.

Teaching Philosophy

I strongly believe that education is the key mechanism through which we advance society. Teaching is a way to prepare future generations to contribute to successful economies, to better society, and to better their own lives. My teaching philosophy is guided by the writings of Archie Cochrane, David Sackett, and Robert Sutton: a diverse group of scholars who pioneered evidence-based decision making. The practice of using scientific evidence, rather than intuition, as the criteria for judgment quite literally revolutionized the practice of medicine and business (Pfeffer and Sutton 2006). This perspective informs my teaching because research evidence is not only a basis for what I teach, but also it serves as a guide for how I teach.

As a behavioural scientist who studies motivation, I apply my knowledge of intrinsic motivation and a growth mindset (i.e., the belief that intelligence is malleable) to enhance the structure and delivery of my teaching. Research has confirmed that students benefit from a belief that their intelligence and abilities can change, and they also benefit when their professor also endorses the same beliefs. A recent study in Science Advances, involving 150 STEM professors and over 15,000 students, revealed that faculty who believe in a growth mindset facilitated greater achievement and motivation among their students, reducing racial achievement gaps by nearly half (Canning et al. 2019). To help foster a growth mindset in my own teaching, I explicitly communicate the benefits of persistence in the face of challenge and promote the importance of effort (i.e., finding something effortful is indicative of learning, and not a sign of poor ability). Students are also more likely to become passionate about course material when they first observe that same passion in their professor. To achieve this, my teaching philosophy revolves around the premise that fostering a genuine sense of curiosity—the desire to learn material for its own sake—will increase both the perseverance in, and the enjoyment from, learning.

Teaching Practices

Marketing has immediate real-world relevance, allowing me to integrate examples of topical business issues into my lectures (e.g., trending social media ads, new product launches). My lectures are a dynamic conversation between myself and my students, to encourage an engaging, back and forth, dialogue. Because not all students learn in the same way, I make use of video aids and the many different resources, including case discussions (e.g., Harvard, Ivey) and online quizzes/tutorials (e.g., Pearson MyLab).

A major goal I strive for is to convey practical knowledge that students can draw on beyond the course. For example, in my Marketing Research course, across several tutorials, I teach students how to use SPSS (n.b., I am also proficient in R and can teach students using this open-source statistical program as well). In addition to the typical paper-and-pencil midterms, I also employ a highly practical Data Analytics Exam, in which students conduct statistical analyses in SPSS using real data, and write-up the results. This provides students with practical knowledge of how to derive insights from marketing metrics, such as product evaluation or brand attitudes. Students also complete a major group project where small teams partner with a local small business. After obtaining ethics approval, these groups conduct market research to help the business overcome a current problem (e.g., identifying the target market for a new product). For example, in the Winter semester of 2020, we partnered with a mobile app developer who needed pilot testing for a new concept. All students conducted real-world market research and experienced first-hand how research can enhance business decision-making. Because this course is open to several disciplines, it also allows students to gain experience working in inter-disciplinary teams. Lastly, in both of the courses I currently teach, students submit two weekly papers where they apply the course material to a current business issue in the news. This exercise allows me to not only assess class comprehension on an ongoing basis, but also provides students a chance to practice making insightful commentary on current events by applying marketing theory—an exercise they will certainly perform at future networking events and job interviews.